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One of the main goals for the United States in the 2018 World Cup cycle is to learn to set the tone of a game against world-class competition. The U.S. has a reputation for being a strong competitor that can challenge the world's best on any given day, but the fact the team averaged just 42.3 percent possession during the 2014 World Cup -- ranking 31st out of 32 teams -- suggests that the Americans are not able to consistently dictate the pace of the game against strong opposition. We saw this trend again in the team's recent friendly against Denmark, where the U.S. ended the first half with just 35 percent of the game's possession before climbing back to 48 percent by the end of the game.