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Klinsmann “not worried at all” about being placed in Group of Death

JurgenKlinsmannUSMNTWorldCupDraw3 (AP)

By DAN KARELL

Out of all the thousands of possible permutations in the 2014 World Cup draw, the U.S. Men’s National Team arguably ended up with the worst draw out of all 32 teams.

As if being placed in Group G with Germany, Ghana, and Portugal wasn’t tough enough, the U.S. plays all three of their group stage matches in the north and northeast of Brazil, where they’ll be greeted with high temperatures and stifling humidity. With the nearly 9,000 miles of travel that the USMNT will have to take during the group stage alone and the difficulty of their opponents on paper, it would be easy for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann to admit that he’s worried about his team’s chances.

Instead, Klinsmann is doing his best to think on the bright side, citing the team’s record 2013 calendar year as proof that they’re ready to take a step forward.

“I’m not worried at all,” Klinsmann told U.S. Soccer about being in one of the toughest groups in the tournament. “I’ll just take it the way it is and we’re going to prepare the best way and we’re going to be well prepared for the World Cup. We’ll build up confidence and believe that we can get good results to get into the next round. We’ll do our homework on Portugal, Germany and Ghana.

“We’re excited about this, big time. That’s where you want to be in a World Cup. It’s a difficult draw but we’ll find a way to go through it.”

Of the many story lines in play at this World Cup, one that quickly stood out was the opportunity for Klinsmann to face his friend Joachim Löw and his native Germany in the group stage. Klinsmann of course was the head coach of Germany from 2004 until the end of the 2006 World Cup, where his right-hand man was Löw. After Klinsmann left, Löw took over and has lead the German squad to a third-place finish at the 2010 World Cup, second-place at Euro 2008, and a semifinals place at Euro 2012.

As soon as Germany and Ghana were paired together, it almost seemed as if fate had it in for the U.S. to join them and continue the narrative.

“I kind of had in my stomach that we were going to get Germany,” Klinsmann said You know I wanted Brazil in the opening game, but obviously it’s one of the most difficult groups in the whole draw. Having Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo and then Ghana who has a history with the United States, it couldn’t get any more difficult or any bigger but that’s what the World Cup is about, it’s a real challenge and we’ll take it, we’ll take it on and hopefully we’re going to surprise some people there.”

Klinsmann admitted following the draw that after discussions with many of the other World Cup head coaches, they all agreed that the last place they wanted to play would be in Manaus. The capital of the Brazilian state Amazonas, Manaus is the definition of playing in a tropical rainforest. And with concerns about travel, an unfinished stadium, and the reported need to take malaria pills, it’s no surprise that most teams had hoped to avoid making that trip.

“It is what it is,” Klinsmann said. “We don’t complain. We take it on. We do the traveling and we adjust to the climate. This is what a World Cup is about, it’s about these challenges. It’s exciting in certain ways, and a big challenge. That’s what we want.

Comments

  1. I have been calculating: just read the number, based on the fifa ranking:

    So spain is #1 with 1507 FIFApoint and Australie #32 with 564 FIFApoints
    With this given, I can make the next list, where i put the teams in a ranking in the last 32 countries who compete in the WC 2014 and I made a list which counted all the points in one group:
    Example:
    Group B =
    1 Spain 1507
    9 Neth. 1106
    15 Chile 1014
    32 Australia 564
    Total:
    57 4191
    Poule : WR FIFAPointsTotal
    Group G 44 4358
    Group B 57 4191
    Group D 51 4031
    Group C 62 3811
    Group A 75 3577
    Group E 75 3546
    Group F 77 3497
    Group H 87 3345
    So Poule G (Germany, Portugal,USA and Ghana) is by far the hardest poule and Poule H by far the easiest(Belgium, Algeria, Russia and Korea). Difference: 1013 Fifa rankingpoints!!! and on average 43 lower (as a poule) than the german poule (so 50% lower placed countries and a 25% difference in FIFA points….
    Why just don’t make a list on who is best or not and not depending from which continent you are from…
    And still, for the conspiracy thinkers here: it’s weird that brasil, switzerland and france have the easiest poules (read, brasil, Blatter and Platini…)
    Why are Italy and the Netherlands not placed teams, way better than Switzerland(Blatter;) and Belgium.
    The Dutch didn’t lose a single game in de qualifyers for the WC…most points, moste goals, it’s a weird system…
    Hope you get the numbers 😉
    Enjoy
    List of 32 teams who compete in the WC:
    Rnk Team Pts
    1 Spain 1507
    2 Germany 1318
    3 Argentina 1251
    4 Colombia 1200
    5 Portugal 1172
    6 Uruguay 1132
    7 Italy 1120
    8 Switzerld 1113
    9 Netherlds 1106
    10 Brazil 1102
    11 Belgium 1098
    12 Greece 1055
    13 England 1041
    14 USA 1019
    15 Chile 1014
    16 Croatia 971
    17 Côte d’Ivr 918
    18 France 893
    19 Mexico 892
    20 Bosnia 886
    21 Russia 870
    22 Ecuador 852
    23 Ghana 849
    24 Algeria 800
    25 Costa Rica 738
    26 Nigeria 710
    27 Honduras 688
    28 Iran 650
    29 Japan 638
    30 Cameroon 612
    31 Korea Rep. 577
    32 Australia 564

    Reply
    • You think Brazil is actiually #10? No they are #1 or #2. The FIFA rankings have some issues and they are never very up to date. They rely on calculations made over almost 8 years. The real rankings of these teams is something like this

      1. Brazil
      2. Spain
      3. Holland/Germany
      5. Belgium/Argentina
      7. Italy
      8. Uruguay
      9. Portugal
      10. Colombia
      11. Switzerland
      12. US
      13. England
      14. France
      15. Greece

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  2. A lot of uninformed and football illitertaes on this site!!! Lol!!! They are confused like something haahaaaaaaa!! Mali and libya beat ghana in the WC qualifiers?? Ahahaaaa!!!! Where? Your so called USMT team ll be CRASH HEAVILY by ghana!! This time around, we ll gather all your bones and buried them in the amazonian forest in Brazil!!! People thinks ghana is coming to Brazil for sight seeing but on the contrary we are COMING TO BRAZIL TO WIN THE WORLDCUP!!!! I know USA fans are figeting about Germany and Portugal but we Ghanaians are not scared of them today, tomorrow or forever!!! We fear no foe!!! We are the black stars!!!

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  3. One thing that could play to our advantage, that i haven’t seen written, is the crowd. Our fans travel well and we should have the the better support in at least the ghana and portugal games. That could prove to be the boost that we need in the end.

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  4. Cherundolo has to be in form or it doesn’t help. Same with Chandler, who if committed, might have the speed and skill. Cameron might be OK against Ghana but CR7 is another matter. Frankly, I think we need FJ on the left and an in form Cherundolo or Chandler on the right but I’m still very leery of any of our center back pairings.

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    • Werd. I was hoping brooks would work his way into the conversation, but that hasn’t happened yet. If wc started today, I like fj, bessler, og, cameron

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    • Cameron is fast. The US does not lack team speed, Ronaldo is not going to be as wide open when he plays the US as he was when he played Sweeden. I see a US Portugal game ending 3-2. You just hope that we are the ones that put 3 in.

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  5. I’m glad that he’s taking an optimistic approach, but he’s no dummy.

    BTW his initial interview reaction after the draw was priceless. His let out a laugh when he said Germany that reminded me of the sound that George Michael Bluth mad the first time AnneHog tried to break up with him (half sob/half/laugh/half yelp of agony).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=f14pc-OSJCQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Df14pc-OSJCQ%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&app=desktop

    really though, if we’re gonna have a snowball’s chance, we gotta beat Ghana. it’s all about beating Ghana.

