ALAMEDA, California -- Placed in what the FIFA World Rankings view as the most even group of the World Cup, Socceroos players have told ESPN they're not fussed about being written off by their rivals, confident that their attention to detail and collective approach will keep them in any game.
After marking a recovery day on Sunday, the Socceroos returned to the training track with grey skies overhead on Monday afternoon, starting to shift their activity to later in the day in preparation for a 9pm kickoff in their opening World Cup fixture against Türkiye on Saturday in Vancouver.
Tony Popovic's side will follow that game with clashes with co-hosts the United States and Paraguay, part of a Group D slate in which the highest-ranked is 17th (United States) and the lowest comes in at 40 (Paraguay). This relative parity, however, hasn't stopped several members of the American punditry class from dismissing the lesser-heralded Socceroos as "average" or as "layups" in the lead-up to the tournament.
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It's commentary that midfielder Connor Metcalfe declared he was sick of in the lead-up to a 1-1 draw with Switzerland, and standout defender Jordan Bos said he was eager to get the chance to debunk these perceptions.
"We're really hard to beat," Bos told ESPN. "Everyone has a good connection; I think we work well together. We're classed as underdogs nearly every tournament we go to; it's nice to prove people wrong. I think the boys are all ready for it. And everyone just wants to get out there and show everyone what we can do. We don't have players who play at the biggest clubs in the top leagues, but we work well together.
"All I've seen is the US people saying whatever they're saying. I have seen that, and it's kind of got me fired up a little bit. I just want to go out there and get the win."
One of the key reasons the Socceroos are believing heading into the tournament is the minute attention to detail that has characterised not only their time in California, but the near month-long pre-camp the group undertook in Sarasota, Florida, across May.
"It's just what we're built on as a group; the humility and the work ethic are where it starts from," Burgess told ESPN. "It's the belief in each other, the belief in ourselves, all the prep work we put in. We don't leave any stone unturned; it's a real group effort from all the boys."
This approach starts from the top. Popovic has developed a well-earned reputation for stressing the small stuff on- and off-field during his coaching career -- diagnosing one misstep from Kai Trewin in the build-up to Dan Ndoye's goal in the immediate aftermath of the Socceroos' 1-1 draw with Switzerland on Saturday -- and that has been kicked into overdrive in the build-up to the World Cup.
"The professionalism and leaving no stone unturned, it's something that's good and special about being here," Devlin told ESPN. "The hard work that goes into everything.
"We players work hard off the pitch with what we're eating, how we're sleeping, all that stuff, as well as in training. But the staff here work ever so hard to give us a platform to perform at the best we possibly can.
"It's a collective, that we're all trying to achieve the same thing. And I've never been in a team where the staff work as hard as they do here. The coaching staff, the staff that you don't see, the physios, the nutritionists, the chefs, everyone works so hard to come together and give us the best platform we can to go and achieve something.
"That just leaves us in such a good place, and if people want to underestimate us, call us underdogs, I think that's something that we should relish, and something that we should be really excited about."
Providing the side with a further boost, after being spotted getting into a car with two members of the team's medical staff on Monday, Trewin was a full participant in the 15 minutes of training media were allowed to observe, assuaging concerns that the Socceroos won't be at full strength heading into Vancouver.
"I think we're finding our version of the best balance within this team," midfielder Jackson Irvine told ESPN. "We know at this level you have to be defensively perfect, or as close to perfect as you can be, and then you've got to execute with the ball. And when you get those chances, you've got to bury them, and that's going to be the last little piece to click for us. And once we do that, we'll be a problem for any team."
