Australia qualifies for 2026 World Cup with 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia

Connor Metcalfe scored his first goal for Australia and Mitchell Duke iced the 2-1 victory in Saudi Arabia that ensured the Socceroos qualified for a sixth straight World Cup.

Needing just to avoid a five-goal defeat to secure direct entry to the 2026 tournament, the Socceroos rallied with Metcalfe equalizing just before halftime with a left-foot strike and Duke putting them ahead with a 48th-minute header. Abdulrahman Al Oboud had opened for the Saudis after 19 minutes.

Goalkeeper Mat Ryan made five saves, including a late penalty, in his 100th international for Australia. The Socceroos had to qualify through playoffs in 2018 and 2022 and so earning the direct entry took some pressure off.

“We've done the first part — qualifying automatically,” Socceroos coach Tony Popovic said. “Now the next part is to be bigger and better for the World Cup.”

Popovic was part of the Socceroos squad that qualified for 2006, ending a long World Cup drought for Australia, and then reached the second round. Now he has guided another generation of players to the marquee global tournament.

“We've built a good foundation now (but) we want to get better, kick on and try and do something special in the World Cup," he said.

Earlier, Japan and South Korea ended successful campaigns on a high with emphatic home victories over Indonesia and Kuwait, respectively.

In Osaka, Daichi Kamada scored after 15 minutes to set Japan, preparing for an eighth consecutive World Cup, on its way to a 6-0 victory.

Takefusa Kubo added a second five minutes later and Kamada extended the lead just before the break. Soon after the restart, Ryoya Morishita and Shuto Machino piled on and Mao Hosoya made it six.

The Palestinian team was eliminated from contention after conceding a goal seven minutes into stoppage time in a 1-1 draw with Oman, giving the Oman team the last spot in the next round of continental qualifying.

Australia joins already-qualified Japan, Iran, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Jordan i n reaching the expanded 48-team tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Asia’s two other automatic places will be settled between the six third- and fourth-place teams. That round takes place in October. The teams will be Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

Earlier, South Korea, which has qualified for an 11th straight World Cup, sealed the top spot in Group B after beating Kuwait 4-0.

Jeon Jin-woo scored after 33 minutes at Seoul World Cup Stadium and Lee Kang-in added a second soon after the restart. Oh Hyeon-gyu and Lee Jae-sung also got on the scoresheet.

Elsewhere, China finished off another disappointing campaign with a 1-0 win over Bahrain in a game between teams already eliminated from contention.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Australia's Martin Boyle, left, an dAustralia's goalkeeper Paul David Izzo celebrate after winning a World Cup 2026 Group C qualifying soccer match against Saudi Arabia at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

Australia players celebrate after winning a World Cup 2026 Group C qualifying soccer match against Saudi Arabia at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

Japan's Shunsuke Mito, right, and Indonesia's Yakob Sayuri, left, compete the ball during the World Cup 2026 group C qualifying soccer match in Suita, west Japan, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Yu Matsuda/Kyodo News via AP)

Japan's Daichi Kamada, center, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the World Cup 2026 group C qualifying soccer match between Japan and Indonesia in Suita, Japan, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Shohei Miyano/Kyodo News via AP)

Saudi Arabia's Feras Albrikan, center, is challenged by Australia's Milos Degenek, right, during the World Cup 2026 Group C qualifying soccer match between Saudi Arabia and Australia at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

Australia's Mitchell Duke, right, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the World Cup 2026 Group C qualifying soccer match between Saudi Arabia and Australia at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

Australia players celebrate after teammate Mitchell Duke scored his side's second goal during a World Cup 2026 Group C qualifying soccer match between Saudi Arabia and Australia at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--

Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/

Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.

This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.

Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.

“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”

The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:

“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”

About Availity

Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Abridge

Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.

Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.

Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation