Coming into the clash against the World Cup co-host, Australia was riding a seven-match winning streak - undefeated in its last 12 games and 11 since Popovic took over from Graham Arnold over a year ago.

Another win beckoned at Dick's Sporting Goods Park when defender Jordan Bos netted early but the visitor was overhauled 2-1 by the world number 16 Americans after a brace from striker Haji Wright.

"I think we showed tonight that we can definitely be competitive at the World Cup," Popovic said. "I thought we competed against a very good team, very well, throughout the game.

"We pressed very high early, we had some good opportunities at 1-1.

"We did not get the win but I thought we had a good performance, a better one than what we had against Canada (when) we got the win."

World number 25 Australia, which qualified mid-year for the 2026 World Cup in North America, has previously struggled to score but it has added new dimensions to its attack with the development of 19 year-old Nestory Irankunda and 21 year-old Mohamed Toure.

Irankunda scored the winner in a 1-0 friendly against World Cup co-host Canada in Montreal last week but started on the bench with Toure.

Introduced after the hour-mark, Irankunda conjured a good chance late on with a barrelling run into the box but was unable to produce the equaliser Popovic sought.

The coach said the younger players laboured in the thin air at a venue 5,200 feet (1,584m) above sea level, the highest elevation among Major League Soccer stadiums in the U.S.

"You could see they were struggling to breathe and they couldn't repeat the efforts (of) the senior players .... who handled that well," Popovic said.

"So they showed a glimpse of their quality but I thought we lost a little bit of momentum when they came on."