<\/amp-img><\/amp-iframe><\/div>\nMike Grella, who works for the CBS\/Paramount TV group in the US, had a journeyman career as a forward and winger – playing primarily for lower-level English sides.<\/p>\n
He made one single appearance in the Championship for Leeds United in 2010-11 but otherwise jumped around League One, playing for Carlisle United, Swindon Town, Brentford (well before their Premier League rise), Bury and Scunthorpe United. <\/p>\n
After washing out of the Football League he bounced around Denmark and the USA, with the most notable period of his career coming for New York Red Bulls where he was a stalwart across the 2015 and 2016 seasons.<\/p>\n
He once scored just seven seconds into a 2015 game, surpassing Tim Cahill for the fastest goal in MLS history – with his recent takes on the Socceroos seemingly taking about as much time to think up.<\/p>\n
Grella never played at international level, except for some youth appearances representing the US, at one point blaming a lack of playing time at Leeds for him not cracking the national team setup.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Mike Grella while declaring beating Australia will be a \u2018lay-up\u2019.<\/span>Source: FOX SPORTS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nGrella, who was also eligible but never in contention to represent Italy, has since primarily covered Serie A earning a reputation for hot takes.<\/p>\n
But that has led to situations where even his TV colleagues, when Grella missed a show while sick, joked on-air that he \u201cmight offer more today than he does normally\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has clearly leaned into the divisive brand – trying to become something like the sport\u2019s Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless or Kane Cornes – earning himself airtime on ESPN\u2019s Pat McAfee Show, and happily dishing out criticism of the Socceroos heading into the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
In fact, he was on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday to double down in his disparaging comments of the Socceroos, fuelled by the backlash he\u2019s received.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to come on here and say some nice stuff about them, but now the fan base has gone a little too far,\u201d Grella said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally it\u2019s been unbelievable. They wear a yellow shirt, I think that maybe they\u2019re getting themselves confused with Brazil or another team that\u2019s won something in the past. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve never won anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
A quick fact check \u2014 Australia won the 2015 Asian Cup.<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nUS pundits double down on AUS criticism | 04:38<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n\u201cI look up what Australians are good at. I see cricket, I see rugby, maybe outback. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve got some wild safaris out there,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut on Friday I think they\u2019re going to come into a team that has a little bit more quality and I think we\u2019ll see a US win.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019ve played with Australian guys in the past, legends of the game, I love Australians. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met a soft Australian. They\u2019re tough, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I tell you one thing they are: Insecure. Insecure about football and insecure about Friday because I think they\u2019re in for a rude awakening. I think there\u2019s going to be a massive reality check.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grella also fired fresh shots on CBS today, making a bid for a statue of himself Down Under.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve ever been more united as a football side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they do something in this tournament, which they won\u2019t, they should make a statue of me there in Australia because I\u2019ve unified an entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nUS pundit goes in hard on Socceroos | 01:22<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nIt was pre-tournament, however, that Grella first earnt this nation\u2019s ire when he infamously said the USA\u2019s game with Australia would be a \u201clay-up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not kidding though when I say this, what are they drinking over there because they have no shot of doing anything at the World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the weakest team in the group. The US, although they have their weaknesses\u2026 they have like eight players in the Champions League and some of the top clubs in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no shot Australia can compete with the US.\u201d<\/p>\n
During those comments his colleague Troy Deeney could be seen laughing and trying to separate himself from the hot take.<\/p>\n
And the US players have no interest in being associated with Grella either, with midfielder Tyler Adams telling Code Sports: \u201cI don\u2019t think any commentary helps anybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s not going to be a lay-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be one of the most difficult games that we play.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Mike Grella in action for Scunthorpe.<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAustralian experts have hit back with Harry Kewell – who said he had never heard of Grella – pointing out the US can hardly point to a stellar World Cup history to back up all their talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe USA is talking like they\u2019re some unbelievable footballing nation \u2013 or soccer \u2013 nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to play their golden generation against our golden generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t even be a contest. I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re harping on about, I really don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know if they played soccer back then. They\u2019re a new nation to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand they\u2019ve got the MLS, but to compete at the highest level, you need to be playing at the highest level and that\u2019s in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd back in our day, there would be only one team winning that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US hasn\u2019t won a knockout stage match since 2002, when they lost to Germany in the quarter-finals, failing to make it out of their group in 2006 and failing to even qualify in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Nestory Irankunda celebrates his goal against Turkiye with Mohamed Toure.<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs for the Socceroos? They\u2019re keen to let their play do the talking… and then rub it in when the doubters are proven wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did see it,\u201d Nestory Irankunda said of Grella\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to let these people talk \u2013 and it was the same with these lot (Turkiye) here. They came, they did their talking, but they couldn\u2019t back it on the field, and we got the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can talk all they want \u2013 but if they\u2019re not going to put a performance out there on the pitch, then there\u2019s no point in talking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not like Australians needed extra motivation to want to beat the US in their crucial World Cup group stage match. But the constant sledging from a loudmouthed American pundit who even football-mad Aussies have never heard of has only made Saturday (5am AEST)\u2019s match juicier. UFC 329: McGregor v Holloway 2 | SUN 18 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248732,"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-248731","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\/248731","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=248731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}