Goalie gamble gets perfect 10<\/a><\/b><\/p>\nAUSSIE LEGEND\u2019S TRIBUTE TO IRANKUNDA<\/b><\/p>\n
Socceroos legend Tim Cahill has paid tribute to Nestory Irankunda following the Australian striker\u2019s heroics during the 2-0 victory over Turkiye in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
After unearthing Australia\u2019s tournament opener, becoming the Socceroo\u2019s youngest goal-scorer in World Cup history, the 20-year-old celebrated by boxing the corner flag, which was a Cahill trademark during his playing days.<\/p>\n
Irankunda later referred to Cahill as his \u201cbiggest inspiration\u201d while speaking to reporters after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much talent and this kid knows how to let his football do the talking,\u201d Cahill posted to Instagram on Sunday.<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIA\u2019S NEW MINISTER OF DEFENCE CROWNED<\/b><\/p>\n
The accolades are coming thick and fast for Harry Soutar.<\/p>\n
After the Socceroos defender helped Australia keep a clean sheet during Sunday\u2019s 2-0 victory over Turkiye, someone made him the country\u2019s Minister for Defence on Wikipedia.<\/p>\n
However, the cheeky joke has since been removed, with Richard Marles \u2014 the actual Minister for Defence \u2014 reinstated.<\/p>\n
AUSSIE PUNDITS REACT TO TURKIYE TRIUMPH<\/b><\/p>\n
Football analyst Craig Foster has admitted he was concerned when Socceroos manager Tony Popovic sideline the experienced Matt Ryan and Jackson Irvine for Australia\u2019s World Cup opener against Turkiye.<\/p>\n
However, the selection switch proved a masterstroke, with goalkeeper Patrick Beach producing a career-defining performance in Vancouver with eight saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was worried, I\u2019ve got to be honest. I\u2019d love to say we were all there saying \u2018brilliant this makes perfect sense\u2019, it didn\u2019t,\u201d Foster told Channel Nine\u2019s Today<\/i> on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cPopovic made a huge call and Beach had one of the all-time great Socceroos goalkeeping performances. It was unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he statistically made the most saves of a Socceroo in a World Cup match. The one that he turned onto the post was Superman stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the decisions paid off handsomely, and it was courageous from the coaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, football commentator Simon Hill hit back at Turkish and US pundits that talked down the Socceroos ahead of the tournament, delivering a warning to the American\u2019s ahead of Saturday\u2019s World Cup contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot of trash talk from not just the Turks, but the Americans as well,\u201d Hill told SEN.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians are at their most dangerous when you write them off and say that they can\u2019t play or that they are rubbish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they did their homework. You only had to listen to the pre-game interviews; \u2018They\u2019re strong on set-pieces, they are physical, we\u2019re going to dominate, we\u2019ve got quality\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what? Maybe one or two of the latter points are right. Individually, they\u2019ve got better players.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as a team performance, that tonight is going to take some topping by any team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia were trashed by the world\u2019s press, and they\u2019ve stuck two fingers up to them this evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you watching America? Are you watching, America? We are coming for you!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has climbed to a 14-year high in the FIFA men\u2019s rankings, leapfrogging Turkiye following the team\u2019s 2-0 victory in Vancouver. The Socceroos got their World Cup campaign off to a dream start on Sunday AEST by toppling Turkiye, with Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe scoring superb goals. Get all the latest football news, highlights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248398,"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-248397","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\/248397","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=248397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}