Socceroos’ World Cup squad is one of their youngest ever. It might be their best since 2010

Oakland: The Socceroos have set up their World Cup base camp in the land of the driverless car.

Oakland, California – their home away from home for the next few weeks – sits on the edge of Silicon Valley, across the bay from where the world’s biggest technology companies spend billions chasing the future, investing in ideas before their time.

Tony Popovic’s 26-man squad is, at an average age of 26.8, the second-youngest Australia has taken to the tournament. This team is built not only for this World Cup, but the next one – and the one after that, too.

It’s instructive that the last four players eliminated from Popovic’s squad selection puzzle had all been overtaken by younger rivals, who have only emerged as contenders in the last six to eight months – reflecting the broader, deeper talent pool of young Australian players funnelling through the A-League and now making an impact across Europe and beyond.

Martin Boyle, 33, is the unfortunate victim of Cristian Volpato’s decision to finally declare for Australia – and Popovic’s decision, in turn, to bring the 22-year-old livewire straight into camp to debut at a World Cup.

Brandon Borrello, 30, has been bested by a younger, taller striker in Tete Yengi, 25, possibly marking an end to his international football career.

Kye Rowles, 27, started in all of Australia’s games at the last World Cup but has been bumped down the pecking order by Lucas Herrington, an 18-year-old who plays like he’s been around forever.

Even Joe Gauci, 25, who would still think of himself as a young player, has been shaded by Patrick Beach, a goalkeeper three years his junior at 22.

Then there are Nestory Irankunda, 20, and Mohamed Toure, 21, both the kind of dynamic forwards that Socceroos fans have long dreamed about.

Behind them, there is Alessandro Circati, 22, a current Serie A star in the heart of defence, plus Paul Okon jnr, a 21-year-old chip off the old block, while, overlapping on the left, there’s Jordan Bos, a 23-year-old Gareth Bale clone who breezes past opponents.

For the first time at a World Cup, it feels like all possibilities are in play for the Socceroos. That’s partly because they have landed in an incredibly even Group D – in which Australia, the United States, Turkey and Paraguay will all rightly feel capable of beating each other – and partly because, with so many players on an upwards trajectory, nobody knows where their ceiling is.

But the defining question hanging over Australia’s campaign can’t be answered until it begins: what if this World Cup has arrived slightly too soon for this new generati