{"id":244923,"date":"2026-05-24T01:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/if-we-cant-beat-australia-stay-home-us-host-doubles-down-on-sledge-as-socceroos-icon-hits-back\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:18:00","slug":"if-we-cant-beat-australia-stay-home-us-host-doubles-down-on-sledge-as-socceroos-icon-hits-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/if-we-cant-beat-australia-stay-home-us-host-doubles-down-on-sledge-as-socceroos-icon-hits-back\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If we can\u2019t beat Australia, stay home\u2019: US host doubles down on sledge as Socceroos icon hits back"},"content":{"rendered":"

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American football presenter and former pro Mike Grella has doubled down on his criticism of Australia ahead of the FIFA World Cup, declaring that the United States should \u201cstay home\u201d if they don\u2019t cruise past the Socceroos during the group stage.<\/p>\n

Australia will face the co-hosts in Seattle on June 20 AEST<\/a>, joined by Paraguay and Turkey in Group D.<\/p>\n

Speaking in March, Grella declared that taking on Australia would be a \u201clay-up\u201d for the United States, who defeated the Socceroos 2-1 in Denver last year.<\/p>\n

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Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now ><\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cTake nothing away from the Socceroos, they\u2019ve always been competitive,\u201d Grella said on CBS Sport<\/i> at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they stumbled a little during qualifying and weren\u2019t that impressive. This is an amazing first team to have for the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Leckie pushing for 4th WC appearance | 01:02<\/p>\n

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Questioned about the comments on Saturday, Grella explained his rationale on a panel alongside former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys probably thought we were the easiest pot in the group, and we thought you were the easiest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably both the weakest teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwarzer responded: \u201cHost nations are always difficult to play against at any World Cup, so we always knew the USA was going to be a tough, tough opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we like to do is let our performances do the talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know it\u2019s a tough, tough group.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Grella couldn\u2019t resist offering one final jab ahead of next month\u2019s World Cup clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we cant beat them, we shouldn\u2019t go to the World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf USA can\u2019t beat Australia in a football match, stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tuchel leaves out big names for WC squad | 00:54<\/p>\n

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The tournament features 48 teams; FIFA\u2019s biggest ever World Cup. The top two teams from each of the 12 groups and eight third-placed teams go through to the round of 32.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s final World Cup squad is due to be submitted on June 1 (AEST).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American football presenter and former pro Mike Grella has doubled down on his criticism of Australia ahead of the FIFA World Cup, declaring that the United States should \u201cstay home\u201d if they don\u2019t cruise past the Socceroos during the group stage. Australia will face the co-hosts in Seattle on June 20 AEST, joined by Paraguay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-244923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}