Australia play England at Wembley on Friday night but former national team head coach Ange Postecoglou does not envisage football truly taking off in his home country like it dominates in his current residence.

Postecoglou has enjoyed an excellent start at Tottenham and they are joint-leaders of the Premier League after eight matches going into this month’s international break.

Optimism is rife at Spurs but their 58-year-old manager remains pessimistic about the state of football in Australia, despite his nation co-hosting a successful Women’s World Cup this summer where the Matildas finished fourth.

Postecoglou spent four years in charge of the Socceroos and – despite achieving plenty – he has given up hope of the sport cracking life Down Under with subtle digs aimed at governing body Football Australia ahead of Friday’s friendly clash in London.

Asked about his Asian Cup win on home soil in 2015, Postecoglou replied: “It didn’t make an impact back there and that was kind of my frustration.

“I don’t think that anything they can achieve… when you look at what the Matildas did at the World Cup, unbelievable but you still won’t see an influx of resources to the game. You won’t. I guarantee it.

“They’ll build stadiums and other codes will use them. I just don’t think the nation as a whole has that inside them to understand you can make an impact on the world of football but it requires a kind of nationalistic approach that I just don’t think Australians – at their core – are really interested in.

“There’s a couple of things. One of them is obviously the sporting landscape, where there’s some pretty strong codes there that have generationally dominated the landscape.

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“There’s Aussie Rules, that’s the indigenous sport of Australia. It’s kind of unique to them and they take great pride in protecting as their code. The rugby codes dominate.

“It’s very hard for football to make an impact in that space and I guess then the flipside of that is just how global the sport of football is.

“If I can compare that to a country like Japan, who also have the tyranny of distance and baseball’s pretty strong, they plant a lot of resources into football and you can see that’s making an impact. I don’t see Australia down that road.”

Japan was Postecoglou’s next destination when he walked away from the Socceroos job after he helped his country qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

The ex-Yokohama boss had managed Australia at the 2014 edition, but his departure seven months out from the global showpiece was a surprise and at the time he described the job as “taking a toll” both personally and professionally.

Postecoglou has been involved in coaching since 1996 and while he has taken the Premier League by storm so far, he does not expect his time at Tottenham to change the landscape of football in Australia.

“I don’t. I don’t know and maybe that’s just me, not being cynical, but I gave up that fight,” he explained.

“It’s a much easier space for me to live in because I was so frustrated for so long. It was my biggest frustration. One of my major drivers for doing what I did was to do that – to change football in Australia and that’s the reason I left.

“I felt I hadn’t made an impact at all. That’s easier for me to deal with than to think maybe I still can now with what I’m doing. I just think I’d be disappointed, so I’d prefer to think it’s not going to happen.

“I walked away from a World Cup. We qualified and I walked away. The reason I walked away was I just didn’t enjoy what I was doing.

“It’s not just doing the job and winning games of football, it’s got to be a higher purpose. My higher purpose in Australia was to change the game. I just don’t think that will happen.

“It was the right decision for me (to leave), it was the right decision for where I saw the next stage of my career and if I didn’t make that decision at that time, if I had waited until after the World Cup, I’ve got no doubt I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

Postecoglou replied no when asked if he would manage Australia again and laughed off talk of replacing England chief Gareth Southgate.

He added: “England? Oh, come on mate. They’ve got a fantastic manager and I’m eight games into a Tottenham career. That’s how I think.”

The St. Louis Cardinals gave up four runs in the first inning but rallied to beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-5, on Sunday to split the teams’ two-game series at London Stadium.

Former Cubs catcher Willson Contreras went 4 for 4 and scored two runs for St. Louis, while Paul Goldschmidt delivered the go-ahead RBI single that chased NL ERA leader Marcus Stroman in the fourth.

The Cubs later said that Stroman exited early due to a blister on his throwing hand. He was charged with six runs - three earned - on eight hits. 

St. Louis committed two errors in the first inning before recording an out, saddling starter Matthew Liberatore with four unearned runs, but five Cardinals relievers held the Chicago lineup in check the rest of the way.

The Cubs fell to 37-39 and missed a chance to get back to .500, while the Cardinals have won five of seven following a six-game losing streak.

Yankees rally to take series from AL West-leading Rangers

Harrison Bader delivered a go-ahead two-run double during an eighth-inning rally that lifted the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the American League West-leading Texas Rangers.

The Yankees trailed 3-2 before scoring three times in the eighth to win the rubber match of the three-game series. DJ LeMahieu had a two-run double earlier for New York, which went 4-2 on its week-long homestand after returning to the Bronx on a season high-tying four-game losing streak.

