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World Cup: USA vs. Portugal (SBI Live Match Commentary)

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By IVES GALARCEP

MANAUS, Brazil — Win and they reach the World Cup Round of 16, lose and things will get extremely complicated.

That’s the task at hand for the U.S. Men’s National Team as a victory against Portugal today at Arena Amazonia would secure a place in the knockout rounds for the Americans, who would move into first place in Group G with a win.

Standing in the way is Portugal and reigning World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, who will look to erase the memories of a disappointing 4-0 loss to Germany by torching a U.S. defense that showed signs of vulnerability against Ghana.

For some pre-game reading, here is my Goal.com piece on how the U.S. team will go about stopping Ronaldo. Also, former U.S. World Cup hero Brad Friedel chimes in with a detailed breakdown of what it’s like to face a Cristiano Ronaldo free kick.

SBI will be providing live commentary on today’s match so please feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Today’s commentary is after the jump):

Comments

  1. I think we start all German born player. I was really hoping Jurgen was gonna take off JJ and put on Chandler. Crowd would’ve went nuts as JJ comes off Chandler’s speed could’be given us a chance at another goal, but Im not gonna lose any sleep because if you had told me we could out play Portugal without Jozy…doubt. Great players make great plays. We aren’t out of this yet
    I believe that we will win!!!

    Reply
  2. Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. Analyze, conclude, and go forward. Fabian Johnson needs to play RW, Cameron RB, and put Brooks in at CB with Besler. Brooks has seen and played against the German National Team. He can read the tactics and anticipate play. Brooks should dominate in the air against Germany. Klinnsman needs to show faith in the ENTIRE team. I would not hesitate to put Cameron as a DMF with Jones and play Yedlin or Chandler at RB. Yedlin will become a STAR BIG TIME.

    Reply
    • Very good insight Mike G.
      Also Will Sulley Muntari, being out with card accumulation have to save the day,
      or will the U.S. team take it by the horns, and control their own destiny?

      Reply
    • +1…. JK should play all german-based players…

      its not so much that Brooks has seen the german national team, but Fabian, Chandler, Brooks, Jones, and even Green have played against the bayern, borusia guys… and are familiar with german player’s individual abilities, tactics on/off the ball.

      it can only help.

      Reply
  3. Is it just me, or could Beasley have intercepted that slow pass out to Ronaldo? Of course he was exhausted, and it would’ve been a huge risk if he didn’t get it, but looking at the reply, it looks like if he went after the ball, he could’ve cut out the pass as he had with others earlier in the match.

    Reply
    • Playing in a position that I am not best at because my Coach moved me there about 2 months ago. I’m doing the best I can but that’s not my position!

      Reply
  4. Probably gonna take this to tie the Germans.

    ——-Howard (circa Spain ’09 Confed Cup game)—-
    F. Johnson – Boca & Gooch (circa ’09) — F. Johnson
    ——————J. Jones’s twin brother———————
    Landy (circa’09-’10)—J. Jones——–F. Johnson——-
    —————————-McBride——————————

    Reply
  5. Absolutely great performance by the our guys. We took the game to Portugal, we deserved to win.

    With that said. I am disappointed in Bradley. The man has been god awful in both games. I can’t put any blame on Cameron because he had quite a bit of room to clear. His back and front were open because some of our tool players forgot to get back in the box. It’s was Bradley fault,.. He’s been giving away to many balls in dangerous zones. And that goal he missed, oh c’mon MB! Damn. Maybe moving to the MLS wasn’t such a good thing. He’s awful, but there is no one to replace him in our roster.

    Reply
    • I think you hit the nail on the head: moving back to the MLS has finally caught up with him.

      He was God-awful in the first match and upped his performance to horrible this time around.

      I told everyone he needed to be benched after last game. You simply can’t perform that poorly in the World Cup and keep your spot. Remember Clark? Mix should have gotten that spot today.

      Reply
  6. I said it last game: BENCH BRADLEY.

    But no, EVERYONE attacked me…everyone called me names…now everyone (at least those who didn’t do that) can EAT THAT CROW BABY!!!

    Now, I say bench Cameron. He cost the team TWO goals. Put in that German boy.

