Australia put in one of their worst halves of football under Tony Popovic, but their efforts weren’t helped by a controversial VAR call.

The Socceroos were horrid in the opening half and were in some respects lucky to only be trailing 1-0 in the closing stages as they desperately tried to hang on until the half-time break.

In the 45th minute, Alex Freeman headed the ball home after a Sergiño Dest shot ricocheted off Australian defenders, but the flag was up for offside.

However, the VAR stepped in with replays showing that Florian Balogun was offside, not Freeman and awarded the goal to put the USA 2-0.

While there was no question that Freeman was onside, there were doubts over Balogun, who was in front of goalkeeper Patrick Beach when his teammate scored.

“From what we understood, he probably impeded Beachy,” Socceroos assistant coach Paul Okon said in a halftime interview.

Australian coach Tony Popovic tread a careful line in his post-match press conference, but was clearly disappointed in the decision.

“I’m not sure on that one,” he said of the second goal.

“Unfortunately, that didn’t go our way. Today wasn’t the best day for the referee.

“We felt frustrated today with the referees.”

It wasn’t just the coaching staff with plenty of fans questioning how they could have overruled the referee’s initial decision.

Ultimately, because Balogun did not touch the ball or Beach the VAR gave the goal and capped off what was a miserable first half for Australia.