"No one has the belief in us, obviously, but we have the belief in ourselves to go do something great." That's Nestory Irankunda, 19 years old, fresh off a brace against Curaçao, and sounding exactly like a player you don't want to underestimate at a World Cup.
Australia arrive at this tournament with a chip on their shoulder the size of the MCG. After the Group D draw, videos of American pundits dismissing the Socceroos as an easy opener went viral — one clip that keeps circulating called Tony Popovic's side a "lay-up." You can imagine how well that landed in the Australian dressing room.
Form is ticking upward at the right time
Two warm-up wins on home soil before the squad flies to the United States: a 1-0 defeat of Cameroon in Sydney, then a 5-1 dismantling of Curaçao in Melbourne — four goals in 17 minutes at one point. Fringe players like Jacob Italiano and Lucas Herrington staked their claims against the Cameroonians, while the young attacking core ran riot in the second fixture. That snaps a three-game losing run from late 2025. The timing matters.
The USMNT, by contrast, lost 5-2 to Belgium and 2-0 to Portugal in March. Those aren't the kind of results that inspire confidence in a host nation, and they make Group D look rather more open than those pundits suggested.
There's also unfinished business from last October. The two sides met in a friendly that finished 2-1 to the US — Haji Wright's brace cancelling out Jordan Bos' opener — but the game was anything but routine. Christian Pulisic was taken off after a heavy challenge. Then Chris Richards told reporters he "probably would've killed somebody" if not for a yellow card. Spicy stuff for a friendly. Whatever happens in the group stage, it won't be polite.
Aggression as identity, not desperation
Defender Cameron Burgess was careful not to hand USMNT any bulletin board material — Socceroos players are aware of the noise, they're just choosing not to amplify it. But what Burgess did make clear is that Australia's aggressive press-heavy style isn't a response to being an underdog. It's who they are.
"The aggressive side of things doesn't come from a place of 'we're the underdog'," Burgess said. "It comes from a place of that being our style of football."
That distinction matters. A team playing aggressively out of desperation will crumble under pressure. A team playing aggressively because it's coached into their DNA is a different proposition entirely — and on current form, Australia's system looks sharper than it did six months ago.
Irankunda's development alone shifts the calculus. A brace at this level of preparation, the composure he's shown, the sheer youth of the attacking group around him — Australia's output going forward is not the liability it once was. Anyone pricing them up purely as Group D also-rans should probably revisit those assumptions.
"[We want to] achieve something that's never been achieved before," Irankunda said. "We want to be that group that goes all the way."
The Americans called it a lay-up. The Socceroos are making it their entire motivation.