    I was right. Most of you were wrong. Deal with it.

    Reply
    • Bench Howard!!!! Cameron made the mistake but Howard left the goal wide open by falling down. And he kicked the ball into the crowd in the 90th minute on a goal kick.

      Reply
    • HAHAHAHAHAHAHA you’re a joke dude! You also claimed we would be lucky to score and that we’d likely lose, that there’s no way we can play well…etc, etc…you’re one really crazy dude…enjoy that echo chamber in your head.

      Reply
    • expat/SanFran415 you are little a-hole beach. shut your f-ink mouth and the mouths of all your sockpuppets you are posting under knocking MB on this one thread alone. you are such a silly girl and such a disgusting POS.

      Reply
  7. We are +1 and Ghana is -1 They would have to beat Portugal by 2 goals Or we would have to lose by 2 or more for Ghana to go before us. That’s the ONLY realistic scenario in which we don’t go through. If we lose, we’re not out as some on here think. In fact even if we lose, the majority of scenarios get us though. Obviously a tie or win see us through no matter what.

    Reply
      • That’s what i said. We’d have to lose by 1 and they win by 2 or we lose by 2 and they win by 1. But a 1 loss by us and a 1 win by them sees us through.

      • sorry then, I thought you were saying either or . .. and its a big “and”; two reasonable soccer scores send the US on a plane home

    • Not even true. If Germany beats us 1-0 and Ghana beats Portugal 2-1 Ghana advances on goals scored. We only have a +2 differential on the first tie breaker and only a 1 goal advantage in the second tie breaker which is goals scored

      Reply
    • Goals scored is the next tiebreaker, so a high-scoring Ghana win by 1 goal and a low-scoring US loss by one goal and Ghana would be through.

      Reply
  8. USA-Germany

    ——————Howard

    –Cameron–Brooks–Besler–Beasley

    —————Jones—Beckerman

    –F Johnson—-Bradley———–Zusi

    ————–Dempsey

    Just to start the game.

    Reply
  9. All the tossing blame out there! No one is commenting as to why JK parks the Fawkin bus the minute we not only get the equalizer, and then continues this strategy on after we get the lead goal! We went 6 minutes being dominated immediately after scoring our 2nd goal.. then played Honduras style futbol until we give the eventual equal to Portugal. All parking the bus does against GOOD TEAMS, such as all those in the World Cup, is give them chances to abuse you, and as we’ve found out multiple times, they certainly do. The Porto. equalizer equates like someone dropping a turd into your party punchbowl!

    Reply
      • Jack your right Bradley was one pass away and we would have won this game but it was way to defensive in the last few mins of the game

    • I’ve always said playing defensively loses you games. Playing not to lose is just STUPID. Additionally, they gave up on that last play. None of them really even tried. They assumed they had won….Ridiculous…

      Reply
  10. Now there’s no hiding if we make it out of the group that means we deserve it!. So how does this work? Is a tie good enough to get US and Germany out of the group?

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    • If we lose, we are out.

      If we tie or win, we are in.

      That is pretty much it, although there is an outside chance that neither Ghana nor Portugal will score enough goals to surpass the USMNT.

      Reply
      • Portugal have an awful goal difference they would probably need to win by three qualify. Besides we will draw with Germany. Old boys network and all.

      • If we lose, either Ghana or Portugal must win and make up the goal difference. If Ghana and Portugaul tie, the US is through. It will be decided on the field obviously, but most scenarios favor the US going through.

      • The only realistic scenario is where we lose by 1 and Ghana wins by 2 or we lose by 2 and Ghana wins. If we lose by 1 and they win by 1 we go through. with Portugal the Difference has to add up to 5 basically. Unrealistic.

  11. Bradley is gonna get eaten alive by the locker room, but if I can say one thing to both Germany and the USA… JUST DRAW. PLEASE.

    Reply
      • I disagree. I think it will be a draw with the German JK and Lowe (the german coach) are old buddies. They know a draw will be enough for both of them to qualify. Plus no one wants to leave Ghana in to potentially come back and punish you in a later round.

