USMNT Australia Preview: Players Preaching Progress. “The Pressure Comes From Poch.”

Commerce City, CO – The U.S. Men’s National Team will host Australia for a friendly tomorrow at DICK’s Sporting Goods Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT. The Yanks are coming off a meh 1-1 result against Ecuador last Friday. The fanbase continues to be underwhelmed going into a home World Cup next summer. Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino and the players are preaching progress.

“There were opportunities for us to be ruthless. When you’re playing against top sides, you concede half a chance and it’s a goal. We can just brush up on the defensive mistakes, continue to create and be more clinical, we’ll be a strong side,” said forward Florian Balogun of the Ecuador game.

Poch has gone back and forth between a back four and a back five in recent camps. Three center backs has given them more defensive cover but there are questions about depth at the position outside of Chris Richards. Veteran glue guy Cristian Roldan likes it:

“It suits our team overall as well. Three center backs, even a center back playing at right back, building in a three, allowing our midfielders to step a little bit higher and get our two 10s in the pockets, it suits us a whole lot better.

“That allows the two center mids to be more aggressive, even man oriented. In a four, you have one guy further up the field. Once you’re broken down, you got to recover.”

“They already know when we play in one or another shape, the way that we play. The most important things is the communication. We need to be ready to build from back and find good lines of the pass. Visualize. Have this flexibility and capacity. I think they (the center backs called into this camp) have the quality,” said Pochettino.

They’ll look to build out of the back and go at a more defensive Australia, who will look to counter attack. How the USMNT balances playing on the front foot against deferential opponents while ramping up for going toe-to-toe with bigger nations they will meet in a knockout game continues to be a question.

Poch has worried the fanbase in a few ways. Communication and creating a culture has been one of those. He was hired late in the process after U.S. Soccer chose to part ways with Gregg Berhalter. There was also the factor that the Yanks qualified automatically as hosts and did not have an intense Concacaf qualification process.

Balogun: “The intensity is created by the coach. He’s created an environment so quickly that doesn’t create certainty for anyone. Nobody’s place is guaranteed. The internal pressure’s coming from him. He’s ruthless.”

Aaronson: “There’s more of a seriousness because it’s right around the corner. We don’t have many camps left. We have to treat every friendly like it’s a real game. That’s the mentality. We’ve done a good job training the mentality of these friendlies. It’s good to be a little bit more chill.

“We’ve always had a good relationship. From the first camp that we had together, we talked. It’s been a great time learning under him. I’m looking forward to keep it growing.”

Roldan: “In all seriousness, we’re here to play against two tough sides. We got a day off yesterday. Guys were able to do as they please but with structure, being home at a good time,” he said avoiding saying whether the guys went golfing or not.

To close things out, Pochettino said that Christian Pulisic has reacted well with the ankle injury. They will evaluate him tomorrow to see if what his availability is. Antonee Robinson has been in training but will be unavailable for the game with a knee injury.

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