World Cup warm-up LIVE: Socceroos take on Switzerland

San Diego: For years, Cristian Volpato says, he has been trapped between two identities. But a feeling he could no longer ignore finally tipped the scales in favour of Australia over Italy.

“Something in my heart just said, ‘I think it’s time to come home’,” he said.

The 22-year-old from Sydney, who had been at the centre of an international tug-o-war since his Serie A breakthrough with AS Roma five years ago, has made his first public comments since his decision last week to pledge his allegiance to Australia and accept a place in Socceroos coach Tony Popovic’s 26-man World Cup squad.

In an interview posted on the Socceroos’ social media channels, Volpato admits he was genuinely torn about which way to go, a dilemma he said millions of Australians with heritage from other countries could relate to.

“Obviously, everyone knows I’m Italian and I’m Australian, so it’s actually been a big decision that’s always been on my head 24-7 for quite a while,” he said.

Read the full article here.

Good morning Australia, from beautiful San Diego. This is going to be fun this morning, I hope. Tony Popovic has named a fun starting XI.

Only four players from the team that lined up against Mexico last week have retained their spots – the back three of Alessandro Circati, Harry Souttar and Lucas Herrington, and midfielder Aiden O’Neill. Everything else is different. Do the math; that means seven changes, including Cristian Volpato and Tete Yengi, the two uncapped players in the Socceroos’ World Cup squad who will be uncapped no more. The back-ups out wide also get some minutes in Kai Trewin and Aziz Behich, plus there’s Nestory Irankunda on the wing and Paul Okon-Engstler in midfield. And Patrick Beach in goal. That’s seven. Phew.

Fun fact: at an average age of 24.6, this is the youngest starting XI that Popovic has fielded as Socceroos coach. The previous record was 25.9 against Canada last year, so this is more than a full year younger. Wild.

It’ll be fascinating to see how that attack, in particular, functions, and whether the Socceroos will be on from the start. They weren’t at the Rose Bowl, but then again, there were 80,000 Mexican fans in the stands then, and there’s practically nobody here at Snapdragon Stadium. Not a huge surprise, given it’s a midday kick-off in a part of the world where I would imagine the Australian and Swiss diasporas are not huge.

Popovic told us yesterday that he wasn’t looking for any particular “answers” from this match, and that he was keen to get as many minutes into as many of them as possible – so expect the maximum 11 changes to be made. Apparently there’s no VAR today, what a small blessing.

To the Socceroos. To Switzerland. To San Diego. Thanks to all of you for the alliteration slam dunk. Hopefully Tony Popovic’s team will shoot a few baskets over the next couple of hours. Yeah, okay, that analogy didn’t work. How about: this is Australia’s final friendly before their World Cup officially, and it would be good if they can make a bit of a statement ahead of next weekend’s tournament opener against Turkiye? Even maybe: let’s start faster than last week’s 1-0 loss to Mexico at the Rose Bowl.

What awaits the Socceroos on the US west coast? We’ll find out after kick-off at 5am AEST. Myself and Vince Rugari, who is at Snapdragon Stadium where it will be a 12pm start local time, will live it all with you live.