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  6. So tired of all the pessimism surrounding this draw. Arguably the toughest draw???? If you would rather be in australia’s place, you need some mental help. Its certainly very tough, but there is no clear #2 team.
    Everyone seems to be correlating “Ghana always beats us” to “Ghana is an elite team”. They backed into qualifying after losing to mali and libya and were lucky to draw a (sorry Bob) mediocre egypt in the playoff.
    Portugal struggled throughout the group tying Israel twice and Northern Ireland once. Only to be rescued by Ronaldo playing out of his mind right now.
    All FOUR teams in the group are talented, I wouldnt be so quick to assume we cant get results in our first two matches.

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  7. What else do you espect JK to say? How about the headline in our local newspaper’s (which mostly ignors soccer) article about the draw – DEAD ON ARRIVAL for the US. Yeah, it’s a tough draw, but there is always a chance, that’s why they play the game, right?

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    • Your local newspaper sucks, Mom. That headline was written by some burnout who make 13k per year and hates soccer. Eff them. Believe in something. If you want to watch the USA win, watch basketball. Of course, we are expected to win, and we don’t always do so, and you will feel lots of fear, and the thing that feels like joy when you watch soccer will feel more like relief. Or you could try baseball, which we tried to get the world interested in, and although we generally failed, the few countries who did buy in got much better than us very quickly, to the point where we casually allowed Olympic baseball to be removed, so as to save us the embarrassment of never even making a medal game.

      So you’re left with soccer. But it offers something the others don’t. Every goal that flies in feels amazing. Every point we take from those snobs is like 10 because that’s how they feel. But yes, losing still sucks. Always next time.

      Reply
    • It’s a good intuition. Maybe there is a solution that looks like this. But if you are traveling in an enormous triangle, being in the middle only makes it longer. I’m not sure it is realistic to think they can afford to spend time coming back to any kind of home camp in between games– all indications suggest you couldn’t budget less than a day for any of the travel involved and the team has terrible travel as-is. Maybe better to be close to either your first (and let’s face it, most important) game, so that there is no travel or unfamilairity. Or one could argue that we would be better served having a home base closer to the final game w Gernamy. After 8000+ miles of travel, perhaps the familiarity and resource base would provide some benefit going in to the final challenge, where we would almost certainly need some form of result against the group’s best team.

      But really, it’s just a discussion. Sao Paolo is a done deal and I’d be shocked if they threw the established plans out the window at this point. Heck, they might only find available remaining resources near Manaus. I could make an argument for this but …

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    • Klinsmann has a pretty kush job, especially since his family lives in the US. He wants to be around another cycle. To do that, he has to advance out of the group at a minimum.

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      • Even with not advancing and a respectable showing, considering how strong the group is, I’m sure Klinsy would be brought back.

      • Actually, Klinsmann has already signed a huge extension. He’s coming back no matter what. And that’s a good decision because he has been involved in helping the US game improve on every level and in every age group.

  8. “Out of all the thousands of possible permutations in the 2014 World Cup draw, the U.S. Men’s National Team arguably ended up with the worst draw out of all 32 teams.”

    That basically says Ives believes we’re the worst team in our group. If those three have better draws than us, the difference is they play us where we have to play them.

    Sure, there’s the humidity thing, too, but the teams we’re playing will be in the same humidity.

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    • Idiotic. Australia, Costa Rica and Ghana ended up with worse draws than we did. It’s not even an argument. Put the US into five out of the seven other groups and that group becomes the group of death.

      Look at the live commentary during the draw: “Which team out of Pot 4 do you least want to draw?” Something like 4% for Portugal. All of the sudden now that we are in their group, we are doomed. Is this a tough group? Absolutely. With the ridiculous way the draw works, though, our chances were about 50% to be drawn into a group just like this. Until they start using rankings for all of the pots, it’s always going to be this way.

