USA vs Germany (ESPN TV): Watch World Cup 2014 Soccer (Team News, Preview)
The USA will play Germany on Thursday in a crunch World Cup 2014 Group G match up. Whoever wins this game will secure first place in Group G and gain supposedly the easier route through the knock out stages. However, whoever loses is in danger of missing out on the Last 16 all together as both Ghana and Portugal would be able to leapfrog them with a win in Group G's other game on Thursday. The game will kick off at 12 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ESPN network.
In team news for the United States, it would appear as though striker Jozy Altidore will miss out again, as he has still not recovered from his hamstring injury. He is nearly back though, and should the United States make it out of the group stages he would likely be available in the Last 16.
That means USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann may opt to begin the game with the same starting 11 he used against Portugal. The team were seconds away from defeating Cristiano Ronaldo and his team, but conceded with almost the last action of the game to draw 2-2. That goal, in the fifth minute of injury time at the end of the game, stopped the USA from guaranteeing their qualification with a game to go in Group G. So they are left with probably needing something today against Germany now to go through.
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For Germany, it appears as though defender Jerome Boateng and midfielder Sami Khedira have recovered sufficiently from knocks they suffered in their draw against Ghana. The Germans will also be boosted by news that Thomas Muller will be fit despite suffering a bad knock to the face in that same game.
A draw between the United States and Germany today would send both teams through. So fans might expect both teams to make sure they have players behind the ball from the start and not push forward too much. However, it would be unrealistic to think that both of these teams will just sit back and see out a bore draw, and neither are likely to want to risk it.
Both teams have in fact come out ahead of the game to deny they would both push for the mutually beneficial draw today. Some have highlighted the 1982 World Cup, when Germany and Austria played out a placid beneficial result to ensure they both qualified for the next round. However, speculation suggesting such a thing could happen here has been denied.
This mouthwatering match up has also had a big build up for another reason; USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann is of course from Germany and is arguably one of the best strikers to have ever played for the European nation. He scored 47 goals in 108 matches for Germany, but today he will be looking to lead his USA team to victory over his homeland.
Klinsmann also has the inside scoop on many of the players in the German side, having coached many of them at the 2006 World Cup. At that time players such as Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker, and Miroslav Klose were part of his team. He will know them well, but whether he can direct his much less experienced and less established USA team to victory over them is another question.
Current German boss Joachim Low was also of course Klinsmann's assistant for the national team in 2006 as well. However, they have both vowed to keep their friendship out of the equation here today, and will maintain professionalism.
Klinsmann has said, "We are good friends, and I am doing my job. There is no time now to have friendship calls. That time is done."
Ghana are arguably the main threat to both USA and Germany should either lose today. A Ghana win over Portugal would see them move to four points, level with the loser of today's game between USA and Germany.
Coming into this final game Ghana have a -1 goal difference, where as USA have +1 and Germany have +4. Therefore if Germany lose by a single goal today they would still in all likelihood still qualify as group runners up, unless Ghana go on a scoring spree against Portugal and win by at least five goals.
That would be unlikely. Ghana would much prefer if Germany won today. Even a single goal win for Ghana and a single goal loss for USA would put them on the same 0 goal difference. In that case the team who qualifies would go down to total goals scored, with whoever has scored the most in the three games to date going through. If that is the same at the end of today's games then USA would go through as they defeated Ghana when the two teams played in their opening game.
It might be worth noting that at present coming into this game USA have scored four, where as Ghana have scored three.
Technically Portugal could go through, if there is a win-lose result in the USA-Germany game, and if Portugal can go on a scoring spree over Ghana. Portugal come into this game with a goal difference of -4, having suffered a 0-4 defeat in their opening game against Germany.
Head to head, Germany have scored 12 goals against USA in their last four matches against one another. The teams' last four games against one another have also produced a massive 19 goals, which is 4.8 goals per game. So fans could expect goals galore today!
The USA vs Germany match will kick off at 12 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the ESPN network.
