USMNT bracing for another tough test from hard-nosed Australia in World Cup clash

IRVINE, Calif.— Brooklyn’s Mike Tyson said “everybody has a plan until they get hit.” But for the U.S.

national team, they changed the plan after getting hit.In the first half of their last meeting with Australia, they got bullied by the Socceroos on the field and then lambasted by manager Mauricio Pochettino in the locker room.He yelled, slapped his hands, got on them for a lack of toughness.The physicality and fight they showed in the second half of that 2-1 come-from-behind win is exactly what they’ll need in Friday’s high-stakes rematch in Seattle, a World Cup clash with first place in Group D on the line.“They were laying in tough challenges and then we had to match the intensity,” Haji Wright said.

“I remember going to halftime coach wasn’t too happy with letting them punch us in a way without punching back.So yeah, going into this game, we’ll be able to prepare a bit more knowing how they’re going to be.”The U.S.

players look across the field at the Aussies as a team that will challenge them and bring out their best.“It’s gonna be a great game,” Sebastian Berhalter said.“They’re gonna fight.

You like teams that have that brotherhood, that when you go against them you can see they’re hungry and want to fight, because it makes you raise your level that much more.”Their last meeting Oct.14 in Colorado was competitive and combative, but it ended up being constructive and instructive, as well.“It was a really combative game,” Tyler Adams said.

“So we know a little bit of what to expect; we need to be prepared for it.”The U.S.was subjected to tough tackle after tough tackle, with star Christian Pulisic forced off in the first half with an injury after multiple heavy challenges.In Pochettino’s halftime chastisement of his team — shown in both U.S.

Soccer’s “Behind the Crest” series and HBO’s docuseries “U.S.Against the World” — he implored his team to get tougher.“They come and they fight,”...