He’s at it again.
Australia’s favourite World Cup expert, Mike Grella, has doubled down on his claim that the Socceroos are a “lay up” by this time declaring they have “no shot of doing anything”.
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Grella has made headlines in the lead-up to the tournament after saying the United States should “stay home” if they don’t comfortably take care of the Socceroos, who are in Group D along with Turkiye and Paraguay.
The United States opened their World Cup campaign on Saturday with a dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay and speaking before that game, Grella only further cemented his position as public enemy No.1 in Australia.
In fact, he even put his own pride on the line as he agreed to wear a Socceroos jersey if Australia beats the United States when the two sides face off in Seattle on June 20 (AEST).
Grella said on the CBS Sports Golazo Network that the blowback to his comments made him “go back and actually do more research”.
“I love Australians and I’m like, maybe they’re right. Then I go look at their team and I don’t recognise any players in the team,” the former United States footballer added.
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USA a ‘lay-up’ to beat Socceroos?! | 01:53
“I’m 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.
“They are the weakest team in the group. The US, although they have their weaknesses… they have like eight players in the Champions League and some of the top clubs in Europe.
“There’s no shot Australia can compete with the US. The only way they can play is in defence and try to keep it 0-0 and that’s the only way.
“There’s levels… there’s levels of quality. The US has players that play week in, week out in Europe and Australia does not.
“It’s as simple as that.”
Grella isn’t the only US pundit to feel that way, with Australia given plenty of bulletin board material ahead of Sunday’s tournament opener against Turkiye, which begins at 2pm AEST.
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