Garrick
Awesome, lid.
ALL ABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARD
NEXT STOP: MANAUS.
We have a strange position right now as Yank Evertonians. On one hand, we’re so callous to those “big game moments” where a win could propel our beloved football club to greatness. The disappointment is just expected by this point. But… We’re also still Americans, home to blind optimism and unparalleled patriotism. So, this current situation is a bit of conundrum. Here’s the deal.
WE BEAT GHANA! It was ugly. Our midfield couldn’t keep the ball to save their lives. Except for the goals themselves, this was one we’d all soon rather forget. US possession was below 40%. Ghana put in the most crosses of any side in the tournament in a single game. And, we lost our only target forward to injury. But hey, good sides win when they’re playing poorly, yeah?
And Germany… They… Drew Ghana? Yes, the side everybody thought would pull 9 points out of this group with ease needed a late goal to rescue a point. So if we beat Ghana, and the Germans draw Ghana, yet Germany demolished Portugal…
We should win the group, right?
Perhaps I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but win today and the Stars and Stripes are through to the knockouts. And not only that, we will also have sole command of 1st place, with only a point required against Germany to cement the place.
Yep, eat it all of you that said “Ohhhh der USA are s****, no points and no goals for them.” Nope, too bad. Even when we play like garbage we can score off set pieces like it’s nobody’s business.
Everything you know is wrong, black is white up is down and short is long. The Costa Ricans got 6 points off of Italy and Uruguay to qualify for the knockouts, Spain are already eliminated, so are the English, and Portugal face an elimination game against the United States of America.
So here we sit, ready to make some chaos of our own against a Portuguese side that played for 60 minutes with 10 men and will have at least 4 (four!) different players in its lineup tonight. One of A Selecção’s star centerbacks, Pepe, out on suspension. Left back Fabio Coentrao, ruled out. Striker Hugo Almeida, ruled out. Keeper Rui Patricio, ruled out. The other star CB, Bruno Alves, game-time decision. And now the Portuguese get to travel deep, deep into the jungle to rumble an American side that has played in these sort of conditions before. It is hotter in Houston today than it is in Manaus. No joke.
Backs against the wall, wounded dog, etc. Go back a couple months ago and nobody would’ve been able to predict that it would be Portugal facing elimination tonight. “Oh, but they were ranked 4th by FIFA!” Yep. That matters. And now they’re writhing in pain on the ground, about to get rolled over by a steamroller with Klinsmann at the helm.
But, of course, they still have Ronaldo. That pretty, Ballon d’Or winning menace. If there’s one person that could pull a weakened squad though a difficult situation, it’s probably him. Questions about his fitness are still abound. He’s most likely not at 100%, but he’ll still be playing.
The back four, shepherded by a stellar Kyle Beckerman at DM, did a phenomenal job handling immense pressure against Ghana. Our own Tim Howard was barely even tested in the net. But, it’ll be a different kind of pressure against the Portuguese. Moutinho is a wizard at picking out a pass to start the counterattack. We won’t have the luxury of watching patiently as Beasley flops around before a bit before they put a jarg cross in.
As for your Yanks, the lineup will look pretty similar to the one put out against Ghana. Both Besler and Dempsey have been cleared to play, and looked quite comfortable together in the middle. Fabian Johnson will be on the field somewhere, although there is debate if it will be at LB or RB, as we could give old man Beasley a break. The midfield will look remarkably similar, especially after Jones had one of his best games in red, white, and blue on the left. Hopefully Bradley will rebound after putting in one of his worst performances in an American shirt. But hey, considering we built our midfield around him, and we still won against Ghana with him giving away a lot of ball, imagine what it could be like if he’s on! We’ll need great pressure in the midfield to lock down the other 10, good-but-mostly-pedestrian players on the field to isolate Ronaldo on an island like Germany did.
Either Johannson or Wondo will join Dempsey up top. Neither are a like-for-like replacement for Jozy, but hey, it could be worse, we could be Portugal. I would choose Wondo to put in some goofy looking diving headers against the weakened back line we’ll be facing. The handsome devil would never make it in the Prem, but he can slot ‘em against the smaller fish, such as Portuguese second stringers.
I’m sure all of this optimism will be punished later, but for now, perhaps surviving our personal group of death isn’t too much to ask. That “I believe that we will win” chant is infectious, and it has spread to the team on the field. We have, so far, only experienced less than 5 minutes of World Cup time where it hasn’t been true.
For me, personally, there is a TON of vault worthy garbage that I’ve spewed all over this fine forum. And I don’t think this is going to be the time I’ll be found out. Not against Portugal, you overrated, hobbling beauts.
Bury them. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.
THE YANKS ARE COMING.
