When the USA invited 15 Latin American neighbors over to play a little soccer this month, Coach Juergen Klinsmann promised not to be a rude host and leave the party early.
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United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann is not playing down the magnitude of their final Group A match against Paraguay, with a place in the Copa America Centenario quarter-finals at stake.
By that measure, the US will be staring disaster in the face on Saturday when it faces winless Paraguay in its final game of group play at Lincoln Financial Field (FS1, Univision, UDN, 4 p.m. PDT ).
The 31 ranked USMNT will be favored against 44 ranked Paraguay, although the match should be close.
The Americans carry advantages into the match: They arrived from Chicago, while Paraguay came from Southern California; they are playing their third game in nine days, Paraguay a third in eight; and Paraguay attacker Oscar Romero is serving a red-card suspension.
The U.S. Men’s National Team all-time leading scorer, Donovan contributes to FOX Sports’ pregame and postgame studio coverage and also serves as a game analyst for multiple matches.
Expect a thrilling and intense matchup as a loss will end either team’s tournament run.
“Teams of that caliber, when they score first they know exactly how to defend”, Klinsmann said.
“We have to set the tone”. But we don’t have the character to sit back and let them come and hope to counter. Looking to fire his nation into the next round is lead striker Clint Dempsey. We go for the win. We go for the win. They looked to the likes of Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz for goals and creativity on counters as they offer a mix of pace, dribbling, and shooting abilities when played through in space and were looking to, along with Marco Urena, get in behind the United States defense whenever possible, especially if they were pushed higher up as in the first game. “This is already a knockout game, in a certain way”. “We have to keep a very high level of aggressiveness and a determination from the first second of this game”.
Jurgen Klinsmann insists the USA men’s team won’t be playing not to lose, even though barring a miracle, anything but a loss Saturday night will enable the team to advance to the Copa America quarterfinals.
There’s always the fear that this could just descend into a testimonial-style affair, but even if Colombia don’t need a result to secure top spot, I’d be surprised if they’re not keen to push for maximum points.
The U.S. team has a few things going for it, Bedoya said, after Wednesday’s 4-0 blowout of Costa Rica. They mostly held firm in the face of some serious Costa Rica pressure in the early going, then put the shackles on after Klinsmann switched from a 4-3-3 to a two-forward setup about halfway through the first-half.
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It’s been a typical tournament for the U.S. men’s national team. But if the U.S.do exit in the group stage, viewed through the prism of the past 18 months of poor results, it may be too many subpar results under Klinsmann for U.S. Soccer to bear. You want your players to go through that. They should be getting more familiar with each other with each game, and this should only make them more effective. In Yedlin and Johnson the United States have the pace to negate threats along the wings, but keep in mind that the back four were stretched and dazed by Costa Rica’s all-out assault in the early stages. “We do a good job of [regeneration] to make sure we are right for each game”.
