Australia's bully-ball style may be reason enough to keep a hampered Christian Pulisic sidelined Friday

The last time Christian Pulisic walked on to a soccer field where Australia stood as the opponent, he didn’t play again for more than three weeks.

It would be a challenge to describe this as a coincidence.

There may be no tangible evidence that either of the two hard fouls applied to Pulisic by defender Jason Geria in less than a half-hour of the United States men’s national team’s “friendly” against the Aussies – this is why I persist in calling such games “exhibitions” – led to the injury that forced him out of that game and four on AC Milan’s schedule. That doesn’t mean it all was unrelated.

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So with Pulisic bothered by a calf injury that kept him out of the second half of the USMNT’s opening victory against Paraguay, it’s understandable head coach Mauricio Pochettino would be cautious about deploying Pulisic in the team’s second Group D game Friday in Seattle.

MORE: Latest injury news surrounding USMNT star Christian Pulisic

After the way Australia conducted itself in that game last October, there is genuine cause for concern the Socceroos might try to go all Philadelphia Flyers on the USMNT in this vital game, with a victory putting either one certainly into the next round and extremely close to clinching first place in the group.

Defender Chris Richards, who took over as captain after Pulisic’s injury in October, criticized the referee’s handling of the game and told reporters afterward, “They’re lucky it was a friendly. I was ready to go.”

He did not mean he was planning to leave the stadium.

Geria insisted then he was not intending to injure Pulisic.

“We’re a physical team,” he said, “and we’re up for a fight regardless of the opponent.”

Pulisic did not train with the USMNT the first three days of the week in California, and though he was seen in advance of Thursday’s session in Seattle, he did not take part in the short period of activities available for reporters to observe. It may be that Pochettino is trying to convince Australia the U.S. lineup will be different; or the staff could view him as either not ready or not ready to be installed as a target for the sort of needlessly rough play seen last time these two met. And that might be even more a focal point given how much contact referees in this tournament have allowed to go unpunished.

MORE: US looking to build off brilliant Paraguay performance

Aside from issues with their star player’s health, were the U.S. to demonstrate the same degree of skill and audacity as in last week’s victory over Paraguay, the opposition taking a physical approach might turn out to be an advantage. However, the U.S. can’t only be preparing for this. There’s also the matter of young forward Nestory Irankunda, who torched Turkey’s back line for the decisive goal in their World Cup opener.

“Australia are really comfortable defending; they put everything on the line. And obviously they’re a real threat on the counterattack,” USMNT left back Antonee Robinson said Wednesday. “Training up in the next few days is going to be all about how we nullify their threats, and what positions we need to get into to exploit their back line and, obviously, try and score goals.”

BONN: Breaking down Australia's World Cup roster

“We know this is going to be a very tough World Cup match. Every team is very tough,” winger Brenden Aaronson said. “Of course, with Australia, they made some really good runs in the last World Cup, so we need to be ready to go.”

The odd thing about Australia’s approach to this game is how much they seem to take offense at the most innocuous comments from American media. The Aussie contingent has spent a lot of the week leading up to this game expressing agitation about comments made by CBS Sports Network analyst Mike Grella. Grella is best known for playing three seasons with the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer when they twice finished first in the Eastern Conference.

He may be a fine analyst, but some of us have yet to see his work. He has fewer than 15,000 followers on X and 17,000 on Instagram. That’s not exactly Messi’s reach.

His offense? He called the game a “layup” for the USMNT. Grella made his comment during live coverage of the World Cup draw. That was more than six months ago. It hasn’t been forgotten.

“Being dismissed as a ‘layup’ really rankled immediately,” David Weiner, who co-founded the web site Football360 AU, told The Athletic. “It immediately stoked the fire in December that this would be box-office buildup for six months.”

And, no, it was not just the Australia media.

“I’ve seen all the U.S. stuff and I’m just sick of it, to be honest,” Australia midfielder Connor Metcalfe told reporters. “All this talk, let’s just wait for the game. Whatever happens, happens. It’s just so much rubbish, honestly, I’m just sick of it.”

One thing Metcalfe is right about, for sure.

The less rubbish, the better. The World Cup should be about soccer.