AL-RAYYAN, Qatar — USA men’s national team midfielder Tyler Adams say bang England Friday at the World Cup will “fast-track” the impact his side could have on the sport in America.
The two sides will go head-to-head in the second game for both teams in Group B. England top the group with three points after battering Iran 6-2, while the USMNT was forced to accept a disappointing draw before Wales.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)
But a result against England would put the Americans in good shape to advance to the knockout stages, and would certainly generate a surge in enthusiasm and excitement back home.
“I think clearly this is a huge opportunity to quickly track the impact we could have,” Adams said. “These are games that [it’s a] High pressure, privileged moment to step out onto the field with some of these guys. We respect them, maybe mutual respect between both teams, and when you get results in a game like this, people start to respect the Americans a little bit more.”
Adams also added that he would not be too scared on this occasion, as he has faced many English players in the Premier League.
“I wouldn’t say there’s much more out there that threatens me, other than spiders,” he said.
It is thought that England will definitely have more possession of the ball against the US than Wales.
But coach Gregg Berhalter insists the Americans will continue to try to impose their belligerent style on the Three Lions.
“We’ve been working for the last three and a half years on our style of play and how we want to perform on the pitch,” he said.
“So the game against England will be no different. We think there are areas that we can exploit and we will want to hurt them. We will prepare. We know that. is a really good team.
“We know they have threats. We know we’ll have to be vigilant against their threats. But we want to play our game.”
Berhalter added that the USMNT would need to be more precise in times of transition, an area where the USMNT did not do enough to punish Wales on Monday.
“There were opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of,” he said. “It’s something that we identified yesterday in the post-match meeting and we need to do better than that, especially those moments where the opponent pushes you back a little bit, which can happen. in the match.
“We wanted to be high, we wanted to press, but there were times when we played lower on the pitch and we had to take advantage of the space behind the defence and we didn’t. that effectively against Wales.”
There have been rumors that the United States is considering a “golden generation” of players as 10 of the 11 starters against Wales play in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
But Berhalter warned that such talk was premature.
“We didn’t achieve anything as a group on the world stage,” he said. “When you’re talking about, you know, England is fourth [at the 2018 World Cup] and then second [at the Euro 2020], there are tangible things where you can say, ‘OK, this team has achieved something’, and we’re not there yet. We need to use this World Cup to assert ourselves and then hopefully move on to the next World Cup and do the same.
“But I think we’re a bit ahead of us trying to call our team that, and that’s still undetermined.”
Berhalter added that Destination Sergino and Weston McKennieBoth were substituted against Wales and looked somewhat limp, ready to be selected against England.
“Both are fine,” he said.
