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US soccer pundit and Australia’s public enemy no.1 Mike Grella came out of hiding for an appearance on on the Pat McAfee show today, and let’s just say he’s pushing all his chips in.
Having famously labelled Australia a “lay up” for the US team and bagged the team repeatedly since for having no recognisable players, Grella has been inundated with pushback from Socceroos fans – particularly after the win over Turkey.
Today Grella opted to give the whole country a serve, saying Australians are “insecure” and that the US will beat the Socceroos because football in this country is stagnant.
“I was going to come on here and say some nice stuff about them, but now the fan base has gone a little too far,” Grella said on the McAfee Show.
Kansas City: Lionel Messi registered his first World Cup hat-trick while moving into a tie for first on the tournament’s career scoring list on Tuesday night, sending defending champion Argentina to a dominant 3-0 victory over Algeria in their group opener.
Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes off a nifty feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second early in the second half, and the third moments before subbing out to a standing ovation from a heavily pro-Argentina crowd.
The goals came 20 years to the day that Messi made his World Cup debut for Argentina in a match against Serbia and Montenegro – he scored in that one, too – and gave him 16 for his career, putting him in a tie with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the career record.
They also helped Argentina get off to a better start than the last World Cup. Four years ago in Qatar, La Albiceleste were beaten by Saudi Arabia in their opening match, only to rally from there to win their third World Cup.
That’s it in Kansas City Stadium as Argentina close-out their opening match in spectacular fashion thanks to Messi’s three goals.
Twitter users have crashed part of the social media site while trying to search the words “Messi”, “Klose” and “World Cup” after the Argentinian scored his first-ever World Cup hat-trick and equalled Klose’s all-time World Cup scoring record of 16 goals.
There will be 6 minutes of added time in this match.
Argentina 3-0 Algeria, 90+5 minutes
Twenty years to the date of his first-ever World Cup goal, Messi has scored his first World Cup hat-trick! And he’s now tied for the all-time World Cup goalscorer with Miroslav Klose’s 16 goals for Germany.
It’s almost been a one-man show for the Argentinian this morning, and his third comes from a Nico Gonzalez assist. There’s nothing fancy about it – he takes two touches before belting it into the bottom-left corner with his left foot.
Just as soon after celebrating his goal, he’s stopped from getting his fourth as he makes way for Nico Paz, who comes on as a substitute.
Argentina 3-0 Algeria, 75 minutes
Messi has bagged his second goal as Argentina go up 2-0 against Algeria. It comes from a beautiful series of passes in the build up which starts from Messi on the far-left wing.
It’s a mistake from Zidane who should have comfortably caught an attempt from Mac Allister but instead lets it get away from him and Messi scoops up the rebound, tapping it in with his right foot.
Argentina 2-0 Algeria, 60 minutes
We’re back for the second half in Kansas City.
Washington: The US is pushing back on complaints from Iran’s national team that it was forced to leave the country immediately after its first World Cup match instead of having a day to recover in a hotel, saying that was the plan for the team all along.
“We were clear this was the process,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, told the Associated Press.
Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said after Monday’s night’s 2-2 draw with New Zealand that the team had been ordered to leave the US and return to its training base in Mexico only a few hours later. Ghalenoei said the team had expected to spend the night in California to maximise the normal recovery process after its opening game.
Iran winger Mehdi Torabi’s entry visa had also expired after the first game. Team officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they had secured Torabi a new, multiple-entry visa after he visited the US consulate in Tijuana.
