IRVINE, Calif. — Brooklyn’s Mike Tyson said “everybody has a plan until they get hit.” But for the U.S. national team, they changed the plan after getting hit.
In the first half of their last meeting with Australia, they got bullied by the Socceroos on the field and then lambasted by manager Mauricio Pochettino in the locker room. He yelled, slapped his hands, got on them for a lack of toughness.
The physicality and fight they showed in the second half of that 2-1 come-from-behind win is exactly what they’ll need in Friday’s high-stakes rematch in Seattle, a World Cup clash with first place in Group D on the line.
“They were laying in tough challenges and then we had to match the intensity,” Haji Wright said. “I remember going to halftime coach wasn’t too happy with letting them punch us in a way without punching back. So yeah, going into this game, we’ll be able to prepare a bit more knowing how they’re going to be.”
The U.S. players look across the field at the Aussies as a team that will challenge them and bring out their best.
“It’s gonna be a great game,” Sebastian Berhalter said. “They’re gonna fight. You like teams that have that brotherhood, that when you go against them you can see they’re hungry and want to fight, because it makes you raise your level that much more.”
Their last meeting Oct. 14 in Colorado was competitive and combative, but it ended up being constructive and instructive, as well.
“It was a really combative game,” Tyler Adams said. “So we know a little bit of what to expect; we need to be prepared for it.”
The U.S. was subjected to tough tackle after tough tackle, with star Christian Pulisic forced off in the first half with an injury after multiple heavy challenges.
In Pochettino’s halftime chastisement of his team — shown in both U.S. Soccer’s “Behind the Crest” series and HBO’s docuseries “U.S. Against the World” — he implored his team to get tougher.
“They come and they fight,” Pochettino said. “When are we going to fix that? … Match their aggressiveness.”
It’s been a recurring mantra from Pochettino, one that’s sunk in. They actually had more fouls (16-10) in that game, got a brace from Wright, and found their fight.
“[That] ‘we’re American; we don’t take s–t,’ that’s something he really drilled into us. Even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of ‘look, this is what we do, this is who we are, this is what America’s about,’ ” Berhalter said. “That’s something that has helped us this last cycle.”
Especially the tail end of it.
It’s too simplistic and reductive to suggest that the U.S. had an epiphany that night against Australia, that the comeback against the Socceroos was the single turning point. But it was certainly a turning point.
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“Yeah, the game in Colorado was fun,” Tim Weah said. “It was our first experience with Australia, my first game against Australia. So we were kind of just feeling them out, feeling how aggressive they were. We know that they’re a World Cup quality team, a high-quality team.
“So, that experience was fun. It was aggressive. And from that game in Colorado, we’ve changed a lot. We’ve gotten a bit more aggressive as well. So, it’s going to be a wonderful clash. It’s gonna be a wonderful game. … It’s gonna be an amazing match. And we just have to come out more aggressive, more prepared.”
In ways, the U.S. has been preparing for months, learning lessons from their March beatings at the hands of Portugal and Belgium, or playing well but coming up a hair short in their tuneup finale against Germany on June 6.
Though perhaps there were no more lessons learned than against Australia.
Tyson’s famous quote actually went “Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.”
The last time the U.S. got hit in the mouth by these Aussies, they finally unfroze and fought back. It’s a lesson that they’ll likely have to remember when they have to fight Friday.
