Australia versus England is one of the oldest international sporting rivalries. We’ve played them at cricket, gracing fields such as Lords, The Oval and Old Trafford.

We’ve played them at League, Rugby, Netball and Davis Cup Tennis. We’ve competed at track and field and in the pool. We’ve even played them at darts and polo (probably).

We’ve only played them a handful of times at football and never at (arguably) the most hallowed ground in the country where football was gifted to the world.

The Socceroos are playing England at Wembley… and this time, it’s visceral.

I am worried for several reasons…

First of all, England are rated 4 in the FIFA list and Australia are ranked 27. That may be only 23 places – which is nothing when (say) team 81 take on team 104. The numbers are negligible at that level.

They’re even fairly negligible when team 20 takes on team 43.

Thing is, the teams in the top ten are truly like rats in a barrel – biting and scratching to crawl over each other in a mad Darwinian Struggle to reach the peak. They will stop at nothing – like rats cheerfully eating their own young – to stay at the top of that list, and the Socceroos are now clambering voluntarily into that barrel.

Are we mad?

Not according to Arnie. He says that only games against the best in the world will take us forward.

In theory he’s right. We’ve recently played Ecuador (twice), Argentina and Mexico and performed creditably – after finishing officially 11th at the World Cup.

That ought to give us confidence, but we didn’t play any of them at home. Argentina in Shanghai is awfully different from Argentina in Buenos Aires. Mexico in Texas on a plastic pitch is awfully different from Mexico in Mexico City.

And England, at Wembley, right now… is terrifying.

They are such a good team. Absolutely bristling with talent, with Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) arguably now the best player in the world. If he’s not already, he will be soon.

Bukayo Saka has already been ruled out (phew) but England could pick ten teams – all of whom would trouble Australia, especially at Wembley. They pick from the best players in the EPL plus whatever Englishmen are playing in the other top leagues.

We pick from the SPL and the Championship, plus a few other leagues here and there (including the A League). There is a difference.

We have developed a bit of depth ourselves, which is reassuring for our Asian future, but I fear a thrashing on Saturday morning. Not least as Riley McGree has been ruled out with injury and he is one of the best performers in the Championship – the toughest league in the world according to many good judges. Mass Luongo will be a worthy replacement.

I’m hugely looking forward to the match – to get some sort of gauge on where we truly stand in the world game. It will certainly be an ordeal for the players – up against an England team still smarting from a 3-1 demolition 20 years ago. The press will have them fired up for revenge and the Wallabies in particular will be hoping for an embarrassing shellacking to deflect scrutiny from their own recent hapless adventures.

It will be interesting also to see what team Arnie puts out. Everyone will want to grace Wembley so I suspect he’ll do his best to share the minutes. I think we have a decent defence and midfield but… the attack looks a little thin.

Where will the goals come from?

Australians will never go into any contest with the Old Enemy without belief but this is asking a lot of our faith. I just hope we perform with credit and can still hold our heads high after 90 minutes (I’d prefer 80).

But whatever happens, we’ll still thrash the living daylights out of New Zealand four days later.

 

Adrian's books can be purchased at any good bookstore or through ebook alchemy. His first sci-fi novel (Asparagus Grass) was published by Hague Publishing in July 2023. The ebook can be purchased here and the paperback can be ordered here or at your local store.