{"id":252513,"date":"2022-11-24T07:40:20","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T08:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=252513"},"modified":"2022-11-24T12:57:22","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T12:57:22","slug":"socceroos-sobering-reality-check-on-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=252513","title":{"rendered":"Socceroo's sobering reality check on 'pressure'"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\ufeffOHA:<\/strong> The Socceroos<\/a> are 48 hours or so from a must-win World Cup<\/a> game. Pressure? What pressure?<\/p>\n

When you compare it to fleeing war-torn Yugoslavia as a child, any football match does seem pithy in contrast.<\/p>\n

Milos Degenek and his family fled the Balkan region when he was six years old, and he's blossomed into another proud migrant success story for the Socceroos – but when asked by Wide World of Sports how he would handle the sense of occasion going into Sunday morning's (AEDT) clash with Tunisia, he offered a sobering comparison.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> FIFA World Cup day 5 latest news and results\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Socceroos star shreds World Cup 'hypocrisy'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Next Socceroos move after World Cup 'lesson'\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie fan caught up in ugly World Cup standoff<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

"The fact where you say 'must-win' game where you think it's pressure," he said.<\/p>\n

"But I said to the boys the other day as well, that's not pressure. Pressure is me as an 18-month-old baby fleeing a war. Pressure is me as a six-year-old being in the middle of a war.<\/p>\n

\"Kylian<\/p>\n

"That's pressure. Pressure's not a must-win football game, because you can win or lose, but I don't think anyone's gonna die – you know that's not pressure."<\/p>\n

It does put things in perspective, but regardless of the stakes, he still wants to deliver a tough and physical performance against a Tunisian team that have shown they can do likewise. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"This is just a joy of wanting to get better; wanting to have something to say to your grandkids, to your friends back home when you have coffee and say you won a game at a World Cup, you got out of the group," he said.<\/p>\n

"That's what the boys understand and that's how we're gonna take this. Obviously we wanna win the game, there's no doubt about it. And I think everything from yesterday's training is focused on that and winning that game and I think we have it in our squad if we match them in terms of intensity and desire to win will be greater, then I think we will win."<\/p>\n

\"Socceroos<\/p>\n

The MLS-based defender has used the term "lion mentality" in the past to try to \ufeffmotivate the squad around him – and against a Tunisia team that showed immense amounts of fight and passion against Denmark, he believes that's what Australia needs.<\/p>\n

"Lion mentality is you either eat or you get eaten, and that's the simplest way to put it. I used this term before the Peru game with the boys, I said 'there's bread on the table'.<\/p>\n

"Either we eat tonight; my kids, my wife and my family eats tonight, or they eat and my kids go home to sleep hungry and my wife as well – and I don't want that to happen. I use that term, and when the bread's on the table I want to take it and keep my kids and my wife happy."<\/p>\n

But do his fellow Socceroos have it too? Of course they do.<\/p>\n

"I've been trying to insert it into the younger players, especially the ones that are new here and that are constantly asking for advice every day. I don't need to say things like that to Maty Ryan or Aaron Mooy, or Matty Leckie.<\/p>\n

"They've got their own ways. But most of the other guy know what I'm talking about and they understand where I'm coming from.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\ufeffOHA: The Socceroos are 48 hours or so from a must-win World Cup game. Pressure? What pressure? When you compare it to fleeing war-torn Yugoslavia […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252515,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252513\/revisions\/252515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}