By Philip O'Connor
June 19 (Reuters) - After winning their opening World Cup Group D game against Turkey, Australia were brought crashing back down to earth on Friday when they lost 2-0 to co-hosts the United States in Seattle after a first-half collapse in which they gave away two goals to give themselves a mountain to climb.
Tony Popovic's side were the authors of their own downfall, conceding an own goal in the 11th minute and Alex Freeman added a second for the Americans just before the break,
and although the Australians improved in the second half, they never threatened to mount a serious challenge.
"Their quality is clear, their power is clear, their athleticism is clear. There are no surprises in what they did. We didn't match that in the first half. We found it difficult to win a challenge, to win a second ball," Popovic told reporters.
"We were slow to every ball, and we couldn't really wrestle back any momentum, which made it difficult. And look, we conceded a couple of soft goals really for us. They were soft goals, but we just looked flat and lethargic in the first half."
THREE CHANGES
The 52-year-old made three changes at the break and praised his young side for improving.
"We don't have the experience of playing in big leagues and having the minutes under our belt, but the response, where you can easily cave in under the pressure, physically, emotionally, we responded extremely well," he said.
"I'm really pleased with the second half, and it would have been nice to get a goal in those moments that we had, to just see what could happen next. But everyone should be very happy with how they responded after the break."
Popovic paid tribute to the Americans, who picked up their second win of the tournament to advance to the knockout stages.
"We needed to stay in the game better than what we did in the first half, but you've got to give them credit as well.There's a reason why they are so good," he said.
The Australians are still in the hunt to make the round of 32, and they face Paraguay in their final group game on June 25.
"We've shown in the friendlies before (the tournament) and in the game against Turkey, we're a resilient team. And that's all about recovery now and full focus on Paraguay," Australia defender Harry Souttar said.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
