USMNT has plenty to prove on Sunday against Canada. 'It's about how you bounce back'

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The last time the United States men's national team faced Canada, in a September friendly match in Kansas City, the Reds played the Americans off the field, winning for the first time on U.S. soil since 1957.

Afterward, interim USMNT coach Mikey Varas publicly called out his players' lack of effort.

"The mentality is on the players. They know it," Varas said. "We speak the truth to each other. I love those guys. But they know that mentality to fight, to run and to sacrifice, I can't do that for them. That's on them."

Mauricio Pochettino was hired as the full-time U.S. coach a week later; at his introductory press conference, the highly respected former Chelsea, Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager vowed to restore the Americans' fighting spirit above all else.

That combative spirit was nowhere to be found in Thursday's soul-crushing 1-0 loss to Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals. The defeat eliminated the U.S. from title contention in a tournament they'd won the first three editions of, and the manner of it sets up what now feels like a inflection point in Pochettino's short tenure so far: Sunday's third place match against the Canadians (kickoff at 6 p.m. ET).

Most third place games mean nothing. Neither team wants to be there. But given the way Pochettino's squad lost to Los Canaleros, this one sets up as a pivotal gut check for USMNT a little more than a year before this generation's legacy will be cemented at next summer's FIFA World Cup on home soil.

"For me, [Sunday] is going to be an important game to see how we react," Pochettino said on the eve of the rematch. "We need to show character."

Some of the players who under-performed on Thursday — which was basically all of them