Winger Timothy Weah says the US team need to “get back into the lab and work” after the World Cup co-hosts were thrashed by Belgium in Atlanta on Saturday.
The visitors ran riot at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, putting five past their hosts to pile further pressure on US head coach Mauricio Pochettino with just a few months until this summer’s tournament.
Weston McKennie had opened the scoring for the US in the first half, but the Red Devils responded with goals from Zeno Debast, Amadou Onana, a Charles De Ketelaere penalty and a brace from substitute Dodi Lukebakio.
Patrick Agyemang then pulled one back for the hosts late on, but it proved to be little more than consolation.
After the game, Weah, who plays club football in France for Marseille on loan from Juventus, admitted it had been a tough evening for the US but insisted there was time to bounce back before the start of the World Cup.
“[It was] definitely a difficult experience,” he said.
“You come into the game hungry and wanting to win. Obviously today that didn’t work for us.
“We just have to get back into the lab and work and continue working, work on our game and our mentality.
“Right now is the best time for this to happen. We have a World Cup to think about. We want to perform and we want to get better.”
Pochettino refuses to panic
Pochettino, meanwhile, refused to be too perturbed by the result, insisting that his side had the better of the first half.
“The first half was really good, I thought we played better than Belgium,” the US boss said.
“It’s only one game.”
The US will be hoping to bounce back when they welcome Portugal to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Tuesday.
Pochettino’s side then play matches against Senegal and Germany in May and June before kicking off their World Cup campaign against Paraguay on 13 June (UK time) in Inglewood, California.
