The US continued their solid build-up to the FIFA World Cup with a 2-1 win over Turkey on Sunday, raising expectations of a good showing in Brazil.
Defender Fabian Johnson combined with Michael Bradley to score a superbly executed goal in the first half, before Clint Dempsey added a second after the restart.
Turkey, who failed to qualify for world soccer’s elite event, got a consolation goal in the last minute of normal time when Selcuk Inan converