'Not his best day': Popovic swipes at referee after US loss

Tony Popovic has had a swipe at the referee following the Socceroos’ 2-0 loss to the USA in their second FIFA World Cup 2026™ match.

German Match Official Felix Zwayer certainly had a difficult day in Seattle, denying several calls including multiple penalty shouts over the course of the match.

Despite the Socceroos simply being second best, the referee was evidently off his game, before eventually going down with cramp late in the game.

Popovic, who was clearly displeased with the ref’s performance, approached Zwayer with some extreme enthusiasm after the game.

“Tony Popovic, I can tell you, has just gone across to the match officials and is absolutely seething at some of the decisions!” Simon Hill said on the SEN call post-game.

“I’m thinking that’s probably a reference to the foul on Nestory Irankunda, maybe one or two other decisions as well.

“He has got to be careful, Tony Popovic, that he doesn’t get a FIFA sanction, because he was very demonstrative there!”

Popovic spoke on the referee’s performance, particularly noting the US’ second goal of the game.

After a deflection sent the ball soaring into the air inside the six-yard box, Patrick Beach was impeded by two offside attackers, with defender Alex Freeman tapping into the empty net from an onside position.

Despite the offside players having an evident influence on the goal, VAR overruled the offside decision to award the goal.

“I’m not sure on that one,” he said, referring to the second goal.

“We felt that (it should have been called offside), unfortunately that didn’t go our way.

“I think today was... I wouldn’t say the best day for the referee. We felt we were Australian today with the referees.”

Adam Peacock believes that the referee was "guessing" throughout the match, causing frustration to both sets of fans.

“The ref was guessing a lot of the time, which frustrated everyone,” Peacock told The Global Game.

“He wasn’t quite sure of himself. He certainly wasn’t quite sure of his physical capabilities – I’ve never seen a referee go down with cramp. There was a massive chance that he was going to go off on a stretcher!

“I just felt that he was guessing a lot of the time, which frustrated the players. The Americans were getting frustrated – especially in the second half.

“When Australia matched the intensity and actually went past the intensity of the Americans, they were flustered.

“They weren’t quite on the page of what they were in the first half in a mentality state. They were getting really annoyed, frustrated.

“They were getting some calls, not all. On another day, we get a couple of penalties, but this is not another day, it’s a one-off day at a World Cup game.

“It is eminently frustrating that we just didn’t handle what we could control in that first half, because then it gets left in the lap of the gods.”

Zwayer was famously involved in a match fixing scandal in Germany in 2005, handed a six-month ban for accepting a 300-euro bribe from a fellow referee in a 2. Bundesliga game.

Jude Bellingham referenced Zwayer’s history after his refereeing during a game between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in 2021 and was fined approximately 40,000 euros by the German FA for his comments.

Following Australia’s loss, they must now win or draw against Paraguay in their final group stage game to give themselves a chance of progressing to the Round of 32.