‘So much rubbish … I’m sick of it’: This Socceroo has heard enough from US pundits

San Diego: Connor Metcalfe appears to have reached his absolute limit when it comes to American opinions on how far the Socceroos can go at this World Cup, describing them as “absolute rubbish” and hinting at simmering tensions between the two nations dating back to a spiteful friendly last year.

The FC St. Pauli midfielder is up to speed with everything that’s been said about his team by United States soccer pundits – including the latest barbs from Alexi Lalas, who this week described Australia as an “average” team and predicted they will struggle to retain the ball or score goals against higher-class opponents.

The Socceroos don’t play the USA until their second fixture in Group D on June 20 (AEST) in Seattle – but Metcalfe seems ready to go, judging by his frustrated response to a question about how they’re being viewed by the World Cup co-hosts.

“I’ve seen all the US stuff and I’m just sick of it, to be honest,” he said.

“All this talk, let’s just wait for the game. Whatever happens, happens. It’s just so much rubbish, honestly. I’m just sick of it.

“We’ll just wait and we’ll play. It’ll be a good game. We had the friendly against them. It was tense, it was feisty and it’s probably going to be the exact same.”

Coach Tony Popovic responded to the ongoing chatter this week, promising the Socceroos will do their talking on the pitch – setting a tone that most of his players have been matching closely. But Metcalfe’s comments are the first substantial sign of how much the commentary has riled the dressing room, and how keen the team is to cross paths with the Americans again.

The friendly match Metcalfe referred to was a 2-1 defeat to the United States last October, a clash in which tempers flared repeatedly due to a series of dangerous challenges on their star player Christian Pulisic and others.

USA captain Chris Richards seethed after the match, telling reporters: “They’re lucky it was a friendly. I was ready to go. And if [the referee] didn’t give me a s— yellow in the corner, I probably would’ve killed somebody.”

Richards is in doubt for the World Cup due to an ankle injury he suffered while playing for Crystal Palaces in the English Premier League. He also missed out on Palace’s 1-0 victory over Spanish club Rayo Vallecano in the UEFA Conference League final. The 26-year-old has been ruled out of the USA’s final warm-up friendly against Germany this weekend, and his absence from the tournament would be a huge blow for the co-hosts given their relative lack of depth in central defence.

The Socceroos are not looking that far forward just yet – before they get a chance at revenge, they will open their World Cup campaign next Saturday (AEST) against Turkey in Vancouver, Canada, while the Americans face Paraguay, the other team in Group D, in their first match.

But typical of a Popovic team, they are doing everything possible to prepare for what’s ahead.

Australia’s last friendly before the tournament opener against Switzerland in San Diego on Sunday (5am AEST) is a kind of dress rehearsal for both of their first two games: their high-ranking and dynamic European opponents are a reasonably good stand-in for Turkey, giving Popovic the chance to stress-test his combinations and patterns, while the midday kick-off is designed to replicate the logistics they will have to deal with against the USA.

The United States-Australia match will kick off at 12pm local time, which is much earlier than most players will have experienced at professional level. Popovic has tailored their travel and lead-in schedule to a granular level, experimenting with the timing of team meetings and meals (including how much his players are eating) to try and find the optimal settings for peak performance.

He even attempted to find a hotel that is the same distance from the Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, where they are playing Switzerland, as their hotel in Seattle will be from their World Cup venue.

“We tried,” Popovic said.

“You don’t always get the outcome you want. [But] we’ve got a fantastic opponent. You get Switzerland, you think of the history and how far they’ve come in previous World Cups and their recent record in the Euros.

“We wanted that, and then the bonus was knowing that we play at 12, that they’d be open to that. They really pushed for the 12 o’clock, which suited us. There is a bit of travel, which we will have again when we play in Seattle. So it’s ticked a lot of boxes.”

Popovic foreshadowed a Socceroos debut for Cristian Volpato, who he said looked the best he has at training on Friday (local time) since joining the group last week, but said he and Tete Yengi – the two latest arrivals – were both “at the bottom” in terms of conditioning of the 26 players in his squad.

“There’s no doubts about him as a person or as a player. We’ve just got to get him fit,” Popovic said of Volpato.

“He hasn’t played a lot of football and he had eight to nine days off before he joined us. But he’s working hard. He’s trying to get up to speed and we’ve seen some good inroads in the last couple of days.”