{"id":751809,"date":"2026-06-22T00:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751809\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T00:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:28:13","slug":"socceroos-world-cup-news-mathew-leckie-image-motivating-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751809\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos World Cup news: Mathew Leckie image motivating Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA \u2014 Every day that the Socceroos are at their World Cup hotel, they walk past a giant poster of Mathew Leckie celebrating his goal against Denmark that sent Australia to the Round of 16 for the first time since 2006 and etched him into the country\u2019s national sporting pantheon. <\/p>\n

Every day, that\u2019s a reminder that one of their teammates created history; they can, too. <\/p>\n

With Australia now counting down to the final game of their World Cup group, against Paraguay, the stage is set for someone to join Harry Kewell and Leckie as the scorers of the goal that puts the side into the knockout stage.<\/p>\n

The equation is slight different this time, with third place a potential route should Tony Popovic\u2019s side not seal second place. But as it stands, the Socceroos are second. A result will maintain that. <\/p>\n

FEATURE: Inside the Socceroos\u2019 team hotel: The Johnny Warren rallying cry fuelling campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE JEDINAK: Legend responds to pundits\u2019 reaction to US defeat and explains the message given to Socceroos\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Often coaches try to put a lid on an occasion; Jedinak spoke with hair raising passion about the stage that awaits. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ll know that,\u201d he said of the opportunity to create Socceroos history. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Lecks scores his goal against Denmark and the celebration, it\u2019s a moment etched in our World Cup history, so I think without even saying too much, I think the players will be aware of that.<\/p>\n

\"\"Players walk past a poster of Mat Leckie\u2019s iconic goal every day. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve also got such a tremendous privilege to still have him in the room and he\u2019s been a part of this journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI know what it meant to me and I wasn\u2019t even there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if the boys are feeling in such a way, I know Mat Leckie would be very much willing to give his side of that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is drawing upon that and what that moment meant and I don\u2019t think you should shy away from that because I guess every single one of us here knew exactly how they felt in that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from being tremendously proud and I was just so pleased for him as an individual because I was there with him in the trenches, to go and play in these World Cups, and see him have to deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for him to get his moment in that game, probably speaks more volumes of him and his journey than anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no different for any one of these individuals that we\u2019ve got at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mathew Leckie against the USA. Photo: Aleksandar Jason<\/p>\n

Jedinak is at this first World Cup since 2018; his first as a coach, after three as a player, two of which he wore the armband.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe coming here as a coach and being around this group as a coach, I still have the same feelings I had when I was playing,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I can\u2019t do is on a match day walk out and contribute. However, I\u2019ve learnt how to do that in another way and as a coach and being in a tremendous staff and the way that those messages have been given and so your influence is in the build up to that<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying every moment of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve drawn on my experiences for being in these environments, being at the World Cup as a player, on top of my experiences of coaching and and what it\u2019s like to be in that environment, when you\u2019re together for a little bit of time and implementing certain things and and processes to try and help support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about supporting our players, our staff with me and doing everything I possibly can to to make sure that we give ourselves the best possible opportunity to go out and deliver what we need to do on a match day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA \u2014 Every day that the Socceroos are at their World Cup hotel, they walk past a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,350597,353937,44],"class_list":["post-751809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mathew-leckie","tag-mile-jedinak","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751809","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=751809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}