USA coach Gregg Berhalter says facing England is all the motivation his players need to get over the disappointment of their 1-1 draw with Wales.
Gareth Bale’s 82nd-minute penalty earned Wales a point after Rob Page’s side were outplayed by the US for much of their Group B opener on Monday.
Next up for the US are Gareth Southgate’s side on Friday at the Al Byat Stadium, with coach Berhalter claiming he will not need to lift his players for the Three Lions clash.
“This is a pretty easy one,” said Berhalter. “You’re getting to play England. That’s the recovery, right there. We get to play one of the teams we think are one of the favourites for the tournament and I don't think there’s going to be many tired players come Friday.
“At this level, goals are difficult, unless you’re England. For all the other teams, goals are pretty difficult. It was always going to be a tough game against England. I don’t think it was ever going to change, based on what happened against Wales.
“So it was always going to be a difficult game. We’ve talked about it, England are a very good team, a very experienced squad in international competition, with high quality.
“Now they're getting into form, so we’re going to have to give it our best shot. A point in the first game isn’t the end of the world and we just keep going, focus on the next game and try to win it.”
Reflecting on the missed opportunity to open their World Cup campaign with a win, Berhalter admitted his players were down, but claimed they can be proud of their performance.
“When you’re winning, you’re looking at how you’re going to close out the game, but it didn’t happen, so the guys are disappointed and the staff are disappointed,” said Berhalter.
“We talked about this before the game - in a World Cup, every play matters. You’ve got to be focused and every single play can have a potential outcome on the game.
“It’s a high level we’re playing at, a really high intensity. But when you look at the effort and how we played for most of the game, we’ll be okay, we’ll build on it.
“In any of these games, there are going to be ebbs and flows. For the large part of the first-half, we were on top, but we knew there was going to be a moment when Wales were going to change their tactics, be more aggressive and throw caution to the wind.
“We knew that was going to be part of it, so the message was just to keep going at half-time. We made a couple of little adjustments that we thought could help us.”
With the US hosting the next World Cup, along with Canada and Mexico, Berhalter admitted he and his players are desperate to make their mark in Qatar, to get the American public on board with them.
“For us, it’s trying to build some momentum, both within the team, to gain some World Cup experience, but also with the American public,” said Berhalter.
“We think good performances here can do that and so, for us, it’s about analysing this game but then focusing fully ahead on Friday and putting in a good performance.”
