Source :- THE AGE NEWS
San Francisco: The most famous quote in Australian-American sporting history is a misquote.
Gary Hall jnr did say that the United States swimming team would “smash them like guitars” at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. But what we don’t remember is that, in the very same sentence, he admitted that was only his “biased view” – and that logically, the Australian team of Michael Klim, Chris Fydler, Ashley Callus and Ian Thorpe would be very difficult opponents in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
And so it proved. The Aussies won, and their air guitar celebration lives on in infamy. But we also don’t remember that Hall jnr was the first to come over and congratulate them after the race.
More than a quarter of a century later, we have Mike Grella.
“Ah, jeez,” says Charlie Davies, a 17-time former US international and Grella’s fellow soccer analyst on CBS Sports, wincing at the first mention of his name.
We’re interviewing Davies because Grella, CBS tells us, is unavailable due to a calendar conflict. (We’ve been asking repeatedly, for weeks. Come outside, Mike. We just wanna talk!)
It’s not just USA players who are distancing themselves from Grella’s inflammatory remarks. Even his network colleagues cannot defend him.
They know where he was coming from: the Socceroos were the lowest-ranked team in pot two for the World Cup draw, so the USA was delighted to land us in their group. And the feeling is mutual because Socceroos fans would much rather face them than, say, France, Spain or any of the other pot one options.
Nobody in Australia, though, dared to claim that it would be an easy game; just one to look forward to, and that the Socceroos could win it.
But Grella described Australia as a “lay-up” for America, and hasn’t backed down. In fact, he’s gone harder and harder since. He’s called the Socceroos the weakest team in Group D, says they have “no shot of doing anything” at the World Cup, mocked Nestory Irankunda, and even picked a fight with former AFL player-turned-influencer Dan Gorringe on social media.
Now he says there should be a statue of himself built in Australia if the Socceroos pull off an upset, that the Socceroos have “never won anything” (not true), and that as a country, we’re “insecure” because of the reaction to his comments (that old chestnut, eh?).
Oh, and it’s now time to do the talking on the pitch. Now, he reckons.
The late American comedian Charlie Murphy would have called him a habitual line-stepper.
“Even if you think that, to go on live TV and say it’s a lay-up, you don’t disrespect any country in that manner,” says Davies, who also hosts the Call It What You Want podcast.
“It’s in the manner in which he said [it] which made it very disrespectful and I don’t agree with it. Even if it should be a relatively easy match, if that’s what you believe, that’s just something you don’t do because it gives bulletin board material.
“They’re already playing with a chip on their shoulder. If you’re giving me more ammunition and more fuel and something the coach can really use … usually the difference at international level, it’s just one per cent. You’re providing that one per cent. Some coaches struggle to find that one per cent. Tony Popovic is like, ‘I got you. Don’t worry.’”
Today’s attention economy rewards the loudest and most controversial views, so Grella, someone who is clearly enjoying being the villain, has become unfairly representative to Australians of how the entire USA thinks about our soccer.
“People say things just to wind people up. We all know Australia is not a lay-up. That’s ridiculous,” said Marcelo Balboa, another CBS pundit who, like Davies (and unlike Grella), has represented the US at international level, including at a home World Cup in 1994.
“It’s a part of the media, right?”
The truth is that, when it comes to the beautiful game, Australia and the USA have far more commonalities than differences. This is a match-up that didn’t need a confected build-up; there was more than enough in it already.
Football (or soccer) is not the number one sport in either country. Domestically, the A-League and Major League Soccer are both in a constant battle – for resources, for credibility – against other, bigger codes. Internationally, the Socceroos and the United States have spent decades trying to convince the rest of the world, and their own people, that they should be taken seriously.
Which is probably why Aussies have been so affronted by the summary dismissal of the Socceroos as any sort of threat: Americans should know better because they have copped the same treatment from Europeans and South Americans for many years.
“I’ve been in their shoes,” Davies says.
“In a lot of ways, I think we can relate to Australia and not getting the credit that we think we deserve, given the quality that we possess. Most of the kids that I grew up playing with, they didn’t respect, appreciate, acknowledge the sport. I always felt that I had to prove myself to all the kids around me that just because I don’t specialise in [American] football or basketball, doesn’t mean that my sport isn’t good enough or cool enough.
“Once I made it to the international level, there’s always been this element of disrespect because you’re from America, and the country doesn’t take it serious, so how can anyone else take it serious? That’s kind of the sentiment that you feel … Australia is in the same boat. And so it’s almost a glorious moment for two nations that have been consistently put down or consistently disrespected.
“There is a negative connotation for Australians and for Americans in Europe, that’s just facts. They say the competition is not as hard, the qualifying is not as hard, the players aren’t as good – and we constantly have to try to negate any of those thoughts with our performances.”
For all of those nice words, Davies – who would have gone to the 2010 World Cup but for serious injuries sustained in a car accident – still thinks the Socceroos will lose the battle of Seattle.
He was impressed by Australia’s 2-0 win over Turkey, and unlike Grella, won’t make the mistake of talking down Irankunda: CBS holds the US rights to the English Championship, where Irankunda plays for Watford, and so Davies knows what he is capable of.
But the Americans are rightly high on confidence after one of the best World Cup games in their history. Their opening 4-1 win over Paraguay was some of the most emphatic football displayed at this tournament thus far; under Mauricio Pochettino, and with home ground advantage, they seem ready to make a statement to the world.
Their squad is roughly one cycle ahead of where the Socceroos would like to be. Most of their best players are in or approaching their prime, and play at a high level: star forward Christian Pulisic is at AC Milan, midfielder Weston McKennie at Juventus, while three others turn out regularly in the Premier League and another, Coventry City striker Haji Wright, for a team that has just been promoted to England’s top division.
The Socceroos, meanwhile, remind Davies of how the USA once played, and not necessarily in a complimentary way. Though wary of the threat they pose on the counter attack, he believes America has more of a cutting edge up front, and unlike Turkey, they will find a way to get past Australia’s stubborn back five – and past new national hero Patrick Beach, assuming he retains the gloves over Mathew Ryan.
“I can tell you one thing. If you give up 30 shots to the Americans in this game, we have better finishers,” he said.
“If Australia continues to sit that low and give 51 touches in the box … it sort of reminds me of how the Americans used to play: that super tough low block, don’t give up the big chances. The Americans are going to get their chances. But can they make them count? That’s going to be the big question.
“And then on the flip side, for Australia, what kind of chances will they generate? Because, again, there’s not going to be many. Can they consistently continue to finish these chances? As a striker, you’d better finish them, because in a lot of cases, maybe you only get one against the great teams.”
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