Captain Carlos Bocanegra said that after the 1-1 draw with group favourites England his side would have to maintain the same level of intensity when they play Slovenia despite the likely drop off in hype and anticipation.
"For us to keep raising the bar, to take the next step, we need to be consistently at the same level whether it's against England, Italy or whoever," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"We've got to be consistent. We need to keep the intensity up in maybe a game that's not going to be as hyped up all around the world as our opening match was."
"In our locker room, it was not like we were popping champagne after the game," he told a small group of reporters.
"Guys were satisfied with the point but no one was ecstatic. We haven't always done well coming off a good result and continuing that and so I think that was part of the feeling.
"I've always said, especially after last year, that we can compete with any team in the world and we believe that. What makes teams great is (doing) it 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times in a row and we haven't proven that we can do that yet."
"The biggest thing for us is that if we do have a lot of possession not to get too excited and open ourselves up," Bocanegra said. "We have to push the game in a smart way."
