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United States coach Mauricio Pochettino has encouraged his team to fight fire with fire during their upcoming World Cup clash against Australia.
During the half-time break of last year’s ill-tempered friendly between the two nations in Colorado, Pochettino ordered his players to harden up and stand their ground against the physical Socceroos.
And there’s a possibility things could get nasty on the pitch this Saturday morning AEST when the World Cup co-hosts face Australia in a crucial Group D clash. Courtesy of the war of words in the build-up, it could descend into an old-fashioned dust up.
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“Watching that game last year, you could see that they were up for it, and they’re putting in challenges,” US midfielder Sebastian Berhalter said of the Australians.
“That’s when Mauricio had the halftime rant, and he said, ‘These guys can’t kick us around’.
“And I think he was right there. It’s going to be a physical game, but a fun game, and we’re excited.”
He continued: “We’re American, we don’t take s***.
“Even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of, ‘This is what we do, this is who we are and this is what America is about.’
“Just even from an outside perspective, he showed us Americans what we’re about. And, he really drills that into us.”
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However, Berhalter clarified that none of the Americans had any personal issues with the Australian players.
“They all seem like they’re always great guys. Anytime you get to share a locker with an Australian it’s nothing but good things,” he said.
“You saw the stuff they did against Turkey, who had a hard time breaking them down and they were really good.
“I love the way they defended honestly. They were a group, they were a unit and they gave everything they had and you know it worked and they did really well.
“So it’s going to be a great game and they’re going to fight and you like teams that have that brotherhood.
“You can see they’re hungry and that they want to fight because it makes you raise your level that much more.”
‘NONSENSE’: US TEAM UNHAPPY WITH COMMENTARY
While American football pundits continue to criticise the Socceroos ahead of their World Cup clash, the players are having none of it.
Since being drawn together in Group D for the tournament, the Australian team has been bombarded with criticism from the United States; former US striker Landon Donovan called Australia coach Tony Popovic “smug”, Fox Sports commentator Alexi Lalas said the Socceroos were “an average team by any measure”, while CBS Sports pundit Mike Grella called Friday’s match a “lay-up” for the Americans.
However, US winger Tim Weah rolled his eyes when asked about the commentary on Tuesday.
Socceroos centre of attention in US | 00:57
“All this talk is just nonsense to me,” Weah told the media.
“When you look at the Australian team, they’re a young team that has a lot of fight, a lot of grit, and a lot of hunger, just like us.
“We respect them in the same way that we respect any other opponent. I think it’s going to be a lovely game. I don’t know what the media is trying to do, but we’re not really focused on that.”
Midfielder Tyler Adams added: “I don’t think any commentary helps anybody.
“It’s not going to be a lay-up. If anything, it’s going to be one of the most difficult games we play.”
Grella takes another shot at Aussies | 01:56
BEACH PRAISED FOR WORLD CUP DEBUT
Former Melbourne City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen, who represented Denmark at two World Cups, has called Patrick Beach’s performance against Turkiye the “best World Cup debut I have seen by a goalkeeper”.
Beach, controversially picked ahead of Socceroos captain Mat Ryan for the World Cup opener, produced eight saves in a career-defining performance on Sunday AEST, with Australia winning the match 2-0.
“I actually recommended him to a Danish club, maybe four or five months ago,” Sorensen said of Beach.
“I was maybe a bit ahead of time. But as I said, I’ve seen him ascend.
“I think what he has shown, he’s shown that clutch performance from Melbourne City. Whenever they were playing Champions League, he was always the main man and came up with big saves. I think he has shown here to go in on an extreme.
“I’ve been at the World Cup. I know how much pressure, how much attention. And as well, the difficult situation of having the captain, a goalkeeper in Maty Ryan, who’s played a hundred and something games for the Socceroos.
“In some way, you’ve looked up to him and suddenly you feel like, do I deserve to be there? And yes, the managers picked me to then go in. And I think his positivity right from the get go was great. He was on his front foot.
“You could see that he wasn’t rattled. I can just compare him to the Mexican first game … the keeper, he looked rattled. You could just see he was nervous.
“I couldn’t see anything. And that is a testament to him. And then on top of that, he comes up with arguably one of the best saves up until this point in the World Cup, that long range shot that he managed just to get a fingertip to.
“That’s a match-winning save. He had a few of them all the way through the game.”
Sorensen added: “I was really thinking of as a first game ever in a World Cup, I think it stands by itself. I don’t think I can remember anything in the past that has gotten near to it.
“The circumstances that we discussed before, that he wasn’t really meant to play in a lot of people’s eyes.
“It was an extremely risky call from Popovic because had it backfired, you would probably have two or three experienced players that would be pretty angry. But now you’ve got everyone buying in.
“Everyone trusts his decisions. There’s a great belief in the camp. So sometimes, I love people and coaches and players taking chances and it’s worked.”
