Auston Trusty has reflected on fulfilling a lifelong ambition by representing the United States at the World Cup, describing the experience as the ultimate achievement of his football career.
The Celtic centre-back reached another milestone during the tournament by netting his first international goal in the USA’s final group-stage match against Turkey, bringing up his tenth senior appearance for his country.
Looking back on the competition, Trusty admitted it will take time for the significance of the achievement to truly sink in.
He said via Glasgow Times: “After the World Cup, I am going to take my family on vacation where I can sit back and come to the realisation that, ‘Oh my gosh, I just played in the World Cup and my dream is complete!’”
The defender also hopes the tournament leaves a lasting message that extends beyond football.
“When everything packs up, and people move on with their life, I hope they can take from the World Cup how beautiful people are, how beautiful our different cultures are, different ethnicities, different races, and different religions. We’re all people of this earth.”
Trusty believes the demands of playing for Celtic helped prepare him for the pressure of competing on the biggest stage in world football.
“I came to this World Cup as a champion with Celtic. Celtic are one of the most historic and well-known teams around the entire globe. So playing for a club like that requires a different kind of mindset.
“In each one of my games, we have over 60,000 fans in the stadium. And it’s an environment where it’s only a winning mentality. Losing is not accepted whatsoever. So that shift in your mind really helps you adapt. It’s sink or swim. If you can swim, your mindset just goes through the roof.
“I won two trophies last season with them, but this year was a more historic win. We faced a lot of trials and tribulations and ended up winning on the last day. It was like a storybook ending.”
Trusty feels the expectations that come with representing Celtic gave him the perfect grounding for the scrutiny and pressure of the World Cup.
“So with the pressure of an entire country and millions of people around the world watching and rooting for you, you want to come out on top. Playing for Celtic only makes you better prepared for a similar situation coming into the World Cup.
“I’m really happy I got to experience that kind of real pressure going into this because to be able to truly lock in for multiple games over a long stretch is very hard.”
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1 Comment
Personally believe Trusty can count himself very fortunate or very unlucky with his world cup venture with the USA?
Depending upon which way you want to look at it imo?
Still say Trusty is a much better player, than the American captain in the position?
Ultimately, a very poor managerial decision taken, which cost the USA hugely in the end?
Could have possibly done better in the right CB position also, than the option used last night, especially as Trusty had to play the majority of his games, last season in the role, where he isn’t best suited for either imo?
So showed great character in order to do that for ourselves, something the USA badly missed last night?
At least he should be available for ourselves and the start of next season hopefully?