Two teams enter, one team leaves: US survive Thunderdome & move into the knockouts
Poch's big gamble pays dividends as the US win the physical battle and advance to the Round of 32
I wrote my tactical preview for the US men's national team's game against Australia, and we – me and Gass – did our tactical preview for Soccerwise this week. And these things usually go a certain way: here's the lineup, here's where the opponents draw their line of confrontation, over there is where US chances are likely to come from, etc. etc. It is a reliable rubric because, while ours is a high variance sport, the process teams lean on tend to be pretty reliable.
But neither my column nor the podcast followed that typical blueprint. Instead, we spent the first quarter of the podcast, and I spent fully the first half of my column making the point that the US had to set the physical tone. We all knew (anyone with eyes knew) that Australia couldn't match the US in talent or, frankly, tactical acumen. The US players are better both on and off the ball.
What they could still do, though, was beat the US. And if they were, they'd do it by setting the physical tone of the game, and then bullying them. Literally beating the US. This is what they did for the first 10 minutes last October, a "friendly" in which the Socceroos struck first, but then the US punched back en route to a 2-1 win. This is what we all had to know they'd want to do in this one.
