Like everyone else, the members of the USMNT have been glued to their screens these last few days. They, of course, have watched plenty of film about Australia, particularly their group stage opener against Turkey. In their “off” time, the players haven’t stepped away from soccer completely. Instead, they, too, have been watching the World Cup.
Aaronson and Robinson, for example, were locked in on Argentina’s win over Algeria on Tuesday. They watched that game as competitors, of course, but it was hard not to let the fan come out during those Lionel Messi moments of magic.
“Watching the Turkey and Australia game, it was great to watch, because we could all sit down and kind of pull apart the game and see what we can do to kind of influence the game,” Aaronson said. “I think that’s pretty cool. And then just watching, like, the Argentina game yesterday is, it’s a little bit of who you’re playing farther in the tournament, but also the fanboy comes out of all of us watching Messi score a hat-trick. That’s the coolest thing about it.”
Robinson added, “For the fans watching, obviously, Messi is probably the greatest footballer who’s ever lived, and he’s still going, still showing quality, so as a fan, I’m sure it was amazing to watch him. That’s the magic of the tournament. You want to see the world’s best doing what they do on the stage.”
That said, that fandom will get put aside the longer the tournament goes on. During the group stage, it’s easy to watch casually, but the longer the tournament goes on, the more these big matchups become a reality.
“If we do play Argentina and it comes around, we’ll all be ready to go,” Aaronson said, “but, yeah, it’s just fun to watch all these games.”
