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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The Socceroos were the underdogs going into the World Cup match against Turquia. And despite the win, they will be again as they face off against the USA. So how can the young team and coach, Tony Popovich, pull it off again? Today, SBS World Cup host, Niamh Owens, on why it might not be that easy for the Americans and what success will mean for the financially struggling Football Australia.
I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Niamh, wow, there really is something, isn't there, about a crowd watching a team score a goal at the Soccer World Cup. I mean, the reaction when the Socceroos won on the weekend was incredible and you didn't even need to be in the stadium.
Sam, it was such a special moment.
Top here's Nestori. Great first touch. Nestori, a good down! Oh, my word! My God, what a fantastic ball. Nestor, he did so well. That's why he's there. Counter-attack. Absolutely superb. And we can see the flares going off. And Square is absolutely pumping. What an atmosphere.
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Chapter 2: Why were the Socceroos considered underdogs against Türkiye?
And some of the players within that squad, Sam, that got their start, we're talking Patrick Beach. This was his third cap for Australia. He plays for Melbourne City in the A-Leagues. He replaced Matty Ryan, who's played more than 100 caps for his country, who is usually the skipper of this Socceroos side, who started all 36 games for Levante this season. And yet,
Pat Beach came in and was outstanding. He made eight saves, equal most of any goalkeeper in World Cup history.
It is the number eight for Turkey. He hits it well. It was superbly kept out there by Patrick Beach. Demoral. Demoral.
Chapter 3: What challenges will the Socceroos face against the USA?
Oh, great save. And then you look at that opening goal from Nestoria Irencunda and we know that this is a young man who was born in a refugee camp. He grew up in Adelaide, the most creative, unpredictable firecracker kind of player that Australia has.
He signed for big money overseas, but the player who put the pass through to him, and what a beautiful ball it was, was Paul Ocon Engsler, who pays for Sydney FC in the A-League. So you can see that there are names that are playing here in our National League in Australia that had been underestimated internationally, who, when given their opportunity, absolutely stood up.
Connor Metcalf, who's on the burst. Metcalf, it opens up beautifully. Oh, why? Look.
And the commentary we're listening to here is from the SBS coverage, and it's really great to hear it again, actually. So just tell me then, the coach, Tony Popovich, he made these choices, right, to put some quite inexperienced players front and centre. That must come with risk.
A huge amount of risk, absolutely. We heard a couple of little rumblings in the lead-up that a couple of these guys would be starting. And I dismissed them, Sam. I thought, surely not. It absolutely paid off. By the end of this game, we had six A-League players on the park against the might of Turquoise, ranked 22 in the world, considered a dark horse by many people coming into this tournament.
So, yeah, he took some real risks, Tony Popovich.
Outstanding defensive display, I think, from the whole squad, players that came on as well. Very resilient, desperate around the box, putting their bodies on the line, and that's what's required to win a game in the World Cup.
But what we know about him is that every single thing he does is calculated. He looks at everything in the lead up, Sam. He looks at the amount of sleep the boys are getting. He looks at the amount of salt they put on their food. He looked apparently at the pillows at the hotel. He is analyzing every single part of this setup. And he then showed enormous faith in this next gen.
So he made some huge calls.
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Chapter 4: How did the crowd react to the Socceroos' recent victory?
And each and every one of them paid off in what I think was a script we couldn't have written any better, Sam. We couldn't have hoped for more for this opening game.
Yeah, interesting, as we mentioned before, I mean, the Turkish team is worth a lot more, something like $776 million Australian dollars, and the Socceroos are like something like $100 million, so a lot less. And as you say, there's these A-League players, and my gosh, they've really stepped up, haven't they, because they're taking on Premier League players.
Absolutely. And maybe here at home, it gives us a little bit more faith in what we're doing and what we're seeing in the A-Leagues. Maybe we need to take a little bit more pride in our own national competition and its ability to stand up against some of those other leagues in the world.
I think traditionally, Sam, we've been seen as a physical side, a really fit side, a determined side, a football team that will run all day, not a skilful side or a creative side or a team full of goal scorers. This current crop with some of these young players who are coming through is they have got a mixture of all of those attributes. And that could be very, very exciting moving forward.
They're still pretty young. They're still pretty green. We had 17 World Cup debutants in this squad. So it is still very much generation next. But after that opening game, I don't think I'm alone in being very excited about what they can do.
OK, so, Niamh, football fever, of course, is spreading across the country ahead of the Socceroos' next game, and that is against America on Saturday morning, our time. Now, a lot of people are going to be watching that, of course. Now, what do you think the tactic will be for the coach this time? He's got this young side. I assume he has to keep them calm going into this rather big match.
