Let’s get physical: ‘Aggressive’ US warn Socceroos they won’t back down

Los Angeles: When the United States’ team walked off at halftime in their last encounter with the Socceroos, their coach – the highly regarded and usually mild-mannered Mauricio Pochettino – was fuming.

It was 1-1, but the Argentinian lambasted his team, saying the Australians were more physical and the Americans needed to stop letting themselves get pushed around in the scrappy friendly in Colorado last October. He demanded that the US players start standing up for themselves.

The US went on to win 2-1, and it is expected to be a similarly fiery World Cup encounter in Seattle on Saturday (AEST), where victory for either side could see them wrap up top spot of Group D, depending on other results.

American midfielder Sebastian Berhalter said Pochettino, who has managed the likes of Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, had made the US a more physical side and that would be on show at Lumin Stadium.

“We’re American, we don’t take shit,” Berhalter told reporters in Irvine, just south of Los Angeles, where the US team is based. “I think that’s something that [Pochettino] really put in. And, you know, even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of this is what we do, and this is who we are, and this is what America’s about.”

Five members of Australia’s World Cup starting team for the Turkey match also started in the October loss to the US: Alessandro Circati, Jordan Bos, Connor Metcalfe, Jacob Italiano and Cameron Burgess.

Nestory Irankunda and Mo Toure both came off the bench for the last 30 minutes of the match.

Berhalter didn’t play in the October friendly but had been told about Pochettino’s half-time reaction.

“You could see that they were up for it, and they’re putting in challenges,” he said. “That’s when Mauricio had that, the halftime rant, and he said you can’t let these guys kick us around … [Seattle] is going to be a physical game.”

Winger Tim Weah said his side was now better prepared for the physicality of playing Australia.

“That game in Colorado was fun, it was our first kind of experience with Australia … we were feeling them out, how aggressive they were,” he said.“It was aggressive, and I think from that game we’ve changed a lot; we’ve gotten a bit more aggressive as well.”

If Australia defeats the United States and Paraguay either draws or loses to Turkey, the Socceroos secure first place in Group D with a game to spare. It would also mean Australia would get the pathway into the knockout stages that had been intended for the US, and the team would stay in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they have been set up