{"id":717906,"date":"2026-06-05T23:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717906\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:47:11","slug":"fifa-world-cup-news-2026-john-aloisi-exclusive-interview-advice-for-socceroos-and-tony-popovic-underdog-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717906\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup news 2026: John Aloisi exclusive interview, advice for Socceroos and Tony Popovic, underdog tag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos<\/a> icon John Aloisi<\/a> knows all about carrying an underdog tag into a FIFA World Cup<\/a> – but he thinks the current crop should use it to their advantage.<\/p>\n

The hero of Australia\u2019s drought-breaking qualification in a dramatic penalty shootout against Uruguay 21 years ago<\/a>, Aloisi has seen it all when it comes to experts writing off the green and gold on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

John Aloisi stands in front of a statue of himself.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Aloisi knows the pressure and expectation that comes with a World Cup, but also the importance of having a nation behind the team. <\/p>\n

On deck for Sportsbet\u2019s World Cup launch this week, which featured a 40-metre high inflatable Statue of Liberty in his likeness, alongside former teammate Mark Schwarzer <\/a>and UFC<\/a> champion Alexander Volkanovski<\/a>, Aloisi told nine.com.au that the message was clear and urged the Aussie public to rally around the side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal, I didn\u2019t expect to see a statue that big of myself, but they wanted to make a splash and get people talking about the World Cup,\u201d Aloisi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message to everyone is to believe – that\u2019s what we were able to do back in 2005 when we qualified after so long, we got Australia believing in us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping the country can get behind this current Socceroos squad and believe that they can cause some upsets and go deep in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very few are expecting the Aussies to cause damage when the tournament kicks off in the United States and a lot of the criticism is coming from the host nation.<\/p>\n

The fuse was lit when the groups were first announced by pundit Mike Grella, who labelled the Socceroos as a \u201clay-up\u201d<\/a> for the Americans to beat.<\/p>\n

Grella doubled down by saying the US team should \u2018stay home\u2019 if they were unable to beat the Aussies<\/a> in their group stage match on June 20 (AEST).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

John Aloisi celebrates his winning goal in the 2005 World Cup qualifiers.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The pile-on continued when former US international Alexi Lalas described the Socceroos as \u201caverage\u201d<\/a> and said they would struggle in the tournament. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s created an underdog mentality feeling that Aloisi and his Socceroos teammates from the 2006 World Cup<\/a> know all too well. <\/p>\n

Aloisi admitted there was a \u201clack of respect\u201d coming from some loud voices, but sent a cautious warning to anyone \u201csilly\u201d enough to write off Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been underestimated no matter what, that\u2019s normal for us and that\u2019s been the case since we started qualifying for World Cups,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone underestimates us and you only have to look at what we did in 2006 or what the team did at the last World Cup, making it out of a tough group and then taking Argentina to their limits to see what the Socceroos are capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lack of respect in the way they\u2019re talking about us, but are they doing it just to create some sensation and hype around their own team?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very silly to underestimate any team at a World Cup. I know you can say that we\u2019re probably not the strongest team, but don\u2019t call us average or a lay-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think them speaking like that will only add fuel to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

While players often say they don\u2019t listen to external noise, Aloisi believes that coach Tony Popovic and the Socceroos will do the complete opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s actually better to hear that criticism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic is entering his first World Cup campaign as coach.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach, I would use that to my advantage. Other people and especially the opposition are not thinking we can do this, so let\u2019s go prove them wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cDraw on past Socceroos teams and how we were written off and were the underdogs and use that, which I\u2019m sure Popa will do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popovic named his 26-man Socceroos squad<\/a> earlier this week, and it features a balance of both youth and experience. <\/p>\n

Among the more senior players are Matt Leckie and Mat Ryan<\/a>, who will create a slice of history by featuring at a fourth World Cup<\/a>, as well as other familiar faces including Aziz Behich, Milos Degenek and Jackson Ivrine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda is one of Australia’s rising stars.\u00a0AP Photo\/Kyusung Gong<\/p>\n

Aloisi admitted while there\u2019s not many lines to be drawn between the 2006 squad and this crop, the inclusions of two young guns has him feeling optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different, I wouldn\u2019t say there are too many similarities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of experience back then, but none of us had experienced playing in a World Cup, which is completely different. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some good, experienced players in there who have been at a few World Cups already, but we\u2019ve also got some young talented players coming through as well and I think Popa\u2019s got the right balance with the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look past what Nestory Irankunda can do at any moment, he is able to create something out of nothing and can score some spectacular goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also interested to see how Cristian Volpato goes, we haven\u2019t seen him in green and gold but he\u2019s a very talented player<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Souttar also hasn\u2019t played a lot of football<\/a>, but I know how good he is. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about one or two players though, it\u2019s about the whole squad and that\u2019s the mentality we had back in 2006 as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia begin their campaign against Turkey on Sunday, June 14 (AEST) in Vancouver before taking on the US six days later in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Their group stage will conclude on June 26 against Paraguay in Santa Clara. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socceroos icon John Aloisi knows all about carrying an underdog tag into a FIFA World Cup – but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-717906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717906","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=717906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}