USA held Portugal 2-2 in a hard fought exciting encounter keeping alive Christiane Ronaldo’s team to fight another day. USA and Germany with four points are still unsure which team will accompany Germany to the second round. The Portugese equalizer came in the last 30 second of the injury time when a Portugese exit looked was looming.
Ronlado floating a beautiful cross into US penalty area which substitute player Varela headed home with great relief of the Portugese and CR7 fans all over the world.
Portugal has now outside chance which can only happen if they can beat Ghana by a large enough margin and Germany USA match does not end in a draw. Great players grab opportunities. So did Ronaldo. Perhaps not 100% his subtle touches still made contributions. CR7 sent some juicy passes for his mates and finally his wonderful cross brought the equalizer through a header of Varela – a life line for Portugal.
Experts termed Group D as the group of death for having three previous World Cup Champions Italy, Uruguay and England in the group. But the team which no one tipped Costa Rica is the first to qualify with two straight wins in two matches. Now either Italy or Uruguay will go through .Two previous champions will be shown the door of exit. The Group G is also another group of death having teams like Germany, Portugal, Ghana and USA. The situation remained wide open before USA Portugal match. Strong Germany in a slightly better position, with four points after two matches. USA with three points from one match and Ghana snatching a point from Germany had outside chance. For Portugal the match was do or die. USA rather could play safe and try to salvage something out of it.
Portugal was battered and brusied in the opening match against Germany digesting the ignominy of four goals. Moreover, the Portuguese side missed the services of left-back Fabio Coentrao who was ruled out of the World Cup after sustaining a thigh injury at the group opener. Real Madrid centre-back Pepe was suspended after being sent off over a head-butt on Thomas Muller.
The atmosphere was more positive of the American team as Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad managed to beat Ghana in their first match. USA was looking for a good result to get into a serious contender for the Round of 16 but they also missed Sunderland striker Jozy Altidore who suffered a hamstring strain last week.
As expected Portugal started aggressively pushing the Americans back to defend their territory.
Ronaldo started inspiring attacks with some solo dashes. A costly lapse of USA defender Cameroon to a high ball cost them early goal in the fifth minutes of the match. Manchester United striker Nani punished Americans pushing the loose ball into USA net making it 1-0 much to the delight of Portuguese fans and their Brazilian cousins. USA came back strongly after the goal. Bradley and Johnson kept feeding Zusi and Dempsey with series of defence splitting through balls into the heart of Portugese defence. The teams shared the attack pretty evenly with ball switching from end to end.
Towards the end of first half Portugal again pressed hard and went tantalizingly close to a Ronaldo ran sweetly into US business area and freed Nani with a beautiful pass in 41 st minute.
US Goalkeeper saved Nani’s long range low drive. Nani’s another attempt hit the post and the US goalkeeper’s reflex action saved a goal bound ball .Nani’s early goal separated the sides in the evenly matched contest in the first half. Ronaldo operated centrally creating few potential opportunities for Nani and mates. Possession was evenly shared. USA had their moments with Johnson Bradley and Dempsey causing headaches for Portuguese defence. After the first ten minutes of Portuguese blitz USA could recover control and looked better organized. But Portugal was probing dangerously in counter attacks every now and then with Ronaldo plotting potent moves. Very hot and humid condition took lots of energy off the players.
Portugal again started pressurizing US defending early in the second half with Ronaldo getting more and more in the game. Ricardo Costa made a tremendous goal line save off a Michael Bradley goal bound strike with Beto out of position depriving USA the equalizer at 55 th minute of the match.Jeramine Jones and Fabian Johnson started sowing seeds of few US attacks creating spaces for Bradley and Dempsey. Portugal defence looked venerable. Jermaine Jones with a beautiful curling shot from the top of the box fooled Beto getting the equalizer for USA 1-1. The match gathered tremendous momentum after the equalizer with ball changing ends with lightning speed. When teams looked settled for a draw Clint Dempsey put his side back on the lead (2-1) . When the match was going to the direction for a USA win and early exit of Portugal Ronaldo let fly a beautiful cross deep into US penalty area which Howard should have cleared but instead Valera headed home from close range making it 2-2 and earning a point from the match with only 30 seconds of the added time left.
Looking back in retrospect possibly it was poetic justice to the match as World Soccer should not be so cruel to one of the great footballer of present time Christiano Ronaldo get ready to go home with even group games not over.
Though beating a good looking Ghana will not be easy not to speak of by a large margin but who knows. Another entertaining match thoroughly enjoyed by the Soccer fans world over.
Portugal: Beto , Bruno Alves , Miguel Veloso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Moutinho (William Cavello) Hugo Almeida, , Ricardo Costa, , Raul Meireles, Nani, Joao Pereira and Helder Postiga, (William Cavello)
USA: Tim Howard, ,DaMarcus Beasley, Matt Besler ,John Brooks, Geoff Cameron , Fabian Johnson , Kyle Beckerman, , Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones Graham Zusi. , Clint Dempsey.
BDST: 0756 HRS, JUNE 23, 2014
