Alexi Lalas and Mike Grella have made Tanner Kidwell\u2019s life hell.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
But, also, wait \u2013 who is Tanner Kidwell?<\/p>\n
Kidwell is a rare commodity on these shores. An American football player.<\/p>\n
Not American Football \u2013 soccer!<\/p>\n
Kidwell is a striker for Berwick City Soccer Club.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s proudly Kentucky born and raised, and speaks with that distinctive Southern American accent.<\/p>\n
He made the move to Australia in late 2024 and has fallen in love with his new home.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
But not so much that he will swap his Team USA kit for a Socceroos jersey throughout this World Cup, which of course will be played in his homeland.<\/p>\n
It was lovely and poetic for Kidwell that his birthplace and his new home were pitted together in Group D for the global showpiece.<\/p>\n
And then former national team defender Grella and pro turned pundit Lalas had to go and run their mouths.<\/p>\n
Grella infamously said after the draw that Australia would be no more than a \u201clay up\u201d for the Americans when they meet in Seattle, while Lalas has subsequently described the Socceroos as an \u201caverage team\u201d.<\/p>\n
And Kidwell hasn\u2019t heard the end of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear it every training,\u201d Kidwell says on Episode 11 of the Building Blocks podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all I say is \u2018June 20, June 20, we\u2019ll find out then\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saying this to my teammates just then, because once they saw the USA top they were going \u2018USA! USA! USA!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was telling them, \u2018I\u2019m pulling for Australia, I live here now\u2019. It\u2019s just that June 20th game, I obviously have to stay where I\u2019m from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kidwell is expecting the co-hosted World Cup to do wonders for football in his homeland and wants to see the sport continue to expand its grassroots foothold in the months and years after the tournament, much in the same way kids were inspired to take up the world game in droves after Australia hosted the 2023 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s excitement, and then there\u2019s excitement.<\/p>\n
Because Kidwell \u2013 a knowledgeable American soccer fan \u2013 has had to play the role of Debbie Downer as he tries to temper expectations of some of his friends and family back home who are more casual football fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people in the US just watch MLS,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s starting to get where we have people supporting an English Premier league team \u2013 that could be Liverpool all the way to Manchester City or, like myself, I\u2019m a Newcastle fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I just think their expectations are that we\u2019re gonna win it (the World Cup). I have to kind of be bearer of bad news to say like \u2018listen guys, we have to play Argentina, we have to play Spain, these top nations\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s just not going to happen!<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think we can get to a Round of 16. I think if we do then anything beyond that is like \u2018wow, we\u2019re really changing the game\u2019, you know? We\u2019re actually making USA a top nation in the game of soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, anything further than Round of 16 I think will be really good for the culture and the vibes in the fan base.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while he is tempering expectations regarding America\u2019s hopes of lifting the World Cup trophy on July 20 (AEST), he is more bullish about his team\u2019s chances against Australia on June 20 (AEST).<\/p>\n
He\u2019s just a little less brash about it than Messers Grella and Lalas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think besides all the pundit banter and back-and-forth, i think it\u2019ll just be a great game, a hard-fought game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a soccer player, I kind of compare the US to Australia, so it should be a very good game. Both sides have some amazing talent and I just think whoever comes out of that game will probably be top of the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched the Germany (friendly) game that happened a couple days ago, ended 2-1 (to Germany) but there was absolute screamer (of a goal) by Antonee Robinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I have high hopes for this (USA) team. I think with (Christian) Pulisic in the middle and (Weston) McKennie. I even like Haji Wright up top \u2013 very good No.9, a goal scorer, that\u2019s exactly what we need.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd our defense is looking pretty decent with Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson \u2013 a lot of big players over in England and Germany, so I think we should do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
His score prediction.<\/p>\n
\u201c1-0, USA.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can hear the full interview with Kidwell on the latest episode of the Building Blocks podcast, which is live now on Football360 channels.<\/p>\n
It also includes extended cuts of Archie Thompson and Naum Sekulovski Breaking Barriers interviews on their time playing at the Morwell (Gippsland) Falcons in the NSL ahead Berwick City\u2019s clash with Gippsland United this Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexi Lalas and Mike Grella have made Tanner Kidwell\u2019s life hell. Why? But, also, wait \u2013 who is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,354266,23971,44],"class_list":["post-732097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaking-barriers","tag-building-blocks","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732097","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=732097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}