Australia must improve on Turkey performance against US, says coach Popovic
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SEATTLE, June 18 : Australia beat Turkey with a perfectly executed game plan in their World Cup opener but will need to find another level to get a result against confident co-hosts the United States, coach Tony Popovic said on Thursday.
Australia began their campaign with a superb 2-0 win over Turkey, sitting deep and springing on the counter to devastating effect to give themselves a great chance of reaching the knockout stages.
However, the U.S. are also coming into the match on a high after dismantling Paraguay 4-1, though the fitness of their influential winger Christian Pulisic is a concern.
Popovic said his side should embrace the challenge of facing the U.S. in their backyard, but was under no illusions about the difficulty of their task.
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"We know it will be a different type of challenge," he told reporters. "Playing the host nation here as well is a wonderful challenge, but also a wonderful opportunity for us.
"We know that we will need to be better than we were against Turkey to get the result we want."
He added that Australia were confident they could cause the U.S. some problems and wanted his team to keep playing as if they belong on the big stage.
"We want to earn our respect," Popovic said. "We know that by our performances we can put Australian football on the world map and that's what we aim to do."
A win for either side will ensure a place in the last-32, but defender Harry Souttar – who captained Australia against Turkey with goalkeeper Mat Ryan on the bench – refused to look beyond Friday's game.
"We're not thinking ahead at all," he said. "It's literally just about the game tomorrow and how we approach it, how we start the game.
"The lads are excited, but it's a fine balance between using that excitement and also being calm and composed."
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