World Cup Watch: US tipped to 'sleepwalk' past Socceroos

First we had former New York Red Bulls winger Mike Grella calling the Socceroos a “lay-up for the US”.

Then things stepped up a notch when US legend Landon Donovan took aim at Tony Popovic, labelling Australia’s coach “smug”.

Now another American pundit has given the Socceroos plenty of motivation ahead of the World Cup, with former Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard joining Donovan on his podcast and proclaiming the US will “sleepwalk through their group”.

Not everyone Stateside is feeling so confident, not least after their national team was outclassed in recent friendlies against Belgium and Portugal.

But one of the biggest concerns facing US fans heading into the tournament, which is now less than two months away, is the form of their talisman Christian Pulisic.

‘Captain America’, as he’s known, hasn’t scored for his club AC Milan this calendar year, and hasn’t found the back of the net for his country since November 2024, leading Sports Illustrated to say, “the superstar will look for some ice for his bruised pride”.

Ouch.

Get the latest news on Australia’s World Cup group opponents USA, Paraguay and Turkiye here - we’ll have pieces like this every week leading into the tournament, so Football360 will be your go-to destination for World Cup news from every angle.

Speaking of that, we also had an update yesterday from an Aussie veteran who hasn’t given up hope of making the cut for the Socceroos, despite having not played a game at any level in over two months.

Craig Goodwin is aiming to return to action just in time for the A-League finals, and will use his games for Adelaide United as a springboard to boost his World Cup hopes.

“If I sit here and just say ‘oh it’s over’ then I’ve got no chance of making it,” Goodwin said, and it’s hard to fault that logic.

Read more of what Goodwin had to say here.

Continuing yesterday’s theme about the good, the bad and the ugly of the A-League, my co-founder David Weiner penned a column on that topic that every A-League fan will want to read.

David points out that, as always, there are many flaws within Australia’s top football league, not least the dire situation at Western Sydney Wanderers, who could barely half-fill CommBank Stadium for a Sydney Derby that used to be the high point on the footballing calendar.

The Wanderers’ poor form certainly hasn’t helped matters but as David points out, even if new head coach Ufuk Talay and head of football Mal Impiombato are able to turn things around on the field, it seems more work will need to be done off it to restore the club to its former glories.

Yet it’s not all doom and gloom in the A-League.

The Newcastle Jets have been a tremendous feelgood story all season, one that could reach a crescendo in the upcoming finals, while there are players across the league pushing for World Cup selection that should, in theory, not only improve the quality of play but also attract some casual fans that want to know more about the people they’re about to cheer on at the World Cup.

You can read David’s column here.

Meanwhile Mike Tuckerman used his regular column to take a deeper look at the hottest team in the league right now, Melbourne City.

A few weeks ago, Aurelio Vidmar’s side looked a fair distance from finals football. Now they’re sitting in sixth place having won three games on the bounce, and are a genuine chance of finishing in the top four.

As Mike points out, a lot of this has been down to two players at very different stages of their careers - 35-year-old veteran Aziz Behich, and 20-year-old sensation Marcus Younis, who has been arguably the best player in the league over the past couple of months.

As Mike points out, no team in the finals will want to run into Melbourne City.

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, Australia will not play at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup after losing at the quarter-finals stage of the Under-20 Women’s Asian Cup to North Korea.

As Young Matildas coach Alex Epakis pointed out, “that was the ultimate test for us to play the World Cup runners up and the world champions in the space of three days.”

Indeed the side hardly disgraced themselves against such world-class opposition, matching Japan and North Korea for large chunks of their games before ultimately coming up short.

And while the Australian players will be much better for the experience, Ann Odong points out in this excellent piece that the results over the past week show where the benchmark is for youth development across Asia, and raise critical questions around Australia’s pathway to meet the standard.

Clearly the Emerging Matildas Championships, which continue in Melbourne today (more on that later in this newsletter), are one way Football Australia is attempting to bridge the gap with its Asian rivals.

But we might need to wait a few years to find out if that is enough.

Sorry Tottenham fans. There’s more bad news.

Spurs would have been hoping they could rely on Manchester United, who have been so strong since Michael Carrick took over earlier this year, to beat Leeds this morning, a result that would have done wonders for Tottenham’s hopes of avoiding relegation.

Instead, when the full-time whistle blew just a few minutes ago, Leeds were celebrating an upset 2-1 win courtesy of a double from Noah Okafor. That result takes them six points clear of 18th-placed Spurs.

Games in Spain and Italy also just wrapped up, with Fiorentina beating Lazio 1-0 in Serie A while Socceroos goalkeeper Maty Ryan kept a clean sheet as Levante beat Getafe 2-0 in La Liga.

Levante’s victory is massive in the context of their battle to avoid relegation - they’re still 19th on the ladder, but are now just three points behind 17th-placed Alaves.

It looks like Ryan’s lead-in to the World Cup will be anything but cruisy.

In other Aussies Abroad news, Australian Gianni Stensness was at the heart of a huge result in Norway, with his Viking side stunning Champions League giant-killers Bodo/Glimt.

Stensness played the full 90 minutes as Viking won 5-0 against a team that beat Manchester City, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid earlier this year - and that was just about the perfect way to celebrate his 100th game for the club.

Meanwhile, apparently Patrick Yazbek is a potato?

There’s nothing a politician loves more than getting on board with a national sporting team to show the public that he’s one of us.

But even if Anthony Albanese wins over a few hearts and minds by cheering on the Socceroos at the upcoming World Cup, he’s not getting an entirely free ride from football in this country, with efforts to convince Albo to cough up some cash for the sport going up a notch recently.

As AAP reported yesterday, the Aussie PM received letters from both FIFA and the AFC supporting Football Australia’s bid for help to construct a national home for football.

Australia was one of just four nations, alongside Denmark, Poland and Senegal, who qualified for the men’s 2022 World Cup to not have a national base.

FA is apparently hoping to attract up to $50 million in federal government funding to build a national home of football, potentially at Sydney Olympic Park.

Here’s hoping a strong Socceroos performance at the World Cup convinces the government that’d be money well spent.