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      • I’m not so sure about Costa Rica because I think England might wilt in Brazil. One of their games is in Manaus and they really have no experience in heat and humidity. Still, chances of Costa Rica getting out of that group are pretty slim, but I see Uruguay and Italy as very likely and Costa Rica could hold their own with the English.

      • England will take last place in that group. Costa Rica is more ideally suited to play in that climate and the English are always over-confident.

    • No it doesn’t. It means we are playing about the best teams in each group that we could have been drawn against.

      Germany, Portugal, and Ghana also have among the most difficult groups they could have had, whether or not they are the best team in the group of worst team in the group.

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  9. Klinsman must be the most upbeat person I have ever heard. He wakes up and drinks a gallon of his kool-aid every morning.

    Funny, after watching so many video interviews of JK, I hear his accent in my head when I read his quotes. “zee next leyvel”.

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  10. No margin for error. No room for unfavorable calls. Players like Beasley and Evans probably not going to cut it (I like them both). Bradley has to be at his best. We’ll need youth and aerobic capacity for every game (the physicality of Ghana, Portugal game in the rain forest and the dynamism of Germany). Only the order is a little helpful. Ghana first, before they can get more organized, Portugal might be more likely than us to melt in the rainforest (we didn’t exactly crush it under similar circumstances in Honduras) and Germany may already be in by the time we play them.

    I would expect JK to be saying exactly what he’s saying. What else could he say?

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    • +1

      I am on the same page as you.

      The order is very important.

      A win against Ghana is everything. It many ways, the phycological importance out weights the actual points. I bet if the US wins and plays well against Ghana, we will beat Portugal and tie Germany.

      Bradley, Howard and Altidore have to be on 100 percent for that to happen but it could. I wouldn’t count the US out. We have the track record for drama and never-say-die attitude.

      It’s going to be intense to say the least.

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      • We have to play to expectations and beat Ghana, and then play for an upset in the second game. Of the two European teams (and we’ll probably have to upset one, tie both or at least tie one and hope for help in other games) Portugal is the better upset target than Germany.

        Contain Ronaldo (easier typed than done) and we’ve got a shot. There’s little doubt our defenders can’t do that for 90 minutes. DMs and wings will be the key in that game to just the containing Ronaldo part.

    • It’s possible that Germany handily defeats Portugal in their first game, leaving them demoralized and ready for upset. Hey, we can hope.

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    • Toughest group, but not worst draw.
      Each team made the round of 16 in 2010, Portugal’s only loss was 1-0 to Spain, Germany lost a shocker to Serbia but their only other loss was to Spain, our only loss was to Ghana in extra time, and Ghana’s only losses were to Germany and to Uruguay on PKs. It’s not as top heavy as Spain-Netherlands and Chile, but we don’t have a weak spot like Australia either.

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    • Agreed. There’s a realistic (albeit miniscule) possibility that USA & Ghana could be the 2 teams to advance from Group G.

      Australia pretty much has no chance.

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    • Australia’s problem is not the draw.

      Their problem is they are not very good and probably would have been in trouble regardless of the group they were placed in.

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    • What I thought from the beginning. Spain is probably better than Germany, Holland is better than Portugal and Chile, playing on their home continent, is probably better than Ghana. Even a good Australian team would be doomed, as we would be, too. And this is not a good Australian team. Poor Chile had a similar group last time with Spain, Honduras, and I forget the last team, but it was a very tough group.

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  11. can we drop the headlines about klinsmann not being worried already? pretty sure it’s a given.

    – KLINSMANN “NOT WORRIED AT ALL” ABOUT BEING PLACED IN GROUP OF DEATH

    – KLINSMANN “NOT WORRIED AT ALL” ABOUT IRAN’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITIES

    – KLINSMANN “NOT WORRIED AT ALL” ABOUT AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE

    – KLINSMANN “NOT WORRIED AT ALL” ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

    – KLINSMANN “NOT WORRIED AT ALL” ABOUT APOCALYPSE

    “I’ll just take it the way it is and we’re going to prepare the best way and we’re going to be well prepared for the apocalypse. We’ll build up confidence and believe that we can get good results to get into the next world. We’ll do our homework on disease, starvation, and death.”