  12. U.S. gave away the ball way too cheaply at the end. Going into a bunker after scoring the go-ahead goal never works–they should’ve kept on attacking and trying to possess the ball. One of the last plays, Yedllin was in perfect position again to hit a cross in to Wondo and he took to the ball to the corner instead. A team has more focus if they keep trying to score an insurance goal.

    Reply
      • I think Yedlin looked great for hiss short time in there.

        He was a little shaky at first but his run started the second goal sequence and he looked like he wasn’t intimidated by the European stars playing for Portugal.

        All and all, a great showing by him.

        Now, can we please get back to how AWFUL Bradley was???

    • Yedlin made the right choice 100%, you need to try and kill off time there unless the scoring chance is absolutely can’t miss. If he makes that cross and it goes the other way you’d be blasting him here, like Bradley did against Ghana. He made the right play.

      Reply
  13. Not too worried. It would take a mathematically unlikely event to get knocked out now. Plus Belgium may be easier than Algeria. We have a bad record vs African/middle eastern teams.

    Reply
    • No it doesn’t. It takes a us loss by 1 goal and a Ghana win by 1 goal and were tied in goal differential. Not that hard to believe. If we lose by 2 and Ghana wins by 1 they advance we go home

      Reply
  14. Michael Bradley has played like someone suffering from a neuromuscular disease. He cannot make the simplest pass to a teammate without the opposition intercepting it. He cannot beat any defender off the dribble. The Bradley family is the curse that keeps on giving. We had to suffer the incompetence of his father as coach . Now he cannot make the simplest pass . Maybe subconsciously the fact his father was replaced by Klinsmann has resulted in Michael going from the best player on the team to the absolute unquestionably worse player on the team.

    Reply
  15. Bradley was HORRIBLE the whole game.

    And Cameron is NOT a centerback. He cost the team two goals.

    Apart from that, the team was great. Much better than the last game. Great turn-around!

    And what about Jones? MTOM again for sure. He is a force for us.

    Reply
    • I agree bench him, Beckerman and Jones out played him by miles. If this is our last game I’d rather he not step on the field.

      Reply
      • Last game, I told EVERYONE to do that.

        You simply can’t play THAT POORLY. EVER.

        He was garbage. Better than last game but still garbage.

        And what about Cameron? He cost us TWO goals.

        I say bench him too. Put in the German center back.

        Now we have to get at least a point from Germany.

        30 seconds away from winning back-to-back games since 1930. Think about that….

    • Cameron definitely cost us 2 goals smh…..As stated by the masses Bradley has been putrid at best and it’s a shame because he has been talked up as our savior for some time now! That just may come back to bite us in the ass which if proven to be true could set the program back!!

      Reply
      • He almost cost us a chance before that when Jermaine passed him the ball and he was caught flat footed!!! WTF was he thinking these are important games

    • Cameron has looked really well as a CB since the send off series. Especially by Ghana. He was superb. But by far his worst game today. Maybe we need to see more of Brooks.

      Reply
    • HAHAHAHAHA you can go stick it in your craw kid. You’ve been saying that there’s no way we beat Portugal, etc, etc. Now you’re acting like you called everything last game and you were always right????? You’re crazy dude.

      Reply
      • I guess that crow must taste poorly.

        I never said we wouldn’t beat Portugal. In fact, I said the opposite.

        But I DID call Bradley out. I was 100% right there. So eat it boy!!!

    • That goal happened because JJ should have come out instead of Zusi. Crowd would ve went nuts. We could’ve been more balanced in defense. Oh well we need to beat Germany and finish 1st in the Group anyway.

      Reply
  16. Gutted. Why did Michael Bradley think he had to be cute with ball. He had played so well. Maybe fatigue? Just pound the ball; no tricks.

    I have to take a deep breath. I guess going into the tournament if you told me we had 4 pt.s from the first two games, I would have taken it.

    Please let us get a point off Germany.

    Reply
      • Are you sure you are not thinking of the Ghana game where he was atrocious? The miss wasn’t that bad, the Portugal player made a good play. I will be curious to see what his pass percentage was before I would call him garbage.

      • You do realize that in most scenarios (something like 80%) we get out of the group? If there’s a draw in the other game or if Portugal win, we’re through. If we draw, we’re through (not likely based on the “Manaus Curse).

