SARASOTA, Florida -- With just days and one last hit-out against Mexico looming before he names his squad for the FIFA World Cup, Socceroos boss Tony Popovic has told ESPN he's "very close" to finishing the puzzle that is his 26-player roster.
Popovic oversaw the penultimate training session of the Socceroos' near-month-long camp in Sarasota on Wednesday afternoon, with the eight final additions to the squad's ranks hitting the track for the first time.
The team will train at the IMG Academy one final time on Thursday morning before relocating to the west coast, where they will face World Cup co-hosts Mexico at the Rose Bowl -- the site of the 1994 World Cup final -- on Saturday. Popovic is then expected to finalise his squad in the hours that follow that fixture, ahead of a June 1 deadline for submitting teams to FIFA.
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"We have players that are very versatile, who can play in different positions," he told ESPN. "We need to make a good decision based on versatility and also the player that's a specialist in his role -- to see that the balance is right.
"This whole puzzle is about getting the right balance and profiles for players and different scenarios in games. I think we're certainly working towards that and the last piece is to pick the final 26 which, yeah, we look forward to doing very soon.
"We have an idea, the area where a player may be added, or changed. The Mexico game can help in terms of seeing what we want to see. We may have an idea about a player that we want to give some minutes to in that game, to see what he can do, and that might confirm something. But we're very close as it is now."
Unfortunately for Popovic, his 26-player squad will be absent several players due to injury, with anticipated starter Riley McGree earlier this week joining the likes of Patrick Yazbek, Nicholas D'Agostino, Hayden Matthews, and Lewis Miller in being ruled out with injury.
"Injuries happen and occur, unfortunately," said Popovic. "We saw even with Riley McGree getting injured, we've had a few other big ones, D'Agostino here; Patrick Yazbek, Lewis Miller has been a long term.
"During my tenure, certainly that's been something that we've had to deal with throughout, long-term injuries. But we feel that we've constantly added players who have given us good depth in the squad, and we will need that again. So we're happy with how the camp's going."
Indeed, as was the case ahead of the June window last year, where the Socceroos staged a pre-window camp in Abu Dhabi before securing qualification with wins over Japan and Saudi Arabia, Popovic feels that the camp in Sarasota has not only brought his side up to a physical level they need to be but also given players that otherwise wouldn't have a chance to be picked.
"It's a little bit of a unique situation for us, doing this camp," he said. "I don't know that any nations are doing this this early; we're unique in that.
"We only have a handful of players that finished on the 25th of May or 24th of May. Our alternative was to give players three weeks off, say 'see you in 20 days,' and then we'll start from scratch.
"We learned from the Abu Dhabi experience that players who were underdone had no football under their belt, produced wonderful performances in two key games, and were the difference makers in those matches.
"We've tried to continue that, obviously, with many players finishing early May and late April. We needed to make a decision, and with the FA's backing, we did this, and we've seen the results from it, where players now have a chance to be selected, which otherwise realistically just wouldn't."