And the Socceroos boss won't let a focus on rankings points ahead of the World Cup draw derail his plans of lining up more quality opponents as preparation for next year's tournament.
The Socceroos took the lead against World Cup hosts the United States on Wednesday but slipped to a 2-1 loss at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado.
A wonderful solo goal from the sensational Jordy Bos gave Australia the lead in the 19th minute, before Haji Wright equalised 14 minutes later.
Wright added a second in the 51st minute to steer the world No.16 US, led by Mauricio Pochettino, to victory - though they lost captain Christian Pulisic inside the opening half hour to injury.
The Socceroos were unbeaten in their previous 11 games under Popovic, and on a seven-game winning run, and would have been disappointed with their defensive lapses.
But they will take plenty from a window that serves as crucial preparation for next year's World Cup finals in North America.
"We showed tonight that we should definitely be competitive at the World Cup," Popovic said.
"We competed against a very good team very well throughout the game, pressed very high.
"Early, we had some good opportunities, at 1-1, we had that fantastic chance (a Connor Metcalfe miss).
"... We didn't get the win, but I thought we had a good performance, and better one than what we had against Canada."
The Socceroos, who return to action in November, are currently projected to leap to world No.24 in the FIFA rankings and sneak into Pot 2 of the seedings.
If they maintain that spot until the December 5 draw, they will have opponents from the top-ranked Pot 1, plus Pots 3 and 4, theoretically making for a less difficult group stage than if they landed in Pot 3.
But Popovic would rather play against difficult opponents ahead of trying to snag wins against lesser opponents for the sake of Australia's ranking.
"The first part is the most important, the testing part. We want to be challenged," he said.
"We've learned a lot from this game here. We go away happy with these two matches, and I'd prefer that to have another test in November.
"The ranking points - we've created the situation with the results we've had.
"When we started this a year ago, when I joined, which is now 12 months, we were quite low in Pot 3, no one even thought or talked about there's a chance for Pot 2.
"So that's not our focus. Our focus is being tested, being challenged, giving young players an experience.
"We made five changes from the game against Canada. Players are starting these matches that actually aren't playing regularly for their clubs. So it was a challenge in many ways.
"I'd prefer that, and I hope we get that again in November. But we haven't yet set the plan for November. We have some good options possibly available, and I'm sure that will be clear in the next week or so."
Popovic made five changes to the team that beat Canada 1-0, headlined by skipper Maty Ryan replacing Paul Izzo in goals.
Australia dominated after the second US goal and Popovic turned to Mohamed Toure, Nestory Irankunda, Ajdin Hrustic and Patrick Yazbek off the bench to add energy ,but couldn't find an equaliser.
Popovic conceded his players, especially the younger ones, had struggled with the altitude but it was a good experience for them.
"We had to travel four hours on a flight. We've come to altitude. We didn't have time to acclimatise," he said.
"We're not accustomed to it, but we wanted to test ourselves physically as well, to see how difficult it'd be and how we could handle these situations.
"And I thought our mentally, the players were really good, and they dug deep in difficult moments out there physically.
"So really good learning curve for us."
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