“In terms of when we started this journey together, we've seen the evolution of the team, the growth of the team,” said Popovic. “We're seeing players maturing individually, but also being able to add collectively as one and it's just been building.

“It's been building and that was a game (against Turkiye) that it all came together in terms of the belief being present in the moment, understanding it's a World Cup.

“For a lot of the boys it’s their first time but they’re playing as if they belong here and we'll need that again tomorrow because it's a wonderful opportunity tomorrow for us.  

“I think the opportunity for us is to get another win and I think that's what we're focusing on. And to do that we need to perform well again, and if we can do that then we give ourselves a chance to fulfil that goal of getting another victory.”

Popovic declared his squad fully fit after the opener in Vancouver while admitting that the US presented a different challenge to the one offered by the Turks.

“Turkiye were more European style in terms of their technical build-up, slower build-up. Fantastic possession,” he said. “I think the US team has a good mix of the two. Very powerful, very athletic so we know it will be a different type of challenge.

“Playing the host nation here as well is a wonderful challenge, but also a wonderful opportunity for us and we know that. We will need to be better than we were against Turkiye to get a get the result we want.”

The meeting will be a re-run of a friendly encounter between the two nations played last October which the United States won 2-1 in Colorado with Popovic confident his team has improved over the intervening eight months.

“We've worked on a few different areas and ways that we believe we can try and manage the US team when they are attacking,” he said.

“Of course it will be a difficult challenge but one that we've prepared well for and we come in with confidence and we have our own belief as well that we can also cause them some problems

“We take what we need out of that game, I'm sure the US would have as well. We wanted to experience playing in the US, we experienced playing in altitude with travel. We tested ourselves with travel, so for us, we got what we wanted out of that game. We had a fantastic hit out.

“It's a very good opponent and so we were pleased with that and since then we feel we've improved. We're a better team now than what we were in October and I'm sure the US is as well, and so it should be a really good game tomorrow.”