# 2023 Australia national soccer team season

This page summarises the Australia men's national soccer team fixtures and results in 2023.

## Summary

At the beginning of March 2023, Australia announced a two-game "welcome home" series, hosting friendly games against Ecuador in Sydney and Melbourne, to celebrate their 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign, planning to call-up the majority of the squad. Australia won the first match at CommBank Stadium 3–1, with Jackson Irvine scoring the first goal and assisting Awer Mabil for the second. The third goal was scored by Garang Kuol, marking his first international goal. During the match Aiden O'Neill and Alex Robertson made their international debuts. Ahead of the second match, Graham Arnold made seven changes to the squad, including starting goalkeeper Joe Gauci for his international debut. Australia took the lead with Brandon Borrello scoring his first international goal, but eventually lost 1–2, with Ecuador's Pervis Estupiñán scoring a penalty and Willian Pacho scoring a header. Arnold also substituted on Jordan Bos for his international debut. In mid-June, Australia played Argentina in a rematch of the World Cup Round of 16 match at Workers' Stadium in Beijing. Despite playing an impressive game, Australia lost 2–0 with Lionel Messi opening the scoring early for Argentina and Germán Pezzella heading in the second goal in the second half.
At the end of July 2023, the draw for the groups of the second round of the AFC 2026 World Cup qualifiers was conducted, with Australia drawn in Group I, together with Palestine, Lebanon, and the winner between Maldives and Bangladesh from the first round.
In September 2023, Australia played a friendly game against Mexico in Arlington, Texas. The match ended in a 2–2 draw after Harry Souttar with a header and Martin Boyle with a penalty gave Australia a 2–0 lead which was equalised by a penalty by Raúl Jiménez and a goal by César Huerta.
The following month, October, Australia played a couple of friendlies in London. The first one was in Wembley Stadium against England, a match they lost 0–1, with Ollie Watkins scoring the only goal. In the game Lewis Miller and Mohamed Toure made their debuts for Australia. The second match was the renewal of the Soccer Ashes against New Zealand. Australia won the match 2–0, with Souttar scoring the first and Irvine scoring the second. Despite being eligible for Italy and playing for them at youth level, Alessandro Circati made his debut for Australia, playing well and with composure.
In November, Australia played their first games of the second round of the qualification path for the 2026 World Cup. In the first match, they beat Bangladesh 7–0 in Melbourne, with Souttar and Borrello scoring a goal each, Mitchell Duke scoring a brace, and Jamie Maclaren scoring his second hat-trick for the national team. Also in the game, Kusini Yengi made his debut appearance for Australia. In the second match, Australia beat Palestine 1–0, with Souttar scoring the only goal with a header.

## Record

    As of match played 21 November 2023
| Type | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA |
| Friendly | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 |
| World Cup qualifiers | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Total | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 8 |

## Match results
### Friendlies

This section is for matches confirmed by Football Australia, please do not add speculative fixtures.

### World Cup qualifiers
## Player statistics

Correct as of 21 November 2023 (v. Palestine). Numbers are listed by player's number in last match played
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Friendlies | Friendlies | World Cup qualifiers | World Cup qualifiers |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | AUS | Mathew Ryan | 7 | 0 | 5+0 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 |
| 12 | GK | AUS | Andrew Redmayne | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 12 | GK | AUS | Joe Gauci | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 18 | GK | AUS | Tom Glover | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 18 | GK | AUS | Ashley Maynard-Brewer | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 2 | DF | AUS | Miloš Degenek | 3 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 2 | DF | AUS | Ryan Strain | 4 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | AUS | Nathaniel Atkinson | 2 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | AUS | Cameron Burgess | 3 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 |
| 4 | DF | AUS | Kye Rowles | 6 | 0 | 4+1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | AUS | Thomas Deng | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | AUS | Jordan Bos | 6 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 8 | DF | AUS | Bailey Wright | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 13 | DF | AUS | Alessandro Circati | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 16 | DF | AUS | Aziz Behich | 6 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 16 | DF | AUS | Joel King | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 19 | DF | AUS | Harry Souttar | 7 | 4 | 5+0 | 2 | 2+0 | 2 |
| 20 | DF | AUS | Lewis Miller | 4 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 7 | MF | AUS | Samuel Silvera | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | AUS | Connor Metcalfe | 8 | 0 | 4+2 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 |
| 10 | MF | AUS | Ajdin Hrustic | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 10 | MF | AUS | Denis Genreau | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 14 | MF | AUS | Riley McGree | 3 | 0 | 3+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 14 | MF | AUS | Aiden O'Neill | 7 | 0 | 2+3 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 17 | MF | AUS | Cameron Devlin | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 17 | MF | AUS | Keanu Baccus | 7 | 0 | 5+0 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 |
| 21 | MF | AUS | Alexander Robertson | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 21 | MF | AUS | Massimo Luongo | 2 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | AUS | Jackson Irvine | 7 | 2 | 4+1 | 2 | 2+0 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | AUS | Gianni Stensness | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 25 | MF | AUS | Patrick Yazbek | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 6 | FW | AUS | Marco Tilio | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 6 | FW | AUS | Martin Boyle | 4 | 1 | 3+0 | 1 | 1+0 | 0 |
| 7 | FW | AUS | Mathew Leckie | 1 | 0 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | AUS | Jason Cummings | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | AUS | Jamie Maclaren | 3 | 3 | 1+0 | 0 | 0+2 | 3 |
| 9 | FW | AUS | Nicholas D'Agostino | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 10 | FW | AUS | Kusini Yengi | 1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 11 | FW | AUS | Brandon Borrello | 7 | 2 | 1+4 | 1 | 1+1 | 1 |
| 11 | FW | AUS | Awer Mabil | 2 | 1 | 1+1 | 1 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 15 | FW | AUS | Nestory Irankunda | 0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 15 | FW | AUS | Mitchell Duke | 7 | 2 | 5+0 | 0 | 2+0 | 2 |
| 21 | FW | AUS | Garang Kuol | 2 | 1 | 0+2 | 1 | 0+0 | 0 |
| 23 | FW | AUS | Craig Goodwin | 6 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 | 2+0 | 0 |
| 26 | FW | AUS | Mohamed Toure | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+0 | 0 |
* Source: