MANAUS, Brazil (AP) – Moths and mosquitoes circled when the United States took the field for practice yesterday evening at Arena da Amazonia, a 40 000-seat stadium built in a remote area of the rainforest where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon.
And as the Americans stretched in the heat and humidity in their final training session before today’s World Cup game against Portugal, a double rainbow shimmered – said by some to herald an occurrence with great meaning.
With a win over the Portuguese and reigning world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, the U.S. would accomplish a pair of American firsts: reaching the knockout stage of consecutive World Cups and advancing with a game to spare.
“This is now the moment where you can prove yourself. This is the moment where you can step up and play those guys and put them in place,” U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “So we want to put Cristiano and his team in his place.”
The Americans opened with a 2-1 win over Ghana on Monday behind John Brooks’ 86th-minute goal, while Portugal dropped an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Germany. When Ghana and Germany tied 2-2 yesterday, the U.S. were suddenly in position to clinch advancement with a win today.
“That’s a good result for us, to know that if we can win, we take care of business, the rest is history,” goalkeeper Tim Howard said.
A victory over the fourth-ranked Portuguese would mean the U.S. could then win the group with a tie against Germany next week. Klinsmann, a former star striker and coach for Germany, was so excited to watch the end of yesterday’s game that he ran out of his own news conference after about five minutes, took in the final moments, then returned to answer more questions.
“It just confirms what we all knew from the beginning on, that it’s a very, very difficult group,” he said. “It’s a huge opportunity tomorrow here in Manaus, and we will definitely go for it.”
The Americans needed a shot in the arm for this match – up to five inoculations per player, to be precise, for protection against typhoid, yellow fever, tetanus, hepatitis A and influenza after they started training last month in California. Players also were offered medication to prevent malaria, the mosquito-borne infectious disease, but all 23 declined.
“It’s a World Cup,” Chris Wondolowski said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going into your body or how hot it will be.”
