{"id":747264,"date":"2026-06-19T18:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:58:16","slug":"fifa-world-cup-2026-live-scores-day-9-australia-vs-usa-results-highlights-latest-news-tony-popovic-springs-selection-shock-as-nestory-irankunda-and-conor-metcalfe-benched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/747264\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup 2026 LIVE scores, Day 9: Australia vs USA results, highlights, latest news; Tony Popovic springs selection shock as Nestory Irankunda and Conor Metcalfe benched"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is time for the war of the words to finally come to an end. <\/p>\n

Australia and the United States are just over an hour away from facing off, and the final barbs have been thrown by pundits across the world.<\/p>\n

While Mike Grella has been at the centre of all headlines heading into the match due to his consistent comments underestimating his nation\u2019s looming rivals, it appears as though no one else is willing to make sure bold declarations. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic has overseen the Socceroos for less than two years.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Especially not US coach Mauricio Pochettino, who has warned his team that if they want to win this match they need to match Australia\u2019s attitude. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to play [against] a team that really believes in what they are doing. That is what I like about the (Socceroos),\u201d he told reporters on Friday (AEST).<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic, a follower of Pochettino\u2019s career, recognised that his team has the chance to stamp \u201cAustralian football on the world map\u201d by defeating the US. <\/p>\n

To do that, they must ignore the external noise around this game and perform. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off well against Turkiye winning, now we want to back it up,\u201d Popovic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue striving to do that to improve our football and improve our standing in how people perceive Australian football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not through words, it\u2019s through what we do on the pitch and (this game) another opportunity to do that. We want to earn our respect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is time for the war of the words to finally come to an end. Australia and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-747264","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\/747264","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=747264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}