Performance assessment

Every Match and Campaign, Rated

One 0–10 score for how Australia actually performed, not just what the scoreboard said. Six campaigns and fifteen fully tracked modern matches, all rated on the same scale.

How the rating works. Each score weighs three things: how good the result was against that opponent and stage; how good the performance was (chances made and given up, control of the game, how solid they were at the back); and how competitive the match really got. On purpose, it's not just about the scoreline. That's why the 2–0 win over Türkiye in 2026, where the side was out-shot 30 to nine, ranks below the 1–0 win over Denmark in 2022.
Campaign ratings

The six campaigns assessed

Two campaigns stand out as stronger (2006 and 2022), one is clearly weaker (2018), and 2026 is a step down. You'll find the full story behind each one in The Journey.

Campaign performance rating by World Cup
Analyst rating (0–10) of the side's performance across each tournament. The stronger campaigns are highlighted.
Qatar 2022 · Round of 16

Men's team, 2022: match by match

The best campaign since 2006, built on two 1–0 wins. The pattern hardly changes: not much of the ball, few shots, plenty of running, and results that flattered the performance.

2022 match ratings
Bar height shows the performance rating. The result sits in the table alongside.
WinDrawLoss
2026 · Round of 32

Men's team, 2026: match by match

This is the first tournament with expected-goals data, and it lays the chance-creation problem bare: 0.69 expected goals per match, no goals at all in two fixtures, and a 2–0 win over Türkiye that the numbers say came against the balance of play.

2026 match ratings
Bar height shows the performance rating. The result and expected goals are in the table alongside.
WinDrawLoss
Principal finding

Result set against performance

Here's every men's fixture from 2022 and 2026, plotted by possession (across) against performance rating (up), with colour marking the result. There's no clear pattern: the side won and lost right across the possession range. The 2026 game against Türkiye is the standout outlier: a 2–0 win on just 27% of the ball, out-shot 30 to nine, and beaten on expected goals 1.66 to 0.99.

Possession vs performance: men, 2022 & 2026
The dashed line marks Australia's average possession across these eight matches, roughly 33%.
Win Draw Loss
Benchmark · Matildas 2023

The women's team, 2023: a comparison

We include this as a benchmark for the men. The Matildas finished fourth, the best World Cup result any senior Australian team has managed, and they did it playing on the front foot with far more chances. Their 4–0 win over Canada (rated 9.0) is the single best Australian performance in this dataset. The full men-versus-women comparison lives in The Numbers.