When the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup, Lewis Miller was an absolutely rusted on selection as the side\u2019s right wingback.<\/p>\n
But when he suffered an awfully timed achilles rupture and his World Cup dream ended, one of life\u2019s great cliches was invoked: when one door closes, another opens.<\/p>\n
The right wingback berth was wide open at that point. Fran Karacic, perhaps, had his nose in front; Sammy Silvera and Jason Geria had been used, while Nathaniel Atkinson, who started game 1 in 2022 had drifted out of consideration.<\/p>\n
Jacob Italiano has been grinding quietly in Europe for six years; a talent who left Perth Glory for Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach in 2019 but who hadn\u2019t quite made that jump into the national team.<\/p>\n
That all changed in October, 2025 for the friendlies against Canada and USA.<\/p>\n
Thrown in the deep end, he thrived.<\/p>\n
Out of nowhere, Australia suddenly had a solution to a major headache.<\/p>\n
In the months since, he has become such an assumed selection to start at this World Cup, that the speed of his ascent into the XI has been overlooked. He has arguably been the revelation of the Tony Popovic era.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the the lead in to the World Cup, I\u2019d obviously moved to to Austria to try and get regular game time, try and put myself in the window of being involved in one of the camps, which I managed to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into that camp I knew that was my chance to put my best foot forward, show that I\u2019m an option for the boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that\u2019s what I did and here I am now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it all worked out but it was definitely my shot. I knew it was my shot to show myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing it\u2019s your moment is one thing, seizing it is another.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing was try and not get too excited about everything, try and not get too kind of overwhelmed or looking forward too far.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day it is football. You\u2019re going obviously into a higher intensity, higher level, different environment, but it\u2019s still football. So I knew that I had done my thing at my club. So I went in with the mentality of just continuing that. Just playing my football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the best way to show myself; not try and do too much, not try and show too much, just show why I got selected and continue on from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The excitement might have inevitably got to the Grazer AK player, because when he returned to Austria for the first time after an international window, he suffered an injury setback.<\/p>\n
Still, during that period, Popovic continued to sing his praises despite his absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously a big boost in confidence for me,\u201d Italiano explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the USA game I realised okay, I can do it at this level. They had some really good players on the pitch at the time. It was a different level to what I was used to, but I showed that I was capable of dealing with it and performing, performing quite well and that was a big confidence boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the time when maybe injuries can come \u2013 when you\u2019re on top of the world and you feel like you\u2019re invincible. I went back to the club and I probably wasn\u2019t as clever in terms of managing my loading and things like that in training.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen my calf went with all the travel and new excitement and everything. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve learned from now, because I was hoping that there will be a time again where I\u2019m coming back to the club from a camp and I need to manage everything a bit better, which I managed to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a setback but the confidence I had from the October campaign can kind of push through.\u201d<\/p>\n
This campaign is incredible reward for perseverance, working through the COVID period alone abroad, niggly soft tissue setbacks, years making a case in the German club\u2019s reserves and then a bout of glandular fever. Italiano is one of those who has stuck it out abroad when others most definitely would have returned home, even though he had A-League offers at the time he decided to move to Austria.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was definitely a few turbulent years there, a bit of adversity in and out of football,\u201d he said. \u201cI probably spent a lot more months than I would have hoped not on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a tough time for myself, my family, everyone, because I\u2019d made the the move over there to push on my career and show what I was capable of and it started quite well and then different things happened for different reasons and had to come out of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI showed that mentally I was tough enough to get over that; get over those setbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe move to Austria I think was a really good one. It got me playing consistently at (what is) still a good level and gave myself an opportunity to show that I was ready to push for this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
This interview was conducted prior to the opening game win, where Italiano was outstanding on the right flank. Even before that night, just being in this camp, had it made that perseverance worthwhile?<\/p>\n
\u201cA hundred percent. I know I\u2019ve had to work hard for it. I\u2019ve had to go through some tough times for it, so it definitely feels extra special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unique setup of this Socceroos side is its requirements for wingbacks, rather than fullbacks, with extraordinary engines and the ability to link with the midfielders and attack.<\/p>\n
It is a different art form but one Italiano enjoys.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a demanding role,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think with my profile and you see like Bosy (Jordan Bos) on the other side and Aziz (Behich) and and Kai (Trewin) who plays there, we all kind of have the capacity to get up and down the pitch for a long time of the game, whenever we\u2019re attacking, you want to be in the back post with the chance for a goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you\u2019re defending you want to be at the back post as well to stop them. So you need to be able to get up and down the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s difficult when Jordy Bos is sprinting down the other end, getting past three or four, and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018I\u2019ve got to get to the back stick in case he crosses it in!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a role I\u2019ve been playing at my club as well, which has helped me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that also helps my situation. My club plays a similar system, so I was used to it in a way and obviously there\u2019s different things in each system that I still had to learn but I had a basis which helped me and I enjoy the role a lot, I\u2019m able to show my strengths through the role.\u201d<\/p>\n
We saw more of an attacking intent against Turkiye than we did in the other two friendlies and Italiano and Connor Metcalfe, in particular, were aggressive, with Bos caught in a ding dong battle with Zeki Celik.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be high and wide and pushing the opposition fullbacks back and thinking about us going the other way,\u201d Italiano said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously at times in the game it\u2019s going to be the other way where we\u2019re going to have to defend well and respect their good footballers and at the start of the game they might be fit in firing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think we\u2019ve shown in these friendly games that we\u2019re really fit, we\u2019re really strong. If we can get through that, which we\u2019ve shown we have been able to get through that, not giving up too many big opportunities, especially against Mexico, I think they didn\u2019t really create anything, once we get through that we\u2019ve shown that we can come out the other end and really do some damage ourselves as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prophetic words, as that\u2019s exactly what happened against Turkiye, and Jacob Italiano, a veteran of eight months in the national side, was a key cog in that happening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup, Lewis Miller was an absolutely rusted on selection as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,253457,44],"class_list":["post-742841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jacob-italiano","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742841","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=742841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}