Australia went down 2-0 to the USA in their second group stage match on Saturday morning, leaving the side with plenty to ponder on.

The co-host nation came out of the blocks firing, pressing the Socceroos from the first minute and eventually breaking through with an own goal off Cameron Burgess in the eleventh minute when he tried to redirect a low cross.

It was Alex Freeman who scored the USA’s second goal – a header off a deflected shot in the 43rd minute found the net as the game approached half time.

An offside foul was initially called on the goal but the VAR sent back down a decision to overturn the ruling and allow the score.

Down by two and struggling to respond tactically, Tony Popovich was forced to back-pedal on his controversial decision to leave Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe out of the starting line up – both of whom scored goals in the previous match against Turkey.

Australia looked much stronger in the second half and responded by setting up multiple goal scoring opportunities but they struggled to find the back of the net.

The match concluded with referee Felix Zwayer going down with a cramp in the 90th minute – many Aussies coining the act a bizarre display of time wasting for the host nation after his history of involvement in a 2005 match fixing scandal came to light.

Former Socceroo and Perth Glory captain Jacob Burns joined Sports Breakfast this morning.

“If we’re honest, the boys looked very nervous. They looked lethargic in the first opening 45 and in particular after the first five minutes it looked very nervy… and that just shows you the occasion,” he said.

“[Tony] Popovic has a long history of making big decisions based on the team they’re playing. I think he’s done that at club level time and time again, whether it’s been goal sorcerers, men of the matches, people coming in.

“It wouldn’t surprise me that the staff have looked at the winnable games here in the group and gone look, Paraguay is the winnable game out of the two, let’s make sure the minutes are measured, let’s make sure we’ve got the freshest and fittest guys on.”

USA coach Mauricio Pochettino stunned the Socceroos with his tactical warfare on the pitch.

It was his decision to employ a deep pressing style of play with their full backs positioned high up on the field that left Australia’s outlets through their defence cornered, resulting in the US dominating with 63% possession and creating three more shots than the Socceroos.

“Let’s not take anything away from Pochettino and the American side. They tweaked their tactics, they came flying out of the blocks, they were winning the 50-50 battles.”

“They really, really stunted our wingbacks which was our greatest outlet… they rolled their full backs up really, really high, they had their inside midfielders making forward runs, so it really pinned our guys back.

“It put our defenders and wide players – which was some of our biggest strengths – kind of on the back foot and had us going back towards our own goal early.”

Australia’s World Cup isn’t over yet with one group stage match left to play against Paraguay on Friday.

With Turkey already eliminated from the tournament, the Socceroos will need a win or a draw to finish second in the group and advance with a superior goal differential.

Due to the expansion of the tournament from 32 to 48 countries, the best eight of 12 third-placed teams will also make it through to the round of 32.

This means a loss may also result in Australia advancing given four other countries sit in third by a worse score differential.

“They’re not going to be easy… Paraguay knocked Turkey out with a couple of players missing, and that’s tournament football right? You’ve got to show up, you’ve got to be playing your best football and anything can happen on the day.”

“I’m sure they’ll have a lot of positivity and self-belief that they can get us the result to get us through.”

The Socceroos’ final match of the group stage kicks off at 10:00am AWST on Friday morning.

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