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

[socceroosmad]

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.

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

 

[Barca4life]

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.

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.

 

[ashtongate]

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.

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.

 

[NoMates]

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.

 

[Villa Dan]

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.

 

[booney52]

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.

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.

 

[grazorblade]

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?

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

 

[Dinamo]

Very interesting that Bos ran 1.2km less than Italiano. Is he not fully fit? Might explain his underwhelming performance.

 

[Cunningstunt]

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

All the talk about team/squad selection I think misses this as the most glaring error. Probably because most fans don't understand these aspects and mostly think in terms of if a player is good/better/bad. This seems like Poch just outcoached him in the first half. Poch is a very good coach, and it is the first time I can think this happened, but still not ideal.

It seems like there was some tactical adjustment made a half time to address why we were being pulled apart, not just the substitutions. If this had been given to the starting 11 he put out, would the match have unfolded differently?
Leckie and Velupillay are a bit of a budget Metcalfe/Volpato and Irankunda. It seems like he was trying to absorb the first half, get in at 0-0, then bring on the other guys fresh to have a go at tired legs.

With the results in the first round, getting anything out of this game would have been a bonus and possibly given us a shot at first place. I think when looking at the group stage, they are banking on a result in the final match. No one expected a result out of this match. The US have a generational side and are at home, the money was literally all on them to win.

Popa has turned up and delivered exactly what it says on the tin. I was surprised people had such a change of heart after the first up win. He is still exactly the same coach as the day before that win. Things went our way and Haramball won. Similarly, he put out the same style in the last match, but this time it didn't work out. It will be interesting to see the Paraguay match given we are both playing a similar defensive style.

 

[Quicky]

 

[grazorblade]

All the talk about team/squad selection I think misses this as the most glaring error. Probably because most fans don't understand these aspects and mostly think in terms of if a player is good/better/bad. This seems like Poch just outcoached him in the first half. Poch is a very good coach, and it is the first time I can think this happened, but still not ideal.

It seems like there was some tactical adjustment made a half time to address why we were being pulled apart, not just the substitutions. If this had been given to the starting 11 he put out, would the match have unfolded differently?
Leckie and Velupillay are a bit of a budget Metcalfe/Volpato and Irankunda. It seems like he was trying to absorb the first half, get in at 0-0, then bring on the other guys fresh to have a go at tired legs.

With the results in the first round, getting anything out of this game would have been a bonus and possibly given us a shot at first place. I think when looking at the group stage, they are banking on a result in the final match. No one expected a result out of this match. The US have a generational side and are at home, the money was literally all on them to win.

Popa has turned up and delivered exactly what it says on the tin. I was surprised people had such a change of heart after the first up win. He is still exactly the same coach as the day before that win. Things went our way and Haramball won. Similarly, he put out the same style in the last match, but this time it didn't work out. It will be interesting to see the Paraguay match given we are both playing a similar defensive style.

Yeah in the end poppa has his style and he is entitled to it. I thought that if we were relying on pressing triggers to create chances we needed a quick cb to replace burgess (he chose geria at half time, I suggested herrington) and we needed irvine for his mobility since pressing triggers leave us with a big space between the press and the back five which leaves us vulnerable (the first goal started from a pressing trigger creating indecision in italiano which led to i decision from souttar then a lack of speed and agility from burgess)

 

[Quicky]

Yeah in the end poppa has his style and he is entitled to it. I thought that if we were relying on pressing triggers to create chances we needed a quick cb to replace burgess (he chose geria at half time, I suggested herrington) and we needed irvine for his mobility since pressing triggers leave us with a big space between the press and the back five which leaves us vulnerable (the first goal started from a pressing trigger creating indecision in italiano which led to i decision from souttar then a lack of speed and agility from burgess)

We got our press very wrong against the US.

 

[grazorblade]

We got our press very wrong against the US.

The press did generate chances to be fair, but they didnt seem to be dangerous enough in combining once they won the ball. The rest of the team also didnt seem to know whether to join the press or sticking to the back 5

 

[Ange's high line]

Pops was negligent in his stupid selections of his team this time, it's a fine line. We all thought it may backfire as well.
If Pops wants to be in the shop window to hopefully coach in Europe or Asia well, he went backwards on that front.
Poch gave him a lesson in managing.

