{"id":203507,"date":"2025-10-10T17:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203507\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T17:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:55:10","slug":"socceroos-wary-of-canada-ahead-of-international-friendly-in-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203507\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos wary of Canada ahead of international friendly in Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Ahead of the international friendly against the Socceroos in Montreal on Saturday morning AEDT, Canada coach Jesse Marsch labelled the visitors as &#8220;stingy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Socceroos coach Tony Popovic is not offended, however, as he regards the comment as a compliment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Socceroos are yet to lose since Popovic took over from Graham Arnold in September, having enjoyed a 10-match unbeaten run, which includes sealing qualification for next year&#8217;s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Currently ranked 25th in the world, the Socceroos have scored 20 goals and conceded just seven across those matches, of which they have won their past six.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The solid form \u2014 and more specifically the tight defence \u2014 triggered Marsch&#8217;s assessment of the Socceroos, which Popovic was happy to accept.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-10-10\/matildas-confirm-return-of-sam-kerr\/105875916\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kerr&#8217;s Matildas return confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Sam Kerr is back in the Matildas squad for the first time since late 2023, ahead of friendlies against Wales and England.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;I take that as a compliment,&#8221; said Popovic, a former Socceroos defender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;I think that [a tight defence] is always important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;I could say the same about them, when you look at their recent results and how they defend as a unit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Canada, sitting 26th on FIFA&#8217;s rankings, enters the match on the back of a 3-0 win over Romania and a 1-0 victory over Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Both performances impressed Popovic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;We&#8217;re playing a team in very good form,&#8221; Popovic said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;When you look at their list and see where they all play throughout the world, you see they&#8217;re formidable individuals, and they&#8217;re forming a team that&#8217;s picking up very good results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;The last two against Wales and Romania in Europe were clean sheets. Two very good performances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Following the Canada friendly, the Socceroos will face the United States in Colorado next Wednesday AEDT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the international friendly against the Socceroos in Montreal on Saturday morning AEDT, Canada coach Jesse Marsch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,13201,596,69417,3389,938,13198,42150,85,6248,1055,21418],"class_list":["post-203507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-friendly","tag-international","tag-montreal","tag-soccer","tag-socceroos","tag-sports","tag-tony-popovic","tag-united-states","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}