The head coach of the USA national football team, Jurgen Klinsmann, is disappointed about the fact that his first choice goalkeeper Tim Howard will not be able to play in the upcoming world cup qualifying matches against Costa Rica and Mexico because of injury.
But, he also said that he has full faith in the abilities of the second choice goalkeeper Brad Guzan and he is backing him to do well in the upcoming matches. (more…)
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The United States national team recently put in one of their worst performances under the manager Jurgen Klinsmann in the recent 2-1 defeat at the hands of Honduras. After the match, the former Germany manager said his tributes to the excellent Honduras performance, while also criticising his players as well. Klinsmann said that his players were unable to find the passing flow. He also said that being unable to hold the ball and combine well enough were also the reasons for the defeat. As a result of this defeat, United States are now without a victory in the last three matches.
Even though they were unable to win the previous friendly matches against Russia and Canada, they would have been hoping to win this important World Cup qualifying match. However, this defeat has raised the significance of the two important World Cup qualifying matches that will take place in the month of March – against Costa Rica and Mexico. Klinsmann will be under great pressure ahead of this match having already lost to Mexico only recently. The United States actually managed to take the lead through the former Fulham striker Clint Dempsey. However, two goals from Honduras on either side of the break meant that they were able to take the lead and subsequently win the match.
“We didn’t find our passing flow. We didn’t combine well enough, we didn’t hold the ball well enough. They were very good today. It was a good game by them, and you have to give them credit. You have to give Honduras lots of compliments today. They did what they needed to do and scored a fantastic goal. We knew coming here it was going to be a difficult game and it was. It is a stretch of 10 games,” said Klinsmann after the match.
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The World Cup qualifying match played between Germany and Sweden at Olympiastadion on Tuesday has ended in the form of a draw. Both the teams scored 4 goals each. The result of the match didn’t have any effect on the position of Germany in the Group C points table. Germany is still at the no. 1 position in the Group C points table with 10 points in 4 matches.
At one point of time, the German team was ahead by 4-0 and was cruising towards an easy victory. But, the Swedish players made a fantastic comeback in the match and scored 4 goals in a space of half an hour to stop Germany from winning the match. The equaliser was scored in the third minute of the injury time by Rasmus Elm.
The German team was playing on its home soil and a huge crowd turned up in the support of the home team. The German team was off to a blistering start and the score was 3-0 in the favour of Germany at the half time break. The lead of Germany was further enhanced in the 56th minute of the match by Mesut Ozil, but, after that, the German team lost the plot all of a sudden. The Swedish team counter attacked and managed to grab one point eventually.
Miroslav Klose scored two goals for Germany, while, Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil scored one goal each. On the other hand, for Sweden, the goal scorers were Zlatan Ibrahimovic, M.Lustig, Johan Elmander and Rasmus Elm.
This was the third match for Sweden in the tournament. The Swedish team had won its previous two games, but, in this game, the team hasn’t managed to secure all the three points. The Swedish team is currently placed at no. 2 in the Group C points table with 7 points in 3 matches.
The German team will play its next World Cup qualifying match against Kazakhstan, while, Sweden will take on the Republic of Ireland in its next match.
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The coach of the United States national team, Jurgen Klinsmann has said that he is confident that either Manchester city or Borussia Dortmund can win their respective Champions League groups. Both Manchester city and the German champions Borussia Dortmund find themselves in a difficult group containing the likes of Real Madrid and Ajax as well. Many have labelled this is the group of death because it contains the champions from all major countries like Spain, England, Germany, and Holland. Despite this competition, the USA national team coach is confident that Manchester city and Dortmund have enough quality within the squad to progress to the last 16 stage.
Dortmund come into the second consecutive Champions League campaign with a difficult group stage draw, despite the fact that they have come into the competition as the champions of Germany. Manchester City also had a difficult draw last time around, but facing the likes of Real Madrid and Ajax is going to be real tough for the English champions according to Klinsmann. Yet, he believes that Manchester city are far superior when compared with Real Madrid and Ajax. Klinsmann says that Real Madrid are more dependent on Cristiano Ronaldo while the English Champions are not.
“English champions Manchester City or Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund are teams to be reckoned with. They could cause a surprise and win the Champions League. The most important thing in the Champions League is that you hit top form at the right moment. For example, I believe that Manchester City are a better team than Chelsea. As for Dortmund, they have to realize that the Champions League is something completely different than the Bundesliga,” said Klinsmann. He even went as far as saying that Manchester City can even win the Champions League title this time around.