Facing Elimination, U.S. Is Focused

If none of the technical designations, such as World Cup Match 25 or Stage 1 Group E second game, conveys the proper urgency for the United States’ game against Italy on Saturday, then let U.S. striker Eddie Johnson provide a better label.

“It’s like the playoffs,” Johnson said. “One game and you’re out.”

The U.S. team has spent the last four days describing how the Czech Republic’s goal five minutes into the opener Monday changed the tone of the game. The Americans’ subsequent 3-0 loss rearranged the framework for the Italy game. If they lose this one, their World Cup is effectively over, their remaining game with Ghana reduced to nothing more than a glorified friendly.

The Czech Republic and Italy (which won its first game against Ghana) lead the Group E standings with three points apiece. The top two finishers from each of the eight four-team groups advance to the next round.

“We know that we need to win on Saturday, or at least take points from the game,” U.S. midfielder Bobby Convey said. “I think there has definitely been more urgency in training. For sure. People want to play. Guys that didn’t play” in the opener “want to prove that they need to be on the field and guys that did play want to prove that they should still be on the field.”

U.S. Coach Bruce Arena still won’t say exactly which 11 players will be on the field Saturday. One candidate for a spot on the bench was midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, based on Arena’s postgame comments and Beasley’s retorts. But at his news conference Thursday, Arena tried to douse the briquettes of his flare-up with Beasley.

“DaMarcus hasn’t been a problem with anything,” Arena said. “There’s no issues with DaMarcus.... I know it doesn’t sound as exciting as you want it to be, but there’s no problem with DaMarcus. I think remarks from me and DaMarcus should have been not even stated.”

So it sounds as if things have settled down a bit, and folks are saying they’ve moved past the sting of the opening loss and are back into game mode.

Landon Donovan, another target of Arena’s criticism, and Beasley “are big enough people, they have big enough personalities that they’ll take it, they’ll come out in the next game and be fired up,” Convey said.

Defender Oguchi Onyewu said, “I think the overall mood of the team is positive. Of course people are disappointed with the loss, but that’s to be expected.”

Some wonder whether four days to prepare for Italy is enough time for Arena, whose plan of attack against the Czechs has come into question. Arena keeps going back to dramatic effects of an early goal such as the one Jan Koller scored against them.

“We do all of this planning, and then you might have to throw it all out the window,” Arena said. “Something happens.”

Which brings to mind Mike Tyson’s theory, that everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth.

The good news for the Americans is that the Italians aren’t expected to come out swinging.

Their approach is, “At all times, safety first,” Arena said. “They have the right numbers in the back and you very rarely see them get caught out of shape.”

Arena said Italy’s predictability and execution make it “one of the easiest teams in the world to scout, one of the hardest to play against.

“You know what they’ve got, you know how it’s coming. It doesn’t change from game to game, year to year. You know what they are. It’s a little cleaner team to analyze and say, ‘This is what they’re going to do.’ ”

Arena called Italians Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino “among the best strikers in the world.”

One of the keys will be how aggressive the referees allow Onyewu to be. He joked that in the first game he was able to find out within five minutes, when he received a yellow card. If Onyewu receives another yellow card against Italy he will be suspended for the next game.

“You really can’t think too much about it,” Onyewu said. “If I get another yellow, it’s out of my hands. My responsibility, if I’m on the field, is to play the way that I know how to play. Whatever comes out of it comes out of it.”

Onyewu had the right mentality in the first game, but Donovan and the forwards need to be more aggressive.

The Italian squad has “some of the best defenders in the world, but they are getting older,” Convey said. “We need to run at them. We need to create more chances.”

If not, it will be the Americans’ last chance to show they can compete with the world’s best.

“They belong here,” Arena insisted. “There’s no question they’re able to perform on this stage.”

The question is, how much longer will the show go on?

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.