New York also overcame ace Gerrit Cole's shortest outing of the season, a 4 2/3-inning stint in which he was tagged for three runs and nine hits.

Jonah Heim had a solo home run off Cole and finished 2 for 4. Leody Tavares also collected two hits and an RBI for Texas, which stranded 10 runners compared to just three for the Yankees. 

Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi was in line for his 10th win of the season after yielding two runs and four hits over 5 2/3 innings and exiting with a one-run lead. 

Braves hang on to take two of three from Reds

Matt Olson hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning and the Atlanta Braves staved off a comeback attempt from the Cincinnati Reds for a second straight day to hold on for a 7-6 win.

Olson's 25th homer of the season, which snapped a 3-3 tie and matched him with Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead, helped Atlanta win the three-game series between National League division leaders and two of its hottest teams. The Braves have now won 17 of 20 and snapped Cincinnati's 12-game winning streak with a 7-6 victory on Saturday.

The Braves tacked on a needed insurance run in the top of the eighth to go up 7-4, but the Reds rallied and pulled within one on Matt McClain's two-run double with two out in the bottom of the inning.

McClain was left stranded, however, and Raisel Iglesias later got Kevin Newman to ground into a game-ending double play with two on in the ninth to record his 12th save.

McClain finished 4 for 5 with a home run, three doubles and five RBIs to become only the second Reds rookie since 1901 with four extra-base hits in a game, joining Chris Sabo in 1988.

Marcell Ozuna knocked in a pair of runs for Atlanta, while Charlie Morton earned the win after striking out seven while allowing three runs in five innings. 

West Indies pacer Kemar Roach took four wickets in the match to help Surrey defeat Hampshire by nine wickets at the Kennington Oval in London from April 13-16 for their first win of the 2023 County Championship Division One season.

In Hampshire’s first innings, Roach bowled 16 overs and took 2-63 as they were bowled out for 254 in 79.3 overs. Wicketkeeper batsmen Ben Brown led the way with the bat for Hampshire with 95 and Keith Barker made 58. 20-year-old medium pacer Tom Lawes also bowled 16 overs for Surrey, taking 4-58.

England Test batsmen Ollie Pope then made 91 and Australian Sean Abbott contributed 52 as Surrey made 270 off 85.5 overs in their first innings.

Pakistani pacer Mohammad Abbas starred for Hampshire with 6-64 off 27.5 overs while medium pacers Kyle Abbott and James Fuller took a pair of wickets, each.

Hampshire’s second innings almost mirrored their first, being bowled out for 258 in 88 overs this time.

Nick Gubbins made a patient 199-ball 84 and Ian Holland scored 46 as Australian Daniel Worrall took 5-40 off 17 overs. Roach bowled 18 overs and ended with 2-43.

Needing 243 to win, Surrey’s successful chase was led by a brilliant 122* from Pope, his 17^th first class hundred, and 79* from Dominic Sibley.

In the end, Surrey needed 55.2 overs to reach 247-1.

Reggae Girlz striker Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw was again on the scoresheet for Manchester City Women as they defeated Tottenham Women 3-0 in the FA Women’s Super League (WSL) at Brisbane Road in London on Saturday.

Shaw produced a double to help City get their second win in four games, moving to fifth in the WSL.

Her first came just before halftime in the 41^st minute before getting her second just after the break in the 47^th minute. Lauren Hemp got City’s third goal in the 76^th minute.

Shaw is now the leading scorer in the WSL so far this season with five goals from four games.

England’s Roses took a 1-0 lead in their three-Test series against Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls after they rallied to win 55-45 before a packed Copper Box Arena in London on Sunday.

Jamaica started well, outscoring their opponents 11-10 and 26-25 at the end of the first quarter and half-time, respectively. Jamaica’s lead was largely down to outstanding performances from Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Shamera Sterling, who caused England’s shooters significant challenges in the first half.

England’s defensive players turned the tables against Jamaica after the interval Eboni Usoro-Brown kept Jhaniele Fowler quiet and forced multiple changes in Jamaica's attack-end as the home side took control of the game to outscore Jamaica 16-9 in the third quarter and 14-10 in the fourth to pull off a commanding victory.

Fowler scored 40 of 41 attempts for the Sunshine Girls, who also got five goals from Shanice Beckford.

Jo Harten scored 30 of 39 and Eleanor Cardwell 20 of 22 for the Roses.

England had lost four of their last five games against Jamaica.

The second and third Tests will be played on December 4 and 5 at the Motor Point Arena