Interim coach Tom Sermanni hopes an honest players-only meeting after a thumping loss to Japan can help the Matildas regroup and deliver a far sterner showing against Olympic champions the United States.
The Matildas were left reeling from a 4-0 defeat at the hands of world No.8 Japan on Friday, when Sermanni lamented "un-Australian" defending in what he considered a wake-up call ahead of next year's Asian Cup.
Ahead of their game at State Farm Stadium in Arizona on Tuesday (AEDT), Sermanni indicated the players had picked themselves up and moved on.
"Obviously the team themselves had a meeting after the game, so they sort of had a chat amongst themselves, which is a positive thing," Sermanni said.
"But I will know more tomorrow night, to be honest. And I think football is a funny game. You have good days and you have bad days.
"And the key thing for us as a team, and particularly an Australian team, it's important to put the game before behind us, and really go into this game with a much more positive and a much more aggressive attitude.
"I'd like to say we'll definitely do that. I hope we do that. The team wants to do that. The players want to do it. It's something the team's done in the past.
"So I think the key thing from for us tomorrow night is to make sure that we go out there and we just really turn up, and that's the key to our performance."
Sermanni indicated the player meeting wasn't a full-blown "hard truths" session, but an honest review.
"They had it themselves. We weren't there. And that's important. It's important for players to get together and work some things out themselves," he said.
"I don't know if it's necessarily hard truth.
"It's just, I think, everybody looking at themselves and looking round the team and being able to face the performance honestly and look at themselves.
"... We hope when the players get in a room together, that they're honest enough to look at themselves and to look at what they want to do as a team and to regroup.
"And hopefully now we'll take that into the second game and put in a better performance."
Sermanni has already flagged he will rotate his line-up, noting he needed to strike a balance between youthful enthusiasm and more senior players.
Wini Heatley, Charli Grant, Holly McNamara and Daniela Galic came off the bench against Japan and could be among those contending for starting roles.
Sermanni is also determined to get the best out of "outstanding talent" Mary Fowler.
"The key thing that we need to do with Mary is find a way to make sure that we get her in the game more often and get her to impact the games," he said.
"I'm still trying to work out myself where the best position is for Mary.
"She's the kind of player that can really produce that extra special pass or that little bit of magic that either creates a goal or scores a goal for us."