I reckon the 24 hours after that win over Turkiye, he would have let them enjoy the experience for a hot minute.
We need to recover from this world, but also emotionally we need to recover because our young boys would never have experienced something like this. So we need to enjoy it, recover from it and see how they are for the next match.
But yeah, absolutely. The next day, the focus turns to this game against the USA, which was spicy coming into the tournament and feels even spicier now. Now, the USA beat Paraguay in their opening game and they beat them convincingly. It was 4-1. Paraguay didn't offer up as much as we expected, perhaps, but the USA looked good, Sam. More European-style football than we'd anticipated.
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Chapter 5: What factors contributed to the Socceroos' surprising win?
? Even our experts at the desk at SBS have been in two minds about what approach Tony Popovich will take. So I think the approach will be really interesting. Does he go with these young guys once again or has that shock value worn off? I don't know. There are a lot of questions, Sam, in the lead up to this one and I'm glad that it's Tony Popovich making the call and not me.
Yeah, absolutely. Or me, for that matter. But, you know, it is possible for this Socceroos team, right, to win against America. Highly possible.
It is possible. That's the beautiful thing about football, that anything is possible. And to be honest, if we came out of this one with a draw, I would be stoked. That is four points. That gets us through to the knockout stages for sure. I mean, three points with a good goal difference is likely to get us through at this World Cup as well. I think a draw would be remarkable. A win would... Wow.
I mean, we dare to dream, Sam. That would be huge. Then we start talking heading into that final game against Paraguay about the potential to top Group D. And whoever does top Group D gets a far more straightforward trip through the knockout stages than whoever finishes second or indeed third in Group D. Topping Group D is huge. It's a lot to ask. It's a huge amount to hope for.
But why not dream after that opening game?
All right, well, Niamh, all eyes, of course, are on the Socceroos. Football fans across the country are on a bit of a high, that's for sure. But, you know, in Australia, it is worth pointing out that this is a sport that has struggled, isn't it? It really has struggled to get its footing and it's in deep financial trouble. Football Australia is not doing so well.
Yeah, we heard recently, Sam, that they had to shed 20% of their workforce out. a whole heap of really hardworking, football-loving people lost their jobs. And that came on the back of two significant deficits. Last year's record loss, then it got worse this year. Now we've heard from Martin Kugler, who's the new CEO. He only took over in February of this year.
He says there's a path back to black by the end of next year.
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Chapter 6: How does financial disparity affect the Socceroos and their competition?
There are, of course, Sam Cosswith participating in a World Cup. There are big rewards as well if you can go on a run. I mean, from the round of 16, you're talking upwards of $20 million Aussie dollars in prize money.
that would mean our first knockout game win too so it would be a massive moment for football in australia on multiple fronts and then the question becomes can we capitalize on this excitement back here at home in the aftermath of the world cup i think plenty of people have admitted that they weren't able to capitalize on the matilda's run at that home world cup
There's a couple of things that didn't go their way in that sense. And there's a couple of things to look at in terms of that buy-in. I mean, one is that Football Australia runs the Socceroos. They run Matildas. They run junior football in Australia. There's then the A-Leagues, the National League, which is in the middle of those two, and that's run by the APL.
Now, communication relationships between those bodies haven't always been top-notch. And that really matters, especially in the aftermath of a tournament like this one. When the Matildas wrapped the Home World Cup, those players headed back to their clubs in Europe, their clubs in the UK, in the United States.
The players were all developed here in Australia in the A-Leagues, but they don't play here anymore. But by the end of that Turquoise game for the Socceroos, there were six A-League players on the field for Australia. If some of the players that become household names in this tournament then come back to Sydney FC, Melbourne City, then all of a sudden one of those missing links is there.
So the question then becomes, can the powers that be get their acts together to really capitalise on the opportunity that that presents? Have lessons been learnt from the Women's World Cup? We'll see, but I hope so. Yeah, to keep the momentum going. Yeah, and to recognise the quality of players that are being developed in the A-Leagues, in both the men's and the women's A-Leagues.
I mean, I think there's a lot that we can be proud of with our local league. I think communication hasn't been great between Football Australia and the APL. that's an area that really needs to improve.
We need football as a sport to be working together to really grow the game because we see at a community level, at a junior club level, it is the biggest sport in Australia that has the most participants at that junior level. What happens to them then, Sam? Where do they go? Why do they end up only supporting rugby league or only supporting AFL and we lose them to the World Games.
So I think trying to develop and continue that connection to football that we see people love and enjoy during the World Cup, trying to take that into the next A-League season is a really big challenge. Yeah, sure is.
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