The 2018 World Cup finals in Russia may seem a long way off, but the Socceroos will get a taste of the real thing in June next year, when they travel to Russia to take part in the Confederations Cup, which brings together the champions of FIFA’s six continental confederations, plus the hosts of the next world cup and the current World Cup holders.

The draw for the group stage took place last Sunday and Australia finds itself in the more difficult group with current World Cup holder Germany, Copa America holder Chile and the yet to be determined African Nations Cup champion.

The other group contains current UEFA champion Portugal, Concacaf champion Mexico, Oceania Football champion New Zealand and hosts Russia.

For Australia, the tournament comes in the middle of its Asian World Cup qualifying campaign, which has currently stalled somewhat following three consecutive draws, the latest of which was against bottom of the group Thailand. Recent results mean the Socceroos slip from 40th to 48th in the World rankings.

Rather than being a distraction, the Confederations Cup tournament gives the Socceroos boss and his team the opportunity to spend more time training together and the invaluable experience of tournament competition against some of the best teams in the world.

In Germany and Chile it will face two of the teams in the top five.

“We’ve earned the right to play in the Confederations Cup by winning the Asian Cup and as champions of Asia we now look forward to testing ourselves against some of the best nations in world football,” Postecoglou said.

Whilst Postecoglou as Socceroos coach has yet to face African opposition, he has previously coached the Socceroos against Germany and, in the 2014 World Cup, against Chile when the Socceroos won a lot of respect in a creditable 1-3 loss in an opening group match.

Commenting on each of these three opponents, Postecoglou said of Chile, “One of the great teams in the world of recent times who continue to impress with fantastic players who are very much at their peak. They’ll be a good test for us. They played well at the last World Cup and it’ll be interesting to see how both teams measure up.”

On Germany Postecoglou said “Always a major player in major tournaments and I’ve no doubt this will be the same. They are sort of regenerating their team a little but they’ve started World Cup qualification strongly. We played them recently in a friendly but to play them in a major tournament is an exciting prospect. And our continued growth as a nation will only come when we play against the very best.”
And on the yet to be determined African nation, the Socceroos boss said,”We know how tough it is to win an African Cup of Nations so whichever team it is, it’ll be a good test. And obviously we haven’t played African opposition in quite a while. There’s no doubt there’ll be some pretty exciting games in this group.”

THE SOCCEROOS FIXTURES IN THE 2017 CONFEDERATIONS CUP:

Australia v Germany, 20th June
Australia v African Nations Cup winner , 23rd June
Australia v Chile , 26th June

AUSTRALIA’s previous record in the Confederations Cup:

* 1997 Runners-up – defeated 6-0 by Brazil in the final
* 2001 Third place – defeated 1-0 by Japan in the semi-final, then beat Brazil 1-0 in the third-place playoff
* 2005 Group stage exit – defeated in all three group stage games, losing 4-3 to Germany, 4-2 to Argentina and 2-0 to Tunisia