ATLANTA — United States' soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino expects Tuesday's World Cup warm-up clash with Portugal to be an even tougher assignment for the tournament co-host than its recent 5-2 thrashing at the hands of Belgium.

But the manager insisted he is happy that his final chance to assess his players before naming his World Cup squad will be another daunting friendly against highly ranked opposition.

"We never thought that facing Belgium or Portugal would be easy," said Pochettino after Saturday's crushing loss to the former in Atlanta.

"We knew we would have to dig deep and that it would give us a bit of a reality check.

"We have many things to improve. Portugal will present us with the same level of challenge — or perhaps even greater — and we need to raise our game."

Pressure is high on Pochettino's men to deliver this summer.

The US will take on Paraguay, Australia and either Turkiye or Kosovo in its World Cup group, which has been viewed by pundits as a relatively kind draw for the co-host.

All those games will take place on American soil — as would any knockout games should the US progress — further raising national expectations.

The choice of opposition teams for the US side's final World Cup warm-up friendlies was always going to require navigating a fine line between building the players' confidence and rigorously challenging them.

In contrast, Pochettino's native Argentina this week played a friendly against 115th-ranked Mauritania, which it won 2-1, and versus 91st-ranked side Zambia.

"We need competitive games to arrive at the World Cup at our best,"Pochettino told reporters.

"I think we can arrive with the wrong idea — that we are so good, we are so handsome, we are so well dressed and we are Americans.

"It is good to feel that. But, if you want to win the World Cup, you want to go to the next stage of the group and beat Paraguay. Do you think they're not going to fight?"

'Can do better'

Injuries aside, Pochettino picked a near full-strength team against Belgium. The US lined up with stars such as Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie.

Following the defeat, Pochettino said that his team had been superior for the opening 30 minutes, but would learn an important lesson about dropping their intensity against such elite opposition, which then went on to score five goals.

"Losing a game... in my mind, is never really good," said McKennie.

Nonetheless, he expressed hope the team would be "stronger for it against Portugal," which is fifth in the FIFA world rankings.

With injuries to defenders Sergino Dest, Chris Richards and Miles Robinson, as well as midfield anchor Tyler Adams, Pochettino was forced to experiment with Timothy Weah at right back.

Weah struggled badly in defense against a rampant Jeremy Doku.

Pochettino also trialed Johnny Cardoso and Tanner Tessmann at the base of midfield.

Cardoso, who has excelled for Atletico Madrid, but often goes missing in a US shirt, was substituted at halftime.

Pochettino admitted Tessmann "can do better" in front of the US defense, adding: "I saw him play better games than today."

It is a midfield selection conundrum that the manager must quickly resolve.

After Portugal, the final round of warm-up matches for the US will be against Senegal — which recently saw its Africa Cup of Nations victory over Morocco overturned — and another European powerhouse, Germany.

AFP