After witnessing their first matches, Friday’s tactical storyline is clear: will the United States’ dynamic build-up play or Australia’s patient and organised defence win out in their Group D World Cup clash in Seattle?
Game state isn’t everything or the only thing, but it is indisputably a thing. And depending on the match, it can absolutely feel impossible to overcome.
Attacking with a lead can result in space to create and find punishable gaps in a defence. That’s particularly true if the fluidity of that attack is anything like what the United States showed in their 4-1 win against Paraguay to open their World Cup last week. Chasing a game can have a feeling of repeatedly running into the same wall – particularly if the organisation of the defence is anything like Australia’s in their 2-0 triumph over Türkiye.
Now there’s the potential to see how those strengths hold up against each other on the same pitch for 90 minutes – and the potential to see how those strengths adapt should the benefit of an early lead not be there.
Game state may have plenty to do with what we witness on Friday when the United States and Australia meet with top spot in Group D on the line after both teams began their World Cup campaigns on exceedingly positive – if dissimilar – notes. Both had first-half leads – the US were up in the seventh minute, and Australia scored their first in the 27th – but they went about retaining and expanding those leads in very different ways that have undoubtedly served as relevant teaching moments for their next opponents in the week since.
What the US showed in their first World Cup match under coach Mauricio Pochettino has been called their finest World Cup performance ever. For a country with an unexceptional track record at the tournament, it doesn’t take long to scan their previous matches and at least concede that the claim isn’t hyperbolic. It was their first four-goal game ever in a World Cup; they’ve already outscored the 2022 US team that reached the last 16; and they’re more than halfway to setting a new highwater mark for US men’s national team goals at a World Cup.
But 1930 doesn’t matter on a Friday in June of 2026. What’s more impressive than the historical context is the actual details of the performance that cultivated the hype. The United States played a 4-2-3-1 with Weston McKennie as an attacking midfielder and Tyler Adams, but both Tillman and McKennie created three chances and it was actually Tillman involved in the most attacking sequences among all US players.
That’s all to say that the buttons Pochettino pushed worked. It’s clear he absolutely understands what and whom he is working with. Some people have already changed their expectations for this team as a result of what they saw last week.
But the most sobering thing for United States fans about the start of the World Cup had little to do with the US performance in their opening match and everything to do with dispiritedly projecting how well Australia defended and executed in transition onto the next match. It was easy to see potential in what the US showed and nearly as easy to watch Australia a day later and envision Pochettino’s side running into the same wall. The US managed 20 line-breaking passes leading to danger and picked Paraguay apart until the final minute with the sequence leading to Nestory Irankunda didn’t play in that match, but the latter absolutely announced himself with Australia’s first goal last weekend. The 20-year-old Irankunda became Australia’s youngest World Cup goalscorer when he latched onto Paul Okon-Engstler’s long ball with a beautiful first touch around his defender at full speed before finishing in what was literally an end-to-end transition beginning with goalkeeper Chris Richards and
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