Huge World Cup qualifiers NOW - then it's Socceroos time!

“For me, he's one of the best leaders and in my time, one that you could look up to.”

So says former Socceroos midfielder Josip Skoko, of his old friend Tony Popovic.

Back when they were teammates, Popovic used to dish out fines to other players who were late to training or team events. If that’s what he did when he was playing, imagine how he is as a coach!

Chatting with Football360 this week, Skoko spoke with genuine reverence for the man they call Popa, and said he’s not particularly surprised at the success Popovic has had since taking charge of the Socceroos 18 months ago.

Mark Schwarzer struck a similar note when he had a chat with David Weiner by the Sydney Harbour foreshore yesterday.

Schwarzer was at the heart of that ‘Golden Generation’, but stuck around long enough to be teammates with many of those that came after it, including the man that ended up replacing him as Australia’s No.1, Mat Ryan.

Ryan is now not far away from usurping Schwarzer again, this time as Australia’s most capped male player of all time, and as Schwarzer said: "If someone's going to take over the record, I'm more than happy that Maty Ryan's the one to do it.”

"He's the ultimate pro, a top guy. I saw him when he came into the national team... a little shy guy who was prepared to do anything he possibly could (to get the best of himself) - and he still does that now."

Schwarzer - who, let’s not forget, is one of just 13 people to have played more than 500 games in the Premier League - was kind enough to touch on many other subjects during his chat with David, which you can watch in full below.

Tonight’s game against Cameroon represents a big opportunity for many players in the Socceroos squad to solidify their place within the national team setup.

Unfortunately that’s no longer the case for Fran Karacic, the dreadfully unlucky fullback who was forced to withdraw from camp with injury yesterday.

It’s the third time that has happened to Karacic, who had a great opportunity to potentially lock in a spot in the starting XI with Lewis Miller already ruled out of the World Cup through injury.

But one player’s misfortune is another’s opportunity, and it now seems like the right-back spot is Jacob Italiano’s to lose - so it’s just as well he comes into the camp off the back of a sensational hat-trick for his club in Austria last weekend.

It will be fascinating to see how players such as Italiano, as well as others who are essentially in audition mode, such as Awer Mabil and Patrick Yazbek, fare in the coming games.

Yazbek also entered this camp on a bit of a high after going head-to-head with Lionel Messi twice in the last couple of weeks, and emerging with his reputation enhanced. Amazingly Yazbek has now played against Messi seven times, and has the man’s jersey to prove it!

Elsewhere yesterday, Popovic himself spoke to the press at Accor Stadium where he not only confirmed Karacic’s absence, but also touched on the latest in the Cristian Volpato saga, after the 22-year-old seemed to confirm this week that he’s still holding out for a call-up from Italy.

“If that’s the choice he’s made, I wish him well. That’s all you do,” Popovic said when asked for his reaction to Volpato’s comments.

As you can probably tell by now, we have A LOT for you to consume as you pass the time until tonight’s game (once the World Cup qualifying action finishes, of course). Check out all the links below, but don’t forget the most important detail: Socceroos v Cameroon is at 8:10pm AEDT tonight, and you can follow along in a live blog on football360.com.au run by yours truly!

THE HARD LUCK STORY: Unluckiest Socceroo forced home AGAIN as huge chance opens for player who ‘surprised everyone’

THE BENEFICIARY: Italiano emerges as answer to losing first XI lock

THE GOAT: A Socceroo has Messi’s shirt after ‘finally getting one over’ him

THE BOSS: How Popa’s Socceroos teammates knew he was already in charge, even 25 years ago

THE ENIGMA: Popovic responds to Volpato’s decision to ‘wait for Italy’

Sydney FC legend Alex Brosque was like the rest of us when he found out about the stunning departure of head coach Ufuk Talay earlier this week.

Well, he was like the rest of us in that it caught him completely off-guard.

Unlike the rest of us, Brosque had an extra layer of surprise because he’d just been talking to his former teammate and Sydney’s current Head of Football Operations, Alex Wilkinson, who hadn’t dropped any hints about what was going to happen.

“I sent a text, said, ‘mate, any chance of heads up?’,” Brosque said.

It’s the timing, more than anything, that left Brosque so puzzled by a decision that he admitted is “hard to make any sense of”.

But he is curious, as we all are, to see what kind of impact the introduction of new head coach Patrick Kisnorbo has on the Sky Blues playing group heading into the final month of the regular season.

Read the full interview below to find out Brosque’s thoughts on Kisnorbo’s appointment, as well as how it would feel if Talay ends up joining Western Sydney Wanderers.

Another topic that Brosque touched on during his chat with Jake Rosengarten yesterday was the state of affairs at Sydney’s home ground.

Allianz Stadium was this week announced as the new (and old) home ground of NRL club South Sydney Rabbitohs, adding a third tenant that Sydney FC have to share the stadium with, alongside Sydney Roosters and NSW Waratahs.

It’s a situation that Brosque sees as “a real problem” for football in this country - you only have to look back a few months to know why - but it’s also one that he struggles to see a way out of.

“… the reality is, while there’s other tenants there, we’ve got to share it,” Brosque said. “So yes, I do hate it, but it’s a real problem in Australian football at the moment.

“We struggle to get the funding we need, whereas your rugby leagues and AFLs, they get thrown money for no reason.”

Click here to read the full article on Sydney’s stadium conundrum.

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Yesterday, while Socceroos assistant coach Paul Okon was preparing Australia’s players - including his son, Paul Okon-Engstler - for tonight’s game against Cameroon, another member of the Okon family was celebrating after scoring a crucial goal for Italy.

In a week that has been dominated by talk of players changing allegiances, it was only fitting that Gianluca Okon-Engstler turned in an eye-catching performance for Italy’s Under 17 side while his dad and brother were in camp with the Socceroos.

Ditto Antonio Arena, who found the back of the net for Italy’s Under 19s, adding to the growing hype surrounding the Sydney-born striker.

There’s still plenty of time for both Arena and the younger Okon-Engstler to commit to the Socceroos, and as Jake Rosengarten points out in this article, there are many instances of players turning out for an under-age side in Europe simply because it is more convenient to do so.

But the longer they keep performing well for a proud footballing nation that is crying out for exciting young talents (remember this story from yesterday?), the more it’s going to make fans in Australia nervous.

It seems the answer to the question above is: yes.

While it’s not a done deal just yet, the long-rumoured takeover of the Central Coast Mariners by English club Queens Park Rangers is ‘expected’ to happen, according to a report from Code Sports.

It’s a move that was supposedly set to happen last year before previous owner Mike Charlesworth got cold feet, setting off a chain of events that resulted in the A-League itself taking over the running of the club a few months ago.

Mariners fans and the Central Coast community at large would love to see some stability for their club, but the question is, would QPR bring that?

Read the full details here.

Pretend you’re a lawyer (hello to all the lawyers out there!).

You’ve just joined a new law firm, but it hasn’t been going very well so far. You’ve lost a few cases.

Then you lose another case, and as you’re leaving court, the lead partner at your firm tells you you’ve been sacked.

Still in shock, you head to your car, but you then get stuck at a traffic light - and who should pull up next to you but the lawyer who just won the case against you, along with all that lawyer’s clients - who happen to be Chelsea fans!

In a roundabout way that’s kind of what Ange Postecoglou would have felt like after he was sacked as Nottingham Forest manager in October after just 39 days in charge, and just minutes after leading Forest to a calamitous defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League.

Postecoglou has explained exactly how that decision went down, as well as how it impacted his psyche (or didn’t), in a riveting chat with SEN Radio’s Gerard Whateley.

Check it out via this link.