        Unfortunate that this happened, but still-4 points is 4 more than I thought we’d get.

      • All it takes is a Ghana win by 2 and a us loss by 1 and were out. This Is not even remotely close to a sure thing in fact I would say were most likely out at this point

      • Neither Nate Silver, nor any other predicting site, agrees with you. DO NOT CONTRADICT THE SILVER!!!!!!!!

  17. We all thought going into this World Cup we needed Bradley to be the best player. He very well might have been the worst.

    Reply
    • Totally agreed.

      He was the worst player last game and this time around was the second, only next to Cameron.

      A great game though but I am gutted. Less than a minute to go boys!!!!! 🙁 🙁

      Reply
    • Bradleys mistakes are magnified by when and where they happened. Can anyone tell me a single postive thing that either Zusi or Bedoya did tonight?

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      • Okay, I’ll be that guy and say Zusi’s cross on Dempsey’s goal. But I agree that Bedoya was invisible all night except for that shanked cross and Zusi seemed to get overrun on many occasions. From such a high to such a low in that game.

      • Zusi was shooting and all credit goes to Dempsey . . .okay maybe not 100% a shot, but Dempsey had a lot of work to do

      • All of Zusi’s crosses were really off tonight. I did notice that.

        Bedoya was nowhere to be seen but I don’t know if that was his fault or not. I really was paying attention to him that much.

  18. Bradley blew it. Why is there always 5 minutes of stoppage time when we play. I swear the most I’ve seen in any other game this cup is 4.

    Reply
    • I whole-heartedly agree. Why isn’t anyone (else) talking about this??? There was 5 minutes of stoppage time in the USA/Ghana game, when we were ahead by a goal. I’ve been watching all the games, and I have never seen 5 minutes for any other game. Plus, there wasn’t any need for this much stoppage time today – there weren’t any major injuries or significant interruptions in the play in the 2nd half. It was also reported that the USA was the least ‘hoped-for’ team to win the Cup world-wide. So, I do feel that this outcome today was a manipulated one, and I find that detestable. I’m infuriated. There should be some push-back or at least demand for justification of stoppage time by the teams.

      Reply
      • I never liked the way stoppage time is administered.
        They make it so random and arbitrary,
        which leaves a lot to human error and judgment.
        It would be very easy to get a precise and accurate
        account of just how much time was dead time
        ie goals, fouls, injuries, subs and random?,
        (like the Neo Nazi on the field) etc.
        Here is an extra stop watch,
        just time it.
        Soccer, it’s a sport with a clock.
        Get it precisely right because we can.

    • Careful now: When I told THIS ENTIRE FORUM the same thing, they attacked me to no end.

      How does that crow taste boys??

      Apart from Bradley and Cameron, the team played great ball. Fabian was a beast and Yedlin played great for the time he was in, while Jones was again the MTOM.

      Now, we have to at least tie Germany. NOT GOOD.

      Reply
      • I agree most of the blame falls on Bradley. But Cameron isn’t without fault. He got caught ballwatching.

      • It wasn’t all on Bradley, Cameron definitely has to share some blame. All he has to do is keep tracking the runner. It looked to me like he was ball watching again.

    • Uncle Sam is right: bench Cameron.

      Both of those goals were his fault: not marking his man.

      Put in the German kid.

      And while you are at it, bench Bradley, like I said after the first game.

      HOW DOES THAT CROW TASTE NOW BOYS?????????

      Reply
      • USA all the Way. I do not disagree,
        MB has been stinking, whether it’s missing Donovan,
        Altidore, and or Edu?.
        His play has been very uncharacteristic of him.
        No defense, when it is clear that He is not an attacking midfielder.
        He lacks the necessary skills for that position.
        He’s worth a few good forays forward,
        but not spearheading every attack.
        in short he is out of his comfort zone positionally and perhaps personnel wise to some extent?.
        That said he needs to be the Pro and USMNT, player we have known him to be. The team needs him back in better form.
        Thursday, just became even bigger?.

        P.S. Who would have thought Cameron would be the biggest liability we had on the back line?. I hope they get it together?.

  19. Not sure why the runner was so open there, Fabian or Cameron should be communicating on that one. Terrible giveaway by Bradley in the midfield.

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