Anders Konradsen's late goal saw Russia held to a 1-1 draw by Norway in its penultimate World Cup warmup game in Oslo on Saturday.
Posted on 06/01/2014 2:58:24 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
In their slow cross-continental march to the World Cup in Brazil, the United States men's national team takes another important step when they take on Turkey in the second of a three-game send-off and tune-up series on Sunday.
The task promises to be a good deal tougher than the Americans'€™ first game of the summer against Azerbaijan in San Francisco last Tuesday. They pulled out an unsightly 2-0 win then, in conditions made practically unplayable by the famous swirling winds of Candlestick Park. Red Bull Arena in New Jersey should present no such problems. But then the opposition aren't no-name pushovers devoid of attacking ambitions either.
"With Turkey we have a team now on a very high level, a team that almost qualified [for the World Cup] as well with very good individual players,"€ said head coach Jurgen Klinsmann on Friday. "€œTurkey is an unpredictable team; it's a team with a lot of individual skills in there. Good players that can make a difference in half a second. And they will challenge us. We wanted to start off [our pre-World Cup friendlies] kind of on an easy foot and now with Turkey we really have a benchmark that will really give us some insight of things."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
“A lot of work yesterday. We kind of made sure he's not going sideways,” Klinsmann told reporters
So the England manager became agitated when the subject of Rooney, and how he did not perform as well as his replacement Raheem Sterling, was first topic on the agenda.
"I think it's a bit sad that the country is so Wayne Rooney-obsessed," Hodgson said.
Wayne Rooney set for place on the bench for England's World Cup warm-up match against Ecuador
Roy Hodgson will drop Rooney as part of his pre-World Cup preparations after a largely ineffective performance against Peru
The trauma of a 2-1 loss in the trophy match 64 years ago before a 200,000 crowd, hangs over Brazil as they target a sixth World Cup triumph.
Pele's son and former goalkeeper Edinho sentenced to 33 years in jail
In 2006, Pele went to visit his son in jail and said: "God willing, justice will be done. There is not a shred of evidence against my son.”
The hooligans have until Tuesday to surrender their passports
Group C
Colombia
Greece
Ivory Coast
Japan
Group G
Germany
Portugal
Ghana
USA [USA! USA! USA!]
Group D
Uruguay
Costa Rica
England
Italy
On the day Louis van Gaal announced his final 23-man squad for Brazil, the Netherlands coach looked to have picked his strongest side for the match at Feyenoord's De Kuip stadium, with the vastly experienced striking partnership of Van Persie and Arjen Robben fed by playmaker Wesley Sneijder.
It was that trio who teamed up to unlock the Ghana defense in just the fifth minute.
Group G
Germany
Portugal
Ghana
USA [USA! USA! USA!]
Germany to beat Argentina on penalties and win World Cup
Germany is going to be this year’s World Cup winner according to data collated and analysed by Ladbrokes.
England coach Roy Hodgson said it was “the place ideally to avoid” because of the humid and steamy weather in the region, remarks that insulted local officials and prompted an apology.
Smart WCup teams tap science to beat Brazil's heat
European teams say they are more prepared than ever for a hot and humid World Cup, training in saunas, planning to soak their jerseys in cold water before games and working with doctors to design the perfect hydration formula for each player.
Even though the tournament is held in Brazil's winter, stadiums in the tropical north will be warm, with temperatures often above 30 Celsius (85 Fahrenheit).
The 42-year-old referee gasps for air as the heat in this tiny room at Sheffield Hallam University's Faculty of Health and Wellbeing rises and the humidity spirals.
"It is tough, it is very tough," he says. "The heat and humidity are going to be the biggest challenges in Brazil. We all know that."
Webb leaves for Brazil in three days as England's sole refereeing representative.
Lack of rain has shriveled reservoirs that feed Brazil's hydroelectric generators, forcing power companies to start back-up plants.
"Coming from playing every week in England to a hotter, more humid climate where you're sweating more is obviously going to affect the way you play.
"Sprinting for long periods becomes more difficult and you need to take more breaks to breathe and get a sip of a drink to rehydrate.
"You also feel it after a game because your body has worked harder trying to cool down and you need to allow greater time for your muscles to recover.
"When you are playing in hot and humid conditions you need to place more control on the tempo of the game and ensure you don't burn yourself out in the first half.
"Those three are legends in German football," he told Sport Bild. "They won so many titles and they represent an era. I admire what they achieved and I know they were the type of player I am.
"I see myself as a traditional playmaker. There won't be many of them at the World Cup. If I look at the other teams I might even be the last one.
"I would like to follow their example and become a legend, too. And whoever wants to be a legend has to win the cup. We travel to Brazil to make that dream come true.
"To be honest, and I am saying this now just for me personally: Everything other than the trophy would be a disappointment. If we look back to the Euros it has been two years since we lost an official match.
"Germany deserves to finally win the trophy."
He then started singing.
“That Englishman who’s complaining it’ll be hot,” he crooned as we passed the shiny new stadium where England will play in the World Cup, “doesn’t know in the arena there’ll be fried fish, prawns and booze. Boo-ooze. Boo-ooze.”
Today's freindly is at 1:30 East coast time - Comcast channel 404 (ESPN).
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