The latest goal that the United State's Men's National Team has ever allowed in World Cup history is the one that turns the stomachs of everyone in the world as Portugal scored on the final kick of the game to shock the United States and draw 2-2.
The United States made an incredible comeback overcoming an early goal to Portugal’s Nani in the first five minutes to win the match and advance to the knockout stage. Jermaine Jones had the equalizer and Captain America, Clint Dempsey scored the go ahead goal in the 81st minute, but their hearts were broken in the last 10 seconds of the match when Cristiano Ronaldo finally made his impression on the match with a beautiful cross to Silvestre Varela who headed it into the right corner of the net.
"We are disappointed but at the end of the day you have to look at the positives. We got a point, we have 4 points now. It's going to go down to the last game and hopefully we get the job done." Said USA Captain Clint Dempsey.
The result puts the Stars and Stripes tied with Germany atop the group with 4 points, but they are behind in goal differential. With the toughest match of the group against Germany still yet to play, the United States will be focused heavily on what happens between Portugal and Ghana which will be played simultaenously as thier match versus Germany.
Before the match, in somewhat of a surprise move, coach Jurgen Klinsmann chose to start an extra midfielder in MLS’s Graham Zusi over another forward like Aron Johannsson or Chris Wondolowski to replace Altidore. A move that brought staunch criticism from Landon Donovan who told ESPN he disapproved of the decision, calling it risky and saying that the message to your team is that we are going for a draw.
Team USA got off to a slow start in the match and it cost them early when an absolute catastrophic goal was given up at the 5 minute mark. Four defenseman in the box were unable to clear the ball and Geoff Cameroon, turned the ball over right outside the 6 yard box for an easy goal for Portugal's Nani.
I wrote earlier in my preview of the game that the United States could not afford to have a slow start here and go down early, and that is exactly what they did. The goal was their sixth World Cup goal surrendered in the opening five minutes of a game. The USMNT is now 0-20 when giving up such goals. After the goal, Portugal could smell blood in the water and continued to attack and pressure the U.S.
After the first blunder by Cameron, the United States looked like the better team for much of the first half. Nani, after his goal looked out of sync and turned it over multiple times which lead to strong U.S. counter attacks. Even playing with substitutes in the backfield however, the U.S. was unable to find the back of the net in the first half.Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley had a good game for the United States, creating opportunities often throughout the game.
FIFA’s new water break rule revealed itself in the 39th minute, and the timing was impeccable as USA’s Jermaine Jones injured his knee seconds before the first ever water break in the history of the World Cup. The water break would prove to be important later as giving time to recover enabled Jones to recover and score the equalizer in the second half.
The equalizer came in the 65th minute. In what appeared to be a broken play, Jermaine Jones struck a shot off his right foot from well beyond the box and somehow it found the bottom right corner of the net. A beautiful goal that was a mirror image to Messi’s game winning goal against Iran.
The goal sent the crowd into a frenzy, but it only seemed to ignite Portugal as they made their third and final sub of the match right after and played with more desperation. Three to four shots on target came at the United States in the minutes to follow, but the U.S. dug in to the wet and sandy terrain and held the score at 1-1.
Tim Howard was put to the test again and again throughout the match and came up big multiple times. Including late in the first half when he whiffed on a straight shot that thankfully missed off the goal post. The rebound was sent right at the top center of the goal, but Howard was able to recover and deflect the ball over the net. The entire country breathed a sigh of relief on that particular series of the match as going down 2-0 would have been a disaster at the time.
The go ahead goal came in the 81st minute when super sub, Deandre Yedlin stormed down the field and got to the byline. A beautiful cross to the left side of the box lead to a chaotic moment when Clint Dempsey was found in the center and tapped the go ahead goal off his chest.
For the better part of th next ten minutes, the United States fan's and everyone inside the Arena Amazonia believed that the Stars and Stripes were a team of destiny. Destined to win the match, destined to get out of the group of death, maybe even destined for more. But the happiness suddenly turned to sickness and shock as a mistake in the midfield by Michael Bradley in stoppage time lead to a Cristiano Ronaldo cross with seconds left to go. Chris Wondolowski and the rest of the U.S. defenders presumably fell asleep on the play and allowed Silvestre Varela to sprint right past them and head the ball into the net. U.S.A. was left hurt and heartbroken as they came within seconds of advancing to the knockout round.
Klinsmann was asked after the match if he will sleep tonight, or be second guessing his decisions in the final seconds, Klinsman was honest about his feelings on the subject, and hinted at FIFA favoritism as far as where they games are played and who plays in them:
"No, you gotta move on. You obviously have to analyze a couple of things, but we are already thinking now about Germany. We have one day less to recover, they played yesterday, we played today, we played in the Amazon, they played in a very kind of nice location where they don't have to travel much, everything is done for the big favorites to go and move on. We have to do it the tough way and we're going to do it the tough way." he said.
The US clearances and backline defense was absolutely awful tonight. If the backline could clear, the game could have had a completely different result. However, the offense was spectactular this match, creating many opportunities. Ironically, for the majority of the match, the United States played better in this game than they did against Ghana, but came away with a worse result. "We had enough chances to score 3 or 4 goals and that's what we have to build on." said Coach Klinsmann
Despite the rash of injuries to Portugal, they had to be happy with the way that Cristiano Ronaldo looked in the match. His explosiveness was back and he seemed unfazed by earlier knee problems that had hampered him in the weeks coming into the World Cup. He didn't score a goal, but he made his impression on the match and had his fingerprints on both goals. The first, by distracting and drawing most of the defensive attention towards him leaving Nani wide open for the goal, and the second on the beautiful assist and cross to Varela.
The United States now has a difficult task ahead of them now of traveling 6 hours to Recife where they will have less than three days to recover from the jungle and play against a well rested Germany squad. In addition to having one less day of rest than Germany, the horrible heat and humidity will leave the U.S. players bodies depleted of energy and essential minerals from this game. Team U.S.A. will have to emotionally recover from giving the game away in the final seconds here, but will be in control of their own destiny on Thursday against Germany. They will need a result to move on to the knockout round.
"Obviously when you get into the last second it's unfortunate, but I think it was an amazing game, an amazing performance by our guys and there's nothing more you can ask for. We just have to go it the tougher way, we have to go in and beat Germany. Get a result against Germany is what we're going to do." Klinsmann proclaimed.
Game Notes:
The U.S. had more shots in the first half of the game against Portugal (9) then they did in the entire game against Ghana (8). Team USA has now scored in eight consecutive World Cup matches. The U.S. was seconds away from their first consecutive victories in the World Cup since 1930, heart break. Over the span of two games, the United States has now faced 42 shots. Eight more than anyone else in the 2014 World Cup.
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