 

[booney52]

In the first few minutes the press did work well mainly due to Toure's pace but after that Leckie's lack of pace and Velupillay's inability to press at the right time negated its usefulness.Also the Americans were able to work in the space between our three up field players and our double pivot and started to bring those quick wing backs Robinson and Dest into play.Their pace left Leckie and Velupillay stranded and Italiano and Bos pushed up to stop the wing backs getting too far into the final third.They were often beaten for pace or had players like McKennie running into the space behind them which then dragged O'Neill and Okon across and at times Circati and Burgess also got pulled out of position.

For the Paraguay game I am sure Popa will play the same way but hopefully have players such as Irankunda ,Toure and Metcalfe who know how to press at the right time.He might feel Volpato and Yengi are not used to his system though for reasons of rotation and attack they could be starters.To solve this is what he is paid for and to restore his coaching credibility he needs to be right in his choices of the starting eleven.

 

[rusty83]

IHowever 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.

Kuol is plodder until proven otherwise

As for Leckie it’s a bad argument. When euro based players return to the A league they generally return for a reason- they aren’t able to play at the elite level anymore. Leckie hasn’t played in the Bundesliga for 5 years. He’s 35. He has appalling technique. He’s lost his speed, and isn’t even match fit. He couldn’t even make it in Bundesliga 2 now.

It was a terrible decision to include him in the squad, and it showed on Saturday. He was awful.

 

[JS96]

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.

Velupillay had runs on the board in the Popovic system and the test case was to see if he could go the next level. He couldn't.

The fact that A League players are being scouted by Bundesliga 2 clubs makes you statement null and void.

 

[zimbos05]

All the talk about team/squad selection I think misses this as the most glaring error. Probably because most fans don't understand these aspects and mostly think in terms of if a player is good/better/bad. This seems like Poch just outcoached him in the first half. Poch is a very good coach, and it is the first time I can think this happened, but still not ideal.

It seems like there was some tactical adjustment made a half time to address why we were being pulled apart, not just the substitutions. If this had been given to the starting 11 he put out, would the match have unfolded differently?
Leckie and Velupillay are a bit of a budget Metcalfe/Volpato and Irankunda. It seems like he was trying to absorb the first half, get in at 0-0, then bring on the other guys fresh to have a go at tired legs.

With the results in the first round, getting anything out of this game would have been a bonus and possibly given us a shot at first place. I think when looking at the group stage, they are banking on a result in the final match. No one expected a result out of this match. The US have a generational side and are at home, the money was literally all on them to win.

Popa has turned up and delivered exactly what it says on the tin. I was surprised people had such a change of heart after the first up win. He is still exactly the same coach as the day before that win. Things went our way and Haramball won. Similarly, he put out the same style in the last match, but this time it didn't work out. It will be interesting to see the Paraguay match given we are both playing a similar defensive style.

If anything, this just proves Popa is out of his depth. People may have expected us not to win, but that does not mean that not winning is ok. The US did not really create much from open play. Their two goals came from our own errors, and from mistakes made by the tactics put on the pitch.

I wouldn't say he has delivered exactly what it says on the tin. He delivered beyond expectation in the 1st game, but in the 2nd got it horribly wrong. Based on the balance of play, we could have taken the US, and we all know that just because it says on paper one should win, it does not always necessarily mean they should.

 

[rusty83]

Pops was negligent in his stupid selections of his team this time, it's a fine line. We all thought it may backfire as well.
If Pops wants to be in the shop window to hopefully coach in Europe or Asia well, he went backwards on that front.
Poch gave him a lesson in managing.

it was A league plodders versus euro based stars. When you can’t even get the basics right, ie team selection, the tactics are irrelevant.

 

[rusty83]

Velupillay had runs on the board in the Popovic system and the test case was to see if he could go the next level. He couldn't.

The fact that A League players are being scouted by Bundesliga 2 clubs makes you statement null and void.

scouted? lol. How many A league stars have tried and failed in the German lower divisions compared to those who’ve succeeded?

Runs on the board? What the fck does that mean? This isn’t Curucao and Nz..