I feel sorry for the U.S. Mens Soccer Team. They not only have to play Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the two best footballers in the world, but they have to do it in the Amazon where the forecast is “a temperature of 79 degrees with 87% humidity and a chance of thunderstorms.” I can’t imagine trying to run for 90 minutes in 87% humidity.
When England played Italy in Manaus on June 14th, the entire team seemed to wilt after about 70 minutes. America’s star player, Clint Dempsey, is supposed to play despite the broken nose he sustained in the first match against Ghana, but he hasn’t been able to breath clearly through both nostrils and he cancelled a news conference appearance yesterday without explanation. America’s main striker, Jozy Altidore, is out with a tender hamstring.
Of course, Portugal has its own problems.
Portugal, ranked No. 4 in the world, is missing four players: striker Hugo Almeida, goalkeeper Rui Patricio and defender Fabio Coentrao, all of whom are injured, and defender Pepe, who was suspended one game after drawing a red card in the opening 4-0 loss to Germany.
In addition, the availability of Bruno Alves, the team’s most experienced defender, will be a gametime decision, Bento said.
Ronaldo is reportedly suffering from tendonitis in one of his knees, too.
Portugal will be the more desperate of the two teams, as a loss will eliminate them from the tournament after two games, which won’t be good news for the world’s 4th-ranked team. If the USA wins, they are through to the knockout stage of 16, and they can rest some players against Germany. A tie will likely leave things to goal differentials, where the U.S. currently has a two goal advantage on Ghana and a five-goal advantage on Portugal.
With the stakes and environmental conditions, today’s match is going to be an epic struggle.
America’s star midfielder Michael Bradley is prepared for the challenge: “This will be a World Cup where teams that do well will suffer,” Michael Bradley told ESPN’s Roger Bennett before the World Cup. “We want to be the team that can suffer the most.”
I’m heading to the American Outlaws pub here to watch the match.
USA! Bomaye!
So far we have seen some great matches, many reviews consider this World Cup the best in recent history. There have been upsets and surprises, but especially many goals are scored.
There have been heartbreaks like the Messi goal in stoppage time to beat Iran 1-0. The second half of Germany against Ghana was quite exciting with a 2-2 draw as final result.
Fortunately, it has been about the game of soccer and we have seen some excellent refereeing.
The protests on the streets in Brazil have subsided but I dread the moment team Brazil gets knocked out before the finals.
Messi was marked very tightly by defenders for full 90 minutes, Iran made a third player substitution in 88′. In extra time, Messi was left unmarked as 7 defenders plus goalkeeper were inside the box! Poor defending left Messi completely free to choose the far post to put the bal in the net. The nearest Iranian player was Reza Ghoochannejad (16), a forward!
BBC Sports – Messi’s stoppage time goal
The refereeing hasn’t been all good. Bosnia got hosed yesterday, for example, when a bogus offsides negated a goal.
But a lot less drama than I remember from the past. It seems like there have been some horrific calls in past WCs. This year, I can only recall two.
(Both of which hurt teams from the former Yugoslavia…)
Agree with both of you. There have been some really bad calls but fewer than normal. Of course, a key factor has been that we haven’t yet seen a bad call hurt a team that was considered a top contender – but that will happen in the elimination rounds.
12 minutes to go, Iraly vs. Uruguay … Suarez does it again, bites defender in the shoulder. A minute later, Uruguay scores important goal. One Italian was already off with a red card. A mean game, the Mexican ref wasn’t quite up to the challenge.
Incredible.
Suarez does it again, bites defender Giorgio Chiellini in the shoulder.
○ (Video) Luis Suarez Bites Giorgio Chiellini and Could Be Set for World Cup Ban
See my earlier post – Luis Suàrez.
Suàrez should be banned for the rest of the World Cup 2014. At first it looked like a head butt by Suàrez, the Italian defender showed the bite marks in his shoulder to the ref as Suàrez was hurting his front teeth.
