It remains unclear why the team was sent to Texas for training camp and one match, then headed to the thin air and cool weather for a game in Denver.

Jason Geria was the Australian defender who felled the USMNT’s star man, but he was keen to insist that it was not the result of a premeditated plan. “I wasn’t specifically going out to batter him up or anything,” the Albirex Niigata fullback told The Athletic.