Craig Levein says his Scotland players have no option but to take their 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the USA on the chin and ensure they show a massive improvement in their next game.
The Scots crashed to the heavy defeat - the worst of Levein's tenure as national team boss - in a friendly in Florida. He now wants to see the squad back on track for the visit of Australia in August before the World Cup qualifiers begin in earnest the following month.
Levein said: "We can analyse the game, and we will do, but I think focus is the most important word. We weren't as focused as the USA. Our team have been excellent recently, with some great results, and it was most unlike them. We will take it on the chin and we will be much better next time."
The match was supposed to help Scotland prepare for the qualifiers, which begin with a daunting double-header against Serbia and Macedonia. Asked if there were any positives from the Jacksonville game, Levein added: "I thought a couple of players performed reasonably well but that's not enough in an 11-man game."
The hosts enjoyed a blistering start to the match with two goals in the opening 11 minutes in front of a record crowd of 44,438 for a friendly in the state of Florida. Star man Landon Donovan opened the scoring after just three minutes, before Michael Bradley grabbed a quick second.
There was brief hope for the Scots when Geoff Cameron turned a Kenny Miller header into his own net. But two goals from Donovan after the break allowed him to complete his hat-trick before Jermaine Jones put the gloss on the victory for the USA.
Levein said: "We started the game poorly and in those situations, we got back in the game. We got to half-time and we probably should have been more behind to be honest.
"We were hoping we would get a boost going out into the second half but, again, we lost an early goal. With nothing to play for and with it being the end of the season, the players feel as though they are tired."
He added: "It was evident that there was one team out there who were focused and ready to play the game and another one who looked as though they had finished the season and had nothing to play for.
"But I have got to recognise that the USA played extremely well. They started the game very quickly and before we knew it, we were two goals down. We didn't give ourselves a chance in the match. But I've got to recognise that there are two teams and I thought the USA were very good."
Source: PA
