Under the midday sun in Seattle, the Socceroos melted in a brutal letdown

June 20, 2026 — 5:25am

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Seattle: Tony Popovic is a famously meticulous guy. On his watch, the Socceroos have done everything they possibly could to prepare for this World Cup.

No detail, however small, has been overlooked – they spent weeks training in Florida to get used to the summer heat, they played a warm-up match against Mexico to understand how it feels to play a tournament co-host, and they played another friendly at midday, like this match was, just so they knew precisely how to structure their morning.

But you can run all the dress rehearsals you want. How much can they actually prepare you for the visceral truth of the real thing; the moment you’ve been building to for months and have been thinking about for every waking minute?

It’s one thing to do the preparation, but it’s another to be ready. For this, the Socceroos just weren’t. Under the midday sun in Seattle, against a team that was, they melted.

After one of the great Australian World Cup victories, this was a brutal comedown. The Americans were too strong, too quick, too committed, too clever, too much, too everything.

The Socceroos, meanwhile, were not enough anything – at least not in the bitterly disappointing first half that lost them the game.

As a soccer nation, we envy the United States, or at least........

© WA Today