There are dark horses, and then there are dead horses. Australia's Group D opponents keep flogging the latter. The Socceroos, ranked 27th in the world, are set to compete in their sixth straight World Cup, starting Saturday night at B.C. Place. Yet, based on their rivals' comments, one might think they were ranked somewhere near the bottom.
Turkey's Bold Predictions
American pundits and players had already dismissed Australia as a 'lay-up' and called the Group D draw a 'dream scenario.' On Friday, Turkey joined the chorus. Captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu addressed the media before Turkey's training session at Killarney Park, saying, 'Our coach analyzed them with us together. We know that they're a physical team, that they're good on corner kicks and the free kicks, because they are tall and strong. But I think that we dominate tomorrow … because we have more qualities and a more talented team.'
Australia's Response
The comments clearly rankled the Australians, but they had heard it all before. Australia Coach Tony Popovic stated, 'Every nation that will play the three group games, I'm sure that all the media in here will tell us the same thing. USA thinks that they should beat us. Paraguay thinks they should beat us. Turkey thinks they should beat us. That's no different for us. All we can do is do our own part, work the way we work, prepare how we can to our best, and without words, with action, we can show that we deserve to be here, and then we have every right to believe we can get through the group.'
Popovic added, 'You ask a question and (Çalhanoğlu) has a right to answer it any way he likes. They expect to win, but so do most people, they expect Turkey to beat Australia tomorrow. What we can do is try and spoil the party. That's our challenge tomorrow, and that's what we aim to do.'
Midfielder's Perspective
Socceroos midfielder Aiden O'Neill had little to add when asked about Çalhanoğlu's comments, instead choosing to express his excitement. 'You know, (Çalhanoğlu) is allowed his own opinion. We've got quality players in our team too, so you know we're ready for tomorrow, and like I said before, we're extremely excited. Yeah, we're definitely ready for it. You know, I think they've got some top players, and so do we, so we're just excited to get out there.'
Fan Support and Expectations
The Australian team had a walkthrough of B.C. Place for the first time on Friday afternoon, with O'Neill calling it 'quality.' What really impressed him was the number of yellow jerseys he saw in Vancouver on the drive into the stadium. More than 10,000 traveling fans are expected at Saturday's game, exceeding the 6,000 who went to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. Vancouver is also home to a sizeable population of Aussie expats, so the team expects a pro-Australia crowd.
Popovic concluded, 'The Australian public get behind the Socceroos, as they always do. We know that we'll have fantastic support here. We've seen … so many Australian fans walking the streets here in Vancouver, which is wonderful to see. Back home, we know in every state every Australian will be watching the Socceroos, and … and we want to do them proud. I hope they'll be proud when after the game's finished, and those 90 minutes are over, and they'll see an Australian team that has once again shown what they can do in football on the world stage.'
