Socceroos legend Harry Kewell has poured more fuel on the feud brewing between Australia and co-hosts USA ahead of their massive clash at the World Cup.

American pundit Mike Grella sparked the war of words after declaring the Socceroos would be a “lay-up” for his nation in Group D and would exit the group stage without having ever had a hope.

Despite Australia’s stunning 2-0 upset of Turkiye in their tournament opener and fellow American pundits distancing themselves from Grella, the American, who never featured for his country and only played in England’s lower leagues, doubled down in a light-hearted social media exchange with former AFL player Dan Gorringe.

The former Sun posted the reel of Grella calling Australia the “weakest” team on Instagram and wrote “we’re gonna f*** you up” with the pundit responding “Yo this sh*** hilarious, see you Friday”.

Speaking on Monday, Kewell had a blunt response to the criticism thrown at the Socceroos, stating he had “no idea” who Grella was and that the Americans could never have competed with Australia’s golden generation or our country’s rich football history.

“The USA is talking like they’re some unbelievable footballing nation – or soccer – nation,” he told Code Sports.

“I would love to play their golden generation against our golden generation. It wouldn’t even be a contest. I don’t know what they’re harping on about, I really don’t.

“I don’t even know if they played soccer back then. They’re a new nation to it.

“I understand they’ve got the MLS, but to compete at the highest level, you need to be playing at the highest level, and that’s in Europe. And back in our day, there would be only one team winning that game.”

Kewell, who scored 17 times for Australia and won a Champions League Trophy with Liverpool, said the criticism wouldn’t land within the Australian camp.

“Water off a duck’s back,” he said.

“I wouldn’t even take that into my brain. As footballers, we respect everyone; we know football’s a small world. It’s funny: you can talk about things in life, and they can quickly come back to haunt you.

“Just go out there, be quiet, go out there, do your job, and let the football do the talking.”

Despite not rating the USA’s past history, Kewell was quick to admit Australia were in for a challenge when the two sides meet in Seattle in the early hours of Saturday morning (AWST), especially after the host nation demolished Paraguay 4-1 in their opening clash.

“It’s gonna be tough, I’m not gonna lie,” he said.

“Especially the way they showed their formation against Paraguay – I don’t think they dealt with the way (Christian) Pulisic and (Weston) McKennie held their positions.

“I feel if they line up the same way, and we line up the same way, we’re going to be in a more structured position to deal with those types of areas.

“The thing the USA team hasn’t been affected by is someone attacking them. For us, we have to look at being more aggressive.

“If we can put them on the back foot with our speed and pace and power, they’re going to take a step back and say, ‘Wow, we can’t actually be too aggressive’.

“Paraguay, even though they had that pace, they didn’t really show it. We have the opportunity to be a little bit more aggressive in the attacking half, have the ball and put them under pressure.”