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Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA

Tom Halsey

International Coach
So weird. Would a single US player make the England squad? How are England eliminated already?
It's not about that so much as it's about how a side gels together. This is true at club level as well but it's a far bigger deal at international level because the players spend far less time with each other gaining cohesion as a team. There have been a lot of international sides over the years who have either contained a lot of stars but fared relatively poorly or contained few stars but put together good results. I think in international football in particular looking at the actual results of a side is a far better way to measure them than just looking at the players. The USA for a while now have been a very good example of a side that on paper looks poor but usually do OK at tournaments.

Plus also what Tangles said. I was also going to add that Ghana and Portugal < Italy and particularly Uruguay as well but whilst I think that is true there isn't enough in it to make it a particularly relevant point.
 

Uppercut

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Bradley could conceivably play instead of Henderson. It's hard to say because we don't know how he would've been churned through the hype machine had he been English all along.
 

Tangles

International Vice-Captain
I just think the last 20 the English looked physically shot. More so than the Americans.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
Yeah England vs Italy was the most physically shot I've seen any team so far tbh. Disclaimer is I haven't watched every game but they were certainly way more shot than the Americans.
 

Tangles

International Vice-Captain
The US comms said they thought the MLS players would have experienced similar heat and humidity at games in Houston. Playing game 1 there gave Italy and England the opportunity to acclimatize if they went early enough.

Given what happened to Italy and England the next game the recovery time could hurt the US vs Germany.
 

Uppercut

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Muntari was suspended for today and Boateng hasn't been quite first-choice, or very good when he has played. So the players aren't so big a miss, but it suggests such major problems in the squad that you'd think they're done anyway.

Is this good for USA? Ghana don't have to make up a big goal differential like Portugal do, so they were kind of the bigger threat, but now a thrashing seems more likely.
 
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Cabinet96

Global Moderator
Yeah, they were definitely the bigger threat. Only catch is they may car so little now that they could get spanked.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Yeah, they were definitely the bigger threat. Only catch is they may car so little now that they could get spanked.
It would have to be a huge blowout though, right? I suspect that Portugal has to go all out for the attack to make up the difference so I think they'll give up some goals too. Or at least I hope.
 

Tangles

International Vice-Captain
Not great news for the US but they still control their fate. I just hope the media talk of going for a draw from the start is wrong. That would be so dangerous to go in with that negative approach.
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Am I missing something or is no channel in the UK showing the Portugal-Ghana match? I can only find the Germany-USA match on BBC1.
 

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