Soccer is anti-American.
Turkey manager Fatih Terim credits Jurgen Klinsmann with US national team's change in style
Turkish coach Fatih Terim sees a change happening with the US national team. Although he wasn't around when Turkey lost to the USA in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup, he says it's brought about by manager Jurgen Klinsmann.
"The coach is different and the philosophy of the game, the mentality is different," Terim said through a translator in his post-game press conference following a 2-1 defeat to the USA. "Now we see the team is playing with a different style."
Despite training twice a day for most of the week, there was no sign of tiredness from the Belgian players as they dominated the opening exchanges, with Kevin De Bruyne almost giving them the lead after 15 minutes, only to see his shot hit the post.
Group H
Belgium
Algeria
Russia
Korea Republic
Samuel Eto'o put Cameroon ahead in the 62nd, before Thomas Mueller and Andre Schuerrle gave Germany the lead. But Maxim Choupo-Moting clinched the draw in the 78th.
Germany played without goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, defender and captain Philipp Lahm and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who are nursing injuries, while striker Miroslav Klose sat out the match. Klose has been bothered by various injuries throughout the season. Left back Erik Durm made his debut, with another defender, Marcel Schmelzer, also injured.
Group G
Germany
Portugal
Ghana
United States [USA! USA! USA!]
We won, but at times we did stupid things that a Ghana, Portugal, Germany, will take advantage of and beat us silly if we do the same things. Our defense looked bad a times.
He said: “You rarely play an international match against opponents and they haven’t got their hands on their hearts, singing their anthem as loud as they can.
“We made the decision very early on, that we’d do what every other team does.
“The thing is we are proud, we are happy to be wearing that England shirt, so when the National Anthem comes up it's an obvious one for me that we sing it. My hope is that they will all sing it.”
Saturday 31 May 2014 World Bad omen for England? World Cup song is dropped
Gary Barlow's reworking of the Take That hit, Greatest Day, was supposed to become England's World Cup anthem. Instead, it has been quietly axed.
England's World Cup songs enjoy a mixed record on critical acclaim to say the least. But the latest offering from Gary Barlow and a host of superstars has claimed the dubious honour of being dropped as a single before the tournament even starts.
Beat em like drum sticks on garbage cans...
Ribery worried about injury
Ribery, 31, has yet to feature in either of his country's warm-up friendlies since joining up with the squad, and underwent tests on the problem in a Paris hospital on Saturday in a bid to help speed his recovery.
Can’t wait for the games to begin. All games televised. It’ll be a great summer.
I was underwhelmed by team USA’s defensive performance. Better finishing by Turkey would have seen them score 3 or 4. I did like the offensive aggressiveness and creativity, though. If that starts clicking in, oh, abut two weeks’ time, that would be very good timing.