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Socceroos vs USA 2026 World Cup match thread 🇦🇺 🇺🇸

RIMB said:
Just thinking though...

If we play a high intensity game against Paraguay and play our better form of Popaball from the start, maybe Popa deliberately sacrificed the USA game to protect our best legs for the game that he decided we could win.

Maybe he actually had a holistic vision of the competition rather than a single game mentality.

Not sure Popa has that in him - he has not demonstrated it before but I am just wondering if he has evolved a bit.
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Have been thinking the same thing myself. Despite the one game at a time pronouncements I'm sure he's got the knockout phases in mind already
 
rusty83 said:
Why is Velupillay worth a start? If he played and starred for Hanoi FC or FC Jakarta would you say the same thing?

The A league is a crap part time semi pro park football league. The best player in the A league isn’t as good as the worst player in the Bundesliga 2.

Just because Nishan and Leckie destroy teams in the A league, it doesn’t translate to the world stage. In the A league they have time to trap the ball, look up, asses their options, have a cup of tea, reminiate on their decision, and then decide if they want to dribble part their opponent at 15kmph or pass it. In the World Cup, they trap the ball, look up, and realise they have already lost the ball.

You can never judge a player by how good they are in the A league. Look at Kuol and Arzani, huge A league talent - absolute plodders by global standards. I can’t think of a single A league player who starred at a World Cup. They have all been absolutely awful.
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So you are saying that Okon Jr and Beach are not worthy of starting given they play in the a-league also? It's got nothing to do with that it's to do with the type of player Popa selects.

He selected Matt Leckie who was injured for most of the season, registering 7 appearances and only getting 1 assist whilst Velupillay played 22 games and he's G/A was 6, compared to players likes Clayton Taylor, Marcus Younis and Eli Adams who all had better seasons than Leckie and Velupillay than could easily be in the squad but Popa had other ideas and so should get criticised for this.
 
HappyGuus said:
Why such a crap record Vs South Africa??

Anyway, I'm not at all confident. I've tipped us in the Shouts, but I think more like a two goal loss coming.
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South Africa were very strong in the late 40s and throughout the 50s.
They toured here in 1955 and beat us in all 5 games, including our worst international defeat, 8-0 in Adelaide.
 
Curacao just draw with Ecuador are they better than the Socceroos? They pretty much have a great chance to win there last game and progress to R32.
 
Australian pundits and football people aren't buying the junk from Poppa fatigue etc as Kewell said you can't afford to get it wrong in world cup games and he and his coaching staff got it wrong.
 
rusty83 said:
Why is Velupillay worth a start? If he played and starred for Hanoi FC or FC Jakarta would you say the same thing?

The A league is a crap part time semi pro park football league. The best player in the A league isn’t as good as the worst player in the Bundesliga 2.

Just because Nishan and Leckie destroy teams in the A league, it doesn’t translate to the world stage. In the A league they have time to trap the ball, look up, asses their options, have a cup of tea, reminiate on their decision, and then decide if they want to dribble part their opponent at 15kmph or pass it. In the World Cup, they trap the ball, look up, and realise they have already lost the ball.

You can never judge a player by how good they are in the A league. Look at Kuol and Arzani, huge A league talent - absolute plodders by global standards. I can’t think of a single A league player who starred at a World Cup. They have all been absolutely awful.
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I agree about Velupillay.He certainly doesn't boss the A league and in fact had a poor season with Victory as well as missing a lot of games with injury.
Leckie only played a handful of A league games this season and I was surprised he made the final squad.He is in his mid thirties and he has lost his pace which was one of his main weapons.However he has played Bundesliga 1 and 2 and in the previous 3 World Cups he has matched and been better than many European players-ask the Danish team.Arzani was always overrated and Kuol should have stayed for another A league season.He was stuffed up by Newcastle sending him to play in Scotland and then for a poor team in the Eredivisie.He is now starting to find his feet with Sparta Prague and may well turn out to be much more than a plodder.
 
Cunningstunt said:
I haven't had a chance to listen yet, so sorry if you cover this. But did the first half play out basically as you outlined in the preview podcast?
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In a lot of ways yes. I predicted

- preasing triggers the main path for us to create chances
- their pace can expose our midblock
- burgess needed to be replaced with a faster, more agile player because he is a tactical mismatch
 
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