JP Dellacamera and Landon Donovan are scheduled to be calling the match from Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, while Jenny Taft will be the sideline reporter.
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Tournament hosts US face Ecuador in Seattle and the German manager wants a star to be born as his team bids to reach the semi-finals.
The USMNT has had a pretty solid Copa, despite the humiliating 2-0 loss to Colombia that opened the tournament. Looking to spearhead the home side is lead striker Clint Dempsey; the veteran frontman has scored two in two for the U.S. and enters the fray looking for his 52 career worldwide goal.
DeAndre Yedlin picked up two yellow cards in the span of a minute early in the second half and will be suspended for the quarterfinal.
The favourite teams include Argentina, with the showman Lionel Messi and a powerful team ready to win Copa America, after the elimination of both Uruguay and Brazil.
Ecuador advanced into the knockout round with two hard-earned draws, playing Brazil to a 0-0 draw and then erasing a two-goal deficit to pick up a 2-2 draw against Peru.
Already in this competition, the United States (2-1) has played before crowds of 67,439 in Santa Clara, California; 39,642 in Chicago, and 51,041 in Philadelphia.
Familiar foes: These two teams met not too long ago, playing in a friendly before the Copa America in late May. Unless Venezuela, ranked 77th, shocks Argentina in another quarterfinal match, the Americans will have to play the top-ranked team in the world. They need to make sure that they are communicating at all times and not have any mental lapses. It’s been three years since the USMNT played a match in Seattle.
“We had the World Cup Qualifier [here], which was a tremendous atmosphere, tremendous support”. This will more than likely be one of the few places that the usa will travel to that will have more home fans than fans from the other team. Seattle, despite being every bit as diverse as some of those cities, is all in for the US, however. Behind a passionate and euphoric crowd, Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad have all the ingredients necessary for a final four date in the Copa América Centenario.
That encounter offered a glimpse of how Ecuador prefers to play on the counter and use the pace of Enner Valencia up front and Jefferson Montero on the left to pose a threat going forward, but it scarcely reflected the magnitude of a knockout match.
Yedlin said through the U.S. Soccer Federation on Sunday that the first infraction came on what he thought was “a fair 50-50 tackle” and he was very surprised to receive the yellow card.
USA: Guzan; Orozco, Cameron, Brooks, Johnson; Bradley, Bedoya, Jones; Zardes, Dempsey, Wood.
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Klinsmann has gone against type in this tournament by naming an unchanged lineup for three successive games for the first time in his tenure. We tell them tomorrow, be courageous, go at them.
