LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — For most national soccer teams, playing a tournament on home turf is a huge advantage. For the United States, it can be the opposite.

In the Gold Cup final last year, the US lost in a Houston stadium overwhelmingly packed with rival Mexico fans. The semi-final in St Louis, Missouri, was a sea of light blue for their opponents Guatemala.

There were similar scenes at the US-hosted Copa America a year earlier.

It is a huge concern for the US players under extraordinary pressure to deliver as co-hosts at this summer’s World Cup, documentary filmmaker Rand Getlin told AFP.

“It devastates them. It hurts them. It makes them sad. They’re disappointed in themselves for not giving fans more to cheer for,” said Getlin, who spent the past four years embedded with the US team for an HBO series.

“They’re like, ‘I want to go out and I want to do something spectacular with this men’s national team at the World Cup, so we can change the way the sport is viewed in this country forever,'” he explained.

Getlin’s five-part docuseries is appropriately titled “U.S. Against the World.”

It takes viewers into the homes and locker rooms of several US stars including Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie.

The series charts their journeys from humble backgrounds in a then-soccer skeptical country to unlikely success playing for Europe’s top clubs.

It also depicts the sacking of Gregg Berhalter and the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as head coach less than two years before the World Cup.

Pochettino, the Argentine former coach of Tottenham Hotspur, was quick to note the contrast between the ferocity of the “unbelievable” Guatemala fans and US supporters.

“That is the connection that we would like to see in the World Cup. That connection that makes you fly,” said following the Gold Cup clash.

“To see (Guatemala), how they fight, how the fans behave, that is an important thing that we need to learn in this country,” he added.