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    • Nicely done, and point well-taken: water remains wet, and “Klinsmann not worried at all about” headlines are along the lines of “Arena complains about” headlines. (Disclosure: As a Galaxy fan, I love me some Bruce, but come on, if you can’t laugh at yourself and your favorite coach…)

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    • Yes. However, he is a major competitor and regardless of his physical state, his mind will be ON.

      He is Portugal’s attack. Shut him down and our chances increase 80 percent. Still, it will a tough match for the USMNT.

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      • Portugal has other good players. They are a good team. The US is improving quickly and by the time World Cup is here it should be a very competitive match. The US are actually slightly better at penetrating a defense with creativity. The teams are equal at holding the ball. Portugal is better on the break.

    • Most players can take only so many minutes before injuries start to crop up. Look at Messi now. Ronaldo is fortunate that he hasn’t had any serious or long term injuries, but it is a possibility that sometime this season they could start to show up because he is playing so many games. Or it could be that he is the exception to the rule and he’ll score a hat trick on us. One never knows.

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  12. In all honesty, the US is the second best team in the group. Ghana has two world class players (Boateng and Muntari), two good players (Gyan and Ayew) and the remainder are role players. Portugal obviously has Ronaldo, but the remainder of their team has a history of underachieving (outside of potentially Moutinho). Additionally, the US is the best equipped of Germany and Portugal to deal with the long travel and humidity, both of which are not present in European qualifying.

    It’s all about the first game against Ghana. Win and things look up. Lose and things look waaaaaay down.

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    • so tell me than, what US players are world -class, or your definition of good, that makes the USA so much better than Portugal and Ghana, Who are the USA players that are so much more than role players, as you say?

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      • Bradley, Howard, Donovan, Cherundolo all are pretty good consistently and could certainly play for Ghana.. Dempsey, F Johnson, Altidore are starters for Ghana in form. I’m thinking this is what he’s getting at. Honestly their defense is pretty unknown. All that said, of course we can get out of the group, but it’s going to take some good fortune just like it does for every team not named Spain, France (up until last time), Italy, Germany, Brazil, or Argentina.

      • Sorry.

        Altidore, Dempsey, Donovan, and Bradley would barely see the bench for Ghana.

        Not one of them is starting over Ghana’s midfield, which is composed of the following.

        Muntari – AC Milan
        Asamoah – Juventus
        KPB – Schalke
        Essien – Chelsea
        Mubarak – Rubin

        Optimism is all fun and everything, but not a single US field player outside of Cherundolo pre-injury would see the field for them.

      • Bradley would, Jones might. And while on paper Donovan doesn’t have that impressive a club career, he is effective and a game changer when used in the right way, as we all know. There aren’t a lot of players who can feed counters better than Donovan.

      • Yeah, but aside from dumping Egypt 6-1 (and then losing the 2nd leg), what has Ghana done lately?

        Not much, if you look at their record.

      • Pro Soccer, FIFA, and all governing bodies, are corrupt from top to bottom.

        Everything match we play has a major story line you can sell to the non-fan with the sole purpose of popularizing the sport in the US

        Everything you see is a lie

      • Bradley (Roma) would be the best player for Ghana. The US has more players that play for good European clubs than Ghana and most of Ghana’s Euro players play the same position and ride the bench. Beyond the player factor, this US team is well coached. Ghana is not. Ghana loses routinely to teams like Jordan, Libya and Japan.