BBC Match Report
Final draw for World Cup 2014, the 8 seeded teams were: Brazil (host),
* 7 top teams from FIFA World Ranking October 2013
o 4 European teams: Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland
o 3 South American teams: Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay
Teams already knocked out are:
Spain (1), Cameroon, Australia, Greece, Japan, England (10), Honduras, Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Team USA should do well, they are ranked as #13 and two spots ahead of Holland. 🙂
I like the U.S. team, but we’re so not in Holland’s league.
If the USA wins, they are through to the knockout stage of 16, and they can rest some players against Germany.
Do you really think Klinsmann would do that? Don’t you think he’d love to send Germany home? Why do you discount the great “F–k You!” he could give to the German soccer establishment, given how he left after the ’06 World Cup?
I don’t think he’s too worried about avoiding Belgium, so he won’t much care about winning the group, especially when you’re risking injury to key players and Altidore’s hammy still needs time to heal.
And I don’t think he’d much enjoy eliminating Germany. Besides, Germany has a plus four goal differential and is sitting on four points. Portugal or Ghana would have to slaughter each other to win a tie-breaker. Let’s see.
If America wins today, Portugal is eliminated and Ghana would have to beat Portugal 5-0 to tie Germany and 6-0 to overcome them.
If America ties Portugal today, Portugal would have to beat Ghana 9-0 to overcome Germany.
I don’t see why Klinsman would think either result possible, so he’ll rest his key players if the team wins today.
Some players are only on the roster for the potential for third game rest.
Germany is pretty safe even if it loses to the U.S. Actually, the US is still in good shape, even after the heartbreaking tie with Portugal. Realistically, the two teams fighting for the last spot from this group are us and Ghana.
A win or tie against Germany, and we’re in. If the US loses and Ghana wins, we would be at most tied with them, and Ghana would grab the last slot if we lost by more than one goal and/or Ghana won by more than one. It would take something more for Portugal to get in, as they have a 5-goal differential deficit to the U.S.
Question: what is the next tiebreaker if two teams fighting for the last slot have identical points and goal differentials? Would it be goals scored?
Never mind re. my question; just saw the answer downthread.
It is too hot in the rain forest to play soccer. The second half is just gonna people walking around wanting to die.
USA BABY!!!
Getting a tie is a major accomplishment, but that hurt.
Given the way the last minute of that game went down, the closing quote you use in that quote is very telling. It was Bradley himself who couldn’t will his body to suffer for a few more seconds.
With less than 30 seconds left in the game, the ball came out to Bradley on the Portuguese side of midfield with room to operate. If he could have sprinted forward with the ball a few yards, or if he had even been able to stay on the ball a while right there, we win. Instead, he essentially stood there with the ball, two Portugal players came from behind him and extracted the ball from him immediately, they got the ball on Rinaldo’s foot quickly, and about 15 seconds later we were tied.
Yeah, have to wonder by Jurgen didn’t use subs until the very end and also why the ref didn’t repeat his first half act of stopping the game for water. Oh well.
link
Erm… Go Portugal! Win within reason!
My son’s idol is Ronaldo, so we may need to get two TVs in the same room.
My dream is that Ronaldo scores a screaming winner against Ghana at roughly the same moment Michael Bradley gets some redemption with a tying goal against Die Mannschaft.
Ugh, tonight was gut wrenching.
Right, the scenarios are complex, but realistically the only scenario where one of the 1-point teams (Ghana/Portugal) will beat out one of the 4-point teams (Germany, US) for advancement to the elimination round is if:
3A) Ghana wins point diff – means either they win by at least 2 or US loses by at least 2.
* OR *
3B) Ghana ties for (3A) and ends up with more goals than the US – currently US 4, Ghana 3.
* OR *
3C) Ghana ties for 3(A) and 3(B) and wins the more obscure tie breakers.
Because the first tie breaker is point diff and because Germany is +4 and Portugal -4 it will be very hard for Germany to lose a tie break (if they lose to the US) or Portugal to win a tie break. Realistically Germany is through and Portugal out, although technically they still have a chance.
Correction: if 3A and 3B end up tied the US wins because of goal differential in head-to-head.