PASADENA — Efforts to boost soccer in the United States rest heavily on the national team’s success at the World Cup — but their Group D opponents Australia have every intention of crashing the co-hosts’ party.

“It’s our role to spoil one part of it,” Socceroos midfielder Aiden O’Neill told AFP on Saturday.

“Obviously, I think it’s amazing that the World Cup is in the US, it’s growing. I can see that first hand, and I’m involved in that,” said O’Neill, who plays for Major League Soccer club New York City FC.

“I think it’s really exciting... We’ll come first and they can come second!” he joked.

The group also contains Turkey and Paraguay, and is arguably the tournament’s most evenly matched.

The United States are favourites to progress, while Australia — traditionally stronger at several other sports, despite consistently qualifying for the World Cup — have mostly flown under the radar.

O’Neill said the signature steeliness that runs throughout Australian sports could give his side the edge in reaching the knockout rounds against talented opposition.

“I think you can see we will give absolutely everything to get that result, and I think that could be the difference,” he said.

“There’s this fight and grit. It’s something that we have great pride in, having that grit and that determination.”

Hostile atmosphere

His team exhibited plenty of defensive solidity and sacrifice in their narrow 1-0 loss to Mexico on Saturday. Despite conceding an early goal, Australia had the best of the chances.

The game took place 150 miles from the Mexico border at the Rose Bowl outside Los Angeles, where the vast majority of the near-80,000 crowd supported El Tri.

“We’re obviously going to face that type of atmosphere in the second game against the States, home-crowd advantage,” said defender Harry Souttar, whose side play the United States in Seattle on June 19.

“I love it. I’ll be excited by it,” said goalkeeper Mathew Ryan.