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Bob Bradley’s men suffered the disappointment of missing out on the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup titles earlier this summer.
Now how can they survive the anguish of missing out from the finals of the World Cup in South Africa?
The USA welcome El Salvador at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah on Saturday, September 5th as the World Cup campaign resumes this weekend.
Brian Ching and Bob Bradley: The USA must beat El Salvador
The United States’ Brian Ching thinks positively for his side. Speaking ahead of Saturday’s crunch encounter away to El Salvador, the forward declared:
“I wouldn’t say we’re worried. But we do understand this game is extremely important, especially because we didn’t pick up points in the last game.”
The USA, who indeed dropped three precious points in Azteca in August, were also held to a disappointing 2-2 draw away to El Salvador.
Consequently, the coach of the Yankees, Bob Bradley, is cautious over his team’s chances of winning this time round.
“Even at home, El Salvador still had a game plan of staying tight,
“And they [El Salvador] were able to get some chances where we lost the ball in no great situations. They were able to take advantage of some counterattacks,” Bob Bradley explained.
Reflecting on the same issue of game play, forward Brian Ching also stated:
“It’s a matter of staying compact and staying tight, especially in El Salvador’s end. If we lose the ball in the final third, it’s a matter of not giving them an easy way out.
“I think the whole team has to stay compacted, and make it difficult for them. You look at how Mexico played us at home after we scored the goal; that’s kind of what we have to do to El Salvador.”
Well, the USA will need to avoid making bad tackles in defense like Brian Ching avowed they did against the Mexicans.
AC Milan’s Oguchi Onyewu will be absent against Los Cuscatlecos due to suspension. Upfront, captain London Donovan is expected to start after recovering from Swine flu. The L.A Galaxy striker should receive partnership from the impressive Charlie Davies, and from Clint Dempsey who has so far failed to find his touch with Fulham in the EPL. So how will all these issues affect the the Yankees?
El Salvador to prove themselves against the USA
In the meantime, expectations are on El Salvador to make the most of Saturday’s away game to the USA after avoiding a 2-1 loss to the Yankees at home.
As much as El Salvador need to prove themselves as serious contenders in the 6-team CONCACAF table, they need to pick up points.
Despite coming second favorites to qualify behind countries like Costa Rica, Mexico, the United States, or even Honduras, Los Cuscatlecos are determined to fight until the end.
In an e-mail, the team’s skipper Ramon Sanchez wrote:
“We have to have confidence in the work that we have been doing as a group and go in there and get the result that we need.
“It is a must-win game for us, so we have to believe in ourselves and work hard. We know it is a difficult place to play with altitude, but we think that we can get the win.”
