Pre-match: USA v Australia Game 2 6/19 3 pm ET

Australia is set up very effectively. Clog the defense with 11. Break with serious speed. Win battles on set pieces. The US will have to score at least 2 to win and maybe 3 because the Aussie counter is scary.

 

And they add another goal and hold on for the win! Impressive display. Their bunker defense was exceptional in its discipline.

Also, Gio’s late goal proves important for Goal Differential thus far as we go top of the group after one match.

Bring on Seattle!

 

Styles are so different who knows.

The US had better not get suckered in and lose track of the counter. I’d spend as much practice time on making sure we have speed cover than anything else. It’ll be very hard to break them down no matter how much time you put into working on it, so should spend more time on the things you can actually improve.

 

The US is much faster, more athletic and more physical than Turkey.

The Turks looked so slow and un athletic out there.

 

Australia is USMNT circa 2010. Bunker yeah, but some genuine quality here and there and legit speed and clinical on the counter. And their keeper who got the start over the previous captain just gave a Tim Howard impression.

Having said that Türkiye was genuine ass. If we run for each other counterpress like we did vs Paraguay we are a whole different opponent than what they saw tonight.

The runners from deep and constant rotating and diversity of positions like we did yesterday will be crucial, but there will have to be some more tactical wrinkles, as Paraguay stupidly challenged us on the wings and CP and Dest absolutely shredded them, leaving favorable numbers for us in the box.

Australia just concedes the wings and were delighted for Yildiz to just mess around with stepovers over there and when one defender was beaten, there were still far more yellow shirts in the box. I love CP and Dest, but they are both prone to dicking around with the ball out there, or putting their heads down and running into walls.

Oh shit, I wrote a novel sorry. USA 4-1 again!

 

One of the problems with the way Australia is trying to play is you can grind out 0-0 or 1-0 or even 2-0 results like that but a lot of the time the ball is in/around your box so much that eventually a shot will take a deflection and go in or is blocked and falls to an attacker close in for an easy finish.

You ride your luck playing that way. You can do a good job, and Australia did but you can’t always control deflections or the ball eventually falling kindly to an attacker.

 

We starting a 38 year old Tim Ream against those Aussie counterattackers?

 

Australia reminds me quite strongly in a lot of ways of 2002 with Landon and Beas. Clutch goalkeeping. Organized and resolute defending. Counterattacking with pace. And full commitment and belief.

They aren't poetic, but we weren't poetic in 2002, either, and it's still our modern gold standard.

However, fearing the Australian counterattack, the Turks were extremely static and predictable. Easy to defend. They looked rather like we did in the Panama Nations League match, but with more threat and willingness to strike a screamer from outside the box.

 

I absolutely hate the idea of that kid Irankunda running at Tim Ream. And I'm sure that that is precisely Popovic's plan.

But Poch obviously HAS to realize this. My guess is that he's going with Ream, and he'll scheme a way to deal with it.

 

Yes, absolutely, but when luck (and good goalkeeping) is on your side for a while, then belief and commitment tend to take over. Australia is playing with commitment and belief. They will absolutely believe that they can skin us on our own pitch.

 

Bionic legs maybe?

 

We've got much faster CBs and FBs than Ream. So if Ream gets beat, but Richards/Freeman are 5 yards BEHIND Ream on purpose, then they'll have plenty of time to deal with someone running at them, or trying to run in behind. The issue is when Ream's the last defender, not when he's just "there", especially since he can pick out a good pass into the attack.

 

Being the 2000s USA isn’t all that great a place to be.

Sure we beat Spain 2-0 and everyone remembers that but we tried to grind out results against other tops teams in the 2000s and early 2010s and the vast majority of the time it failed.

Even in the 2009 confederations cup we played 3 other games against top teams and the results were:

3-1 to Italy
3-0 to Brazil
3-2 to Brazil

Basically we played the 2026 Australian brand of football and hoped for the best, and sometimes got it, but, the vast majority of the time, we didn’t.

 

If Australia will sit back and counter should we consider Turner for this match? It goes against conventional wisdom to rotate keepers but a shot stopper is what this match needs more than a guy who is comfortable with the ball at his feet.

 

This is an interesting idea but the chances of it happening are slim

 

Bob switched up the tactics in the 2009 Confederations Cup. The difference can be seen in the two matches against Brasil. The 2002 WC and 2009 CC teams were not really similar to the Australians in terms of talent. In terms of style, the Roos are more like Canada than those earlier US teams.

 

The Australia game will be tough for the USA.

Seven of Australia's starting players against Turkey play their club football in Europe.

Italy: Alessandro Circati (Parma Calcio

Harry Souttar (Leicester City),

Cameron Burgess (Swansea City),

Nestory Irankunda(Watford FC

Mohamed Touré (Norwich City

Jordan Bos (Feyenoord Rotterdam

• Austria: Jacob Italiano (Grazer AK

 

The doctor already ordered the medicine for Aussies: Gio+Haji combo.

 

Second half of the second half, maybe. We need COUNTERPRESSERS and good movement and intelligent overloads, like what we saw in the first half against Paraguay. Turkey was so worried about their counterattack that they stood around static and didn't make defenders make any difficult decisions at all. It was too easy.

 

I’d rather Australia be coming off a 2-0 win than a 2-0 loss before playing us.

 

The good news on the Ream - Irankunda matchup is that the latter lined up on the left side of the pitch for Aus against Türkiye. The bad news is that he’s equally capable of playing off the right.

However, this dude scored 4 goals in the Championship last year. He can be stopped. And if we can’t stop him, we aren’t a serious threat to go places in this tournament.

As others have said, our best offense while the game state is drawn will likely come from the counter press. Türkiye were slow and/or uncommitted in that phase, while we have the ability to be quick and decisive. Australia were great at getting back, but their rest defense with the ball was not CONCACAF level dire - there is space to be exploited if we go forward quickly after winning the ball.

Additionally, Türkiye completely forgot about the channels and vertical movement in this match. We have to use width to create overloads that allow Zone 14 entries, rather than settling for crosses and long shots after just swinging the ball around. And we need to leverage our positional flexibility and deep runs to unsettle their static defense.

Finally - set plays. Against a bunker, we will get corners and free kicks. We need to capitalize, and actually looked reasonably threatening against Paraguay.

All of these things are quite achievable. Australia will be tough, but they are not that special.

 

Poch could play with a back-3 or have Jedi stay close to Ream.

 

Props to @Silky_Johnson for nicknaming them the Bunkeroos.

 

The Aussie attackers are shit, the counter attack was some dude who plays for Watford in the championship and has 4 goals club side.