Ultimate grudge match: Can the Socceroos silence the American hype?
6/18/202614 min
A big first-game upset over Turkey sets the scene perfectly for a grudge match in Australia’s crucial game against the World Cup hosts at 5am on Saturday morning (AEST).
Behind the scenes, a fiery cocktail of history, spiteful friendlies, and straight-up disrespect from American soccer pundits has turned this Group D clash into a highly personal grudge match.
In this bonus episode, host Samantha Selinger-Morris talks to sports reporter Vince Rugari, who will be on the ground in Seattle, to break down the trash talk, the tactical madness of Tony Popovic, and why this insanely talented, multicultural Australian squad might just have the youth and stoicism to silence a hostile American crowd.
Background reading: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/yank-hypocrisy-why-mike-grella-s-socceroos-slander-rings-so-hollow-20260615-p606xk.html
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSamantha Selinger-Morris· Host0:00
Hey, everyone. It's Samantha here, your host of the Morning Edition. Now, we're not ordinarily in the business of sport, but there is obviously a lot of excitement about Australia's World Cup match against Team USA. Our reporter, Vince Rugari, will be there for the game in Seattle our time on Saturday morning, and he joins us today. Hey, Vince. Thanks for being with us.
Vince Rugari· Guest0:22
Hey, Sam. No worries. Great to, great to be with you.
Samantha Selinger-Morris· Host0:25
Okay. First off, there's a lot of angst behind this upcoming match. Why so?
Vince Rugari· Guest0:30
Uh, well, there's a couple of reasons. One is, uh, uh, Australia and the USA played a friendly, uh, in October last year, I think it was, which was quite fiery. The US won 2-1, uh, but there were a number of little scuffles that broke out during the game, and a- allegations of dangerous tackles, et cetera, and it was, uh, yeah, pretty spiteful affair. So when the World Cup draw, uh, was conducted a couple of years later and both teams landed in the same group, everyone's immediate thought was, "Okay, we've-- we're gonna have the rematch now," uh, and that's gonna be... E- everyone was-- would be looking forward to this game regardless, uh, for that reason. Uh, but then we also have the additional reason of the way that the US soccer punditry community has treated the Socceroos, uh, since then. Uh, a few things have been said and been remembered, uh, by the players and coaches and fans as well. Mike Grella, one of the analysts on CBS, uh, immediately described the Socceroos as a layup for the