<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nVAR DRAMA! Socceroos set to face Egypt | 00:30<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nST KILDA\u2019S TRIBUTE TO AUSSIE WORLD CUP HERO<\/b><\/p>\n
Australian goalkeeping hero Patrick Beach said he was feeling \u201cthe love\u201d after a well-known strip of sand in Melbourne was temporarily renamed in his honour.<\/p>\n
Beach headed to the World Cup as number two to seasoned shot-stopper and Socceroos captain Mat Ryan.<\/p>\n
But in a shock, he started their first game against Turkey and was retained for the next two clashes with the United States and Paraguay.<\/p>\n
Melbourne City\u2019s Beach, 22, has kept two clean sheets and is again set to play when they meet Egypt in the last-32 in Dallas on Friday.<\/p>\n
His breakout tournament is being celebrated with St Kilda Beach officially being renamed Patrick Beach for the duration of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s better than one iconic beach? Two,\u201d said Alex Makin, mayor of the City of Port Phillip where St Kilda Beach is located.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about getting behind the Socceroos and sharing in the excitement of the World Cup at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenaming St Kilda Beach is a uniquely local way to celebrate the team and embrace the global energy right here in Port Phillip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beach told reporters in the United States that he was honoured. \u201cIt is very much appreciated, and I think it\u2019s pretty funny as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see the country is getting around us, we definitely feel the love and support here from back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beach is one of seven players with Melbourne City connections representing Australia at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
The others include club captain Aziz Behich, Mathew Leckie, Connor Metcalfe, Jordan Bos, Aiden O\u2019Neill and Kai Trewin.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou spend years developing players and hope they make a World Cup squad,\u201d said Melbourne City chief executive Brad Rowse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a beach renamed after one of them wasn\u2019t something we\u2019d planned for, but we\u2019re happy to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nSocceroos full of belief for next stage | 05:19<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nAUSSIE DUO RULED OUT OF WORLD CUP<\/b><\/p>\n
Injured Australian pair Mathew Leckie and Jacob Italiano were ruled out of the World Cup Friday ahead of their last-32 clash with Egypt, leaving the Socceroos to complete the tournament with 24 players.<\/p>\n
Striker Leckie, at a fourth World Cup, hurt his hamstring in the Socceroos\u2019 2-0 Group D loss to the United States and did not feature in their 0-0 draw with Paraguay on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Right-back Italiano played against Turkey and the United States but injured his groin in training and also missed the Paraguay clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacob Italiano and Mathew Leckie will unfortunately miss the remainder of the World Cup through injury,\u201d the Socceroos said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at Football Australia and the Socceroos would like to wish Jacob and Mathew all the best in their recovery and thank them for their contributions during the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their absence is a blow to coach Tony Popovic, whose team face Mohamed Salah\u2019s Egypt in Dallas on July 3 in a bid to reach the last 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gutted for him,\u201d said Australia defender Aziz Behich of Melbourne City teammate Leckie, who overcame an injury-wrecked season to make the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s all part of football. He wished us all well and he said he\u2019ll be following us. He\u2019s given everything to be here and help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behich, who impressed as left wing-back against Paraguay, said confidence was high heading into the all-or-nothing Egypt showdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we wanted to accomplish, and the first step was getting out of the group stages,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve managed to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s game by game. It\u2019s knockout football. It\u2019s a lot different to what it was. But the boys know that and we\u2019re full of energy and excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said he was optimistic about the health of Mohamed Salah despite the star striker\u2019s second-half exit during his country\u2019s 1-1 World Cup draw with Iran. The result meant Egypt qualified for the knock-out last-32 round at the World Cup by finishing second in Group G. They will face Australia in Dallas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250398,"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-250397","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\/250397","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=250397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}