{"id":78820,"date":"2026-06-06T21:55:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/78820\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T21:55:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:55:49","slug":"popovic-pleased-with-socceroos-swiss-hitout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/78820\/","title":{"rendered":"Popovic ‘pleased’ with Socceroos Swiss hitout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic and scoring debutant Tete Yengi react to Australia\u2019s 1-1 draw with Switzerland. <\/p>\n

Popovic declared the most important thing was there were no injuries ahead of Australia\u2019s FIFA World Cup 2026 opener agianst Turkiye and that he was pleased with his team\u2019s response to falling behind. <\/p>\n

Match Report: Australia 1-1 Switzerland <\/a><\/p>\n

Australia scored a 56th-minute equaliser through debutant Tete Yengi to answer Switzerland\u2019s first-half strike from Dan Ndoye. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s nice that we got a result, we\u2019re playing a very, very strong nation,\u201d Popovic said after the match on Paramount+. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased about that, good response in the second half. A lot of different faces on the field and the young boys acquitted themselves well.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Yengi) found it a bit difficult in the first half, our front three first time playing together were a little bit disjointed, not really sure what to do with or without the ball, but they settled in the second half. Nestory (Irankunda) got better, Tete got better, Connor (Metcalfe) did really well when he came on and that helped us build the play a bit better and make better decisions.<\/p>\n

\"\"SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 JUNE 06: Tete Yengi of Australia celebrates with teammates after scoring the team\u2019s first goal during the international friendly match between Australia and Switzerland at Snapdragon Stadium on June 06, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt, conditions were warm, sticky the pitch, so it\u2019s a good experience for us. A wonderful opponent. When you look at the first XI and where they\u2019re all playing before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to get through that first half and fortunately we didn\u2019t concede another goal. Second half we had a good passage there for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis all plays a part, experience for the players. It\u2019s nice not to have any injuries. We were competitive, and we scored a really nice goal. I\u2019m happy and looking forward to next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Match Report: Australia 1-1 Switzerland <\/a><\/p>\n

Yengi, who played in the Isuzu Ute A-League for the Newcastle Jets in the 2020-21 season, was a bolter call-up to the Socceroos due to his form at Japanese club Machida Zelvia.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Adelaide-raised striker marked his first senior international with a goal and 71 minutes of action. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing feeling,\u201d Yengi said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou work hard for moments like this and I\u2019m happy to help the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be out here on the pitch, one week away from the World Cup, you can only dream of moments like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult. First half they made it very hard for us. We had to do a lot of defending but I feel like we grew into the game and created some opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an intense game against top quality players, so this is what it\u2019s going to be like in the World Cup. With a bit more atmosphere we\u2019ll gain that extra drive. I think we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socceroos coach Tony Popovic and scoring debutant Tete Yengi react to Australia\u2019s 1-1 draw with Switzerland. Popovic declared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[41011,41012,41013,2016,38050,1202,28542,41014,41,17],"class_list":["post-78820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-a-league-men","tag-a-leagues","tag-almfeatured","tag-featured","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-news","tag-socceroos","tag-socceroos-world-cup","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116705396760871731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}