The 'Howardhead' haircut. Great work
In the meantime for any Americans out there who might not know much about Belgium beyond the beer that statue of the little boy taking a whizz and waffles here's a handy instructional video...
More video. This time we have a tribute to the great and ginger Alexi Lalas. USA soccer legend and singer songwriting friend of Hootie and the Blowfish...
On Monday Henry Winter chatted with Belgium football expert John Chapman about the big game. The pair were joined by combative German football journalist Tobi Remberg.
Budweiser the company that manufactures what they call 'beer' has produced a ridiculous commercial ahead of the game. America. F yeah
Not a patch on this...Belgium F yeah
A preview of the match now. Jurgen Klinsmann isn't happy. He reckons Fifa's decision to appoint an Algerian referee for the United States' second round match against Belgium is far from ideal.
Djamel Haimoudi 44 will take charge of the USA's clash against Belgium in Salvador today and although Klinsmann respects the decision to appoint him the USA coach admits the Belgians will have a better way of communicating with the referee as they like the official speak French.
Klinsmann also pointed out that the US knocked out Haimoudi's country of birth in the 2010 World Cup.
We hope it's not a concern Klinsmann said. We know that already he did two games very well so we hope he continues that.
Is it a good theory No. He is able to speak French with their players on the field and not with us. And it's a country that we beat in the last second in the last World Cup.
I understand it's difficult for Fifa to choose the right referees for the right games and it has always been tricky for Fifa but it is what it is.
We give it the benefit of the doubt we respect the decision and hope that everything goes well.
Fifa has been contacted about Klinsmann's concerns but is yet to respond.
Klinsmann received a boost on the eve of the match when Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen was ruled out of the game with a hamstring injury.
Belgium remain hopeful that fellow centre back Vincent Kompany will be able to play despite missing last week's game against South Korea with a groin problem.
We'll take a decision on Kompany on Tuesday Belgium coach Marc Wilmots said. He'll train on Monday and we'll see how he reacts.
Klinsmann's main injury concern meanwhile is to Jozy Altidore.
The striker has sat out the last two games after suffering a hamstring injury in the Americans' opener against Ghana on June 16.
The Sunderland forward will make Klinsmann's match day squad but he may not start.
We don't know how many minutes he will play but he's available Klinsmann said. We worked day and night on him but it's difficult to say how long he can play for.
The US scraped through a tough group containing Germany Portugal and Ghana to make it through to the second round.
Some expected the Americans to finish bottom of their group but Klinsmann is not content with just making it through to the last 16.
We came out of a very difficult group. But now we want more the former Tottenham striker said.
We are very hungry and focused. We have a lot of respect for Belgium but we have no fear at all. We want to go far. We have a great spirit in our group. It feels like we are just getting started. It's not like we have been here for six weeks.
We are positive. There is a good team spirit. We are hungry for more and we want to prove that tomorrow night. I am confident that if every player plays to his limits we will have a positive outcome.
Here is John Ley's match preview with all the team news and stats.
And as an aside we have an informative map which shows the world's most popular sports. Is the USA turning slowly green Probably not.
No comments:
Post a Comment