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Originally Posted by demonrail666
Germany […] Portugal
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i don't know, i'm more filthy minded-- i'm sort of hoping we can be in a position where loew and klinsmann can make a "gentleman's agreement" to play their benches and tie 0-0 haaa haaa haaaa haaa. of course, not gonna happen, but one can dream.
as for portugal, hard to know what to expect. i certainly expected them to do a lot better than this-- this wasn't quite the netherlands-spain surprise from the other day, but it was a huuuuuge surprise.
bento has promised changes for the u.s. match. even out 3 players they still have better individual talent (except i think we have a better goalkeeper), but where the u.s. could win is tactically, because it seems we have a more disciplined team-- only reason we held up against ghana.
and who knows, maybe portugal has a meltdown like france did in south africa! (though i don't think so).
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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Packing the defense is what we do, I say go with it.
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it was very risky against ghana but it would be even riskier (untenable really) against cronaldo i think. that guy is a beast. germany did a great job at shutting him down, and he's been having some fitness problems, but the u.s. doesn't have a shadow of germany's individual talent or tactical resources, and if ronaldo is fit, we don't have a bus big enough to park there.
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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Portugal, I wasn't as scared of them when they were healthy as I probably should have been, so now I'm almost naively confident.
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portugal appeared in disarray yesterday, but brace yourself for an epic battle. look at what ronaldo did to sweden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot7YbwrV4ww
if i were a cynical manager like … what was his name… bilardo... i'd take my worst player, ask him to break ronaldo's kneecap, and eat the red card/suspension/jail sentence. but i'm not.
the only realistic sporting way i see to deal with the (fit) ronaldo threat is to keep the ball away from him as much as possible… and for that, i think the only answer is possession.
don't know what klinsmann has planned or what players he'll have available, but i trust he'll have a good game plan… not involving needles (google "bilardo needles" to see what i mean, ha ha ha).
very worrisome no matter how you look at it.
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ps- having said all that, maybe parking the bus is the only way to go, ha ha ha...