PHILADELPHIA (AP) – U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann left his lineup unchanged Saturday night for the Copa America matchup against Paraguay, the first time since 1930 and only the second time ever the team used the same 11 starters in three straight games. A 3-0 victory over Egypt, coupled with Brazil’s romp over Italy by the same score, was enough to pull the United States even with Italy and Egypt on points, ahead of Egypt on the first tiebreaker (goal differential) and ahead of Italy on the second (goals scored). In the lead up to Tuesday’s 4-0 over Costa Rica, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati refused to guarantee that Klinsmann would still be in charge later this year. Venegas put Los Ticos up 1-0 with a 20-yard strike to the upper left hand corner in the second minute.
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In fact the only way the US can’t advance with a tie is if Costa Rica (0-1-1) upsets Colombia on Saturday and outdoes the Americans in goal differential, which is virtually impossible.
Paraguay continued to push forward, but could not equalize and was eliminated with the result, along with Costa Rica.
Meanwhile, Paraguay has 1 points from their last two matches and they desperately need to win this match against the host to qualify for the Quarterfinal otherwise, they will be out of this year’s Copa America.
“As I said yesterday, we don’t have the character to sit back and let them counter and hope for a counter break”, Klinsmann said. There was zero hesitation from the referee during Yedlin’s second challenge and for more than 46 minutes, the United States had to withstand storm after scoring storm.
Clint Dempsey then drew a handball on the top of the box, but his free kick flew just over the far post. “We have to be really involved in the game, set the tone, and keep a very high level of aggressiveness and determination going into this game”.
Defender DeAndre Yedlin agreed, saying that playing not to lose isn’t the ideal way to operate.
“The only result that’s going to do us any good is a win”, Diaz said in Spanish.
“We have to look for our chances certain times, but we have to be smart about it”, Yedlin said.
“This is already a knockout game on Saturday”.
“They will come out and take the game to us”.
A confident United States opening period saw the hosts probe forward aggressively, although their first shot came from a setpiece, Fabian Johnson curling a free-kick over the wall in the sixth minute.
The U.S. could have doubled their lead in the 62nd minute on a breakaway. “We want to be in a competition like this so that we can face big teams”. Klinsmann quickly subbed Dempsey out for defender Michael Orozco to provide stronger defense in the formation, and the usa proved able to maintain the result.
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It won’t be easy, but the U.S. will find a way to get through this.
