Width, pressure and finishing: how USA can turn round their World Cup

The defending champions have ground their way into the tournament's knockout stage. But they need to improve quickly against a strong Sweden team

As a fire alarm echoed throughout Eden Park on Tuesday night and the public-address system asked everyone to evacuate, most of the crowd of 42,000 stayed in their seats in confusion. It turned out to be a false alarm, and almost too fitting a metaphor for a night to forget for the United States.

A scoreless draw with Portugal secured the defending champions a place in the knockout rounds. That was widely expected by most of the world prior to the tournament. How the US got there, however, could be generously described as a grind.