      • Portugal:
        Required playoff win to qualify for 2010 WC, ’12 Euro, ’14 WC
        Came from behind to tie Cyprus 4-4
        Lost to Norway
        Came from behind to beat Luxemburg 2-1
        Lost to Russia
        Tied Northern Ireland 1-1
        Tied Isreal twice (once with a stoppage time goal)

        These were not friendlies. So stop running your mouths like we have no hope of getting a result against Portugal.

        I’m more worried about all the Brazilians with Portuguese heritage rallying behind Portugal.

      • Selective nonsense.

        In the final matches that determined their spot–they CRUSHED Northern Ireland, beat Russia, and then put on a master class to beat Sweden–a really good team.

        Portugal sit in 5th place in the world.

      • Silly me, using results from competitive matches that involved Portugal’s full squad. I really did select the meaningless results didn’t I.

        Am I trying to prove that Portugal can’t play really well? No.

        I am trying to prove that in games that matter, Portugal can falter. They have a history of it. You point to crushing N. Ireland, but the fact is they let in 2 goals, which is certainly not Portugal’s defense playing at their best. Just like letting in 4 goals to Cyprus, 3 to Israel. The reason Ronaldo ran rampant on Sweden was because Sweden open way up in the back throwing numbers forward.

        Some people on here want to talk about Portugal like they are Spain. Believe me, when they aren’t playing USA I will be rooting for them with my in laws and thinking that they can play any team there. But the idea that USA has only a small chance against them in illogical. We have players with great experience and a team that can really become more then the sum of their parts.

    • I’m cautiously optimistic about getting a point off or maybe even 3 against Portugal, but there’s no way we’re a better team than they are. If we play them 5 times, we win one, tie one, but they take 3.

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    • What? No.

      You forgot….
      Essien – Chelsea
      Mubarak – Rubin
      Asamoah – Juventus
      Badu – Udinese

      And Portugal?

      Pepe
      Postiga
      Nani
      Meireles
      Alves
      Caentrao

      Pretty sure they took Spain to penalties in the semifinals of the Euro Cup just a year ago–and that was with Ronaldo out of form.

      We are without question the 4th best team.

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      • Essien is 31 with two serious knee injuries. Have you seen him play for Chelsea this year? Your Portugal players are inconsistent performers as Hobo said before. I’m not saying we are head and shoulders above those two, but they certainly look beatable on any given day. Germany is in another class of course.

      • What the heck does “inconsistent” even mean?

        In their last major tournament – Euro 2012 they beat Denmark, Czech Republican and the Netherlands before taking Spain to penalties.

        Their Euro Cup finishes?
        2000 – 4th
        2004 – 2nd
        2008 – 7th
        2012 – 4th

        Their World Cup finishes?
        2006 – 4th
        2010 – 11th

        Inconsistently better than us in every. possible. way.

      • I did not realize that Reyna and JOB were still bossing the US , that Pope was still at CB , Freidel was still in goal and that McBride was still upfront for the USMNT.

        I feel a lot better now about the US’ chances.

      • Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that the Portugal team that finished 2nd in Euro 2004 and 4th in Euro 2000 but lost to the US in WC 2002 was better in every possible way. A great history of consistency. Haters gonna hate. They aren’t Germany and they aren’t North Korea or Australia. They’re upper middle of the pack just like the US and Ghana hence group of death.

      • Well, come on, just like the US? Portugal isn’t top-tier like Germany, but they aren’t that far away, either. Beatable, but it would be an upset for us to do it.

      • A small upset… The US are as good as Sweeden at the moment and Sweeden and Portugal were evenly matched. The US is actually more creative in front of the goal than both Sweeden and Portgual but not as good on the counter-attack.

      • Jones is a mixed bag and a walking red card as well, USA vs. Portugal is probably a tossup that depends almost entirely on one matchup: Ronaldo vs. Howard.

    • Ironically, much of our scouting will be based on the two recent games Ghana had with Bob Bradley’s Egypt. I hope Klinsmann’s staff talk to Bradley about Ghana and pick his brain on how to prepare for them.

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