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Australia's World Cup Manager Gets Ripped After Goalie Change Backfires vs. Egypt
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- Australia's World Cup Manager Gets Ripped After Goalie Change Backfires vs. Egypt
The Australia soccer team was sent home in the FIFA World Cup Round of 32 at the hands of Egypt today following a penalty shootout that the Socceroos lost 4-2. While there's plenty of blame to go around, few people are likely to take as much heat as head coach Tony Popovic.
In the 119th minute of the game and with penalty kicks looming, Popovic made the controversial decision to sub out starting goalkeeper Patrick Beach , who had been having one of the best games of his career, in order to bring on the more experienced goalkeeper in Mathew Ryan . Unfortunately, the move didn't work out in Australia's favor.
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Ryan could not stop a single one of Egypt's penalty kicks while Australia's own penalty takers missed two of their four shots. Egypt would win the game after going up 4-2, sending the Socceroos home.
Backlash
Fans could see the disaster coming from a mile away. While Ryan may have been fresher, he is also several inches shorter than Beach.
"Makes sense to bring on someone older and 3 inches shorter for penalties. He's gonna end up allowing 4/4 goals lmao," one user predicted accurately.
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"Wish they kept Patty on. Only argument against it is if Matty Ryan has spent the entire ET period reviewing Egypt's recent penalties," wrote another.
"Most times managers knows who to trust and maintain their decision…" a third remarked.
"This was a shocking decision. Why did Popovich do this? Beach was having a great game!"
"Overthinking your way into a loss is a special kind of pain. Imagining being the first keeper and having to watch that from the sidelines."
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The FIFA World Cup trophy is displayed during an event in New York after an announcement related to the staging of the FIFA World Cup 2026, on June 16, 2022. (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)YUKI IWAMURA/Getty Images
Australia can still leave the World Cup with their heads held fairly high. They made it to the knockout stage for the second tournament in a row, took down Turkey for their fifth-ever World Cup win and only allowed three goals in four games, shutting out both Turkey and Paraguay in the process.
Their only "bad" performance was a 2-0 loss to the United States.
We'll never truly know if keeping Beach on would have saved Australia's World Cup dream, but they still had a decent run.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Jul 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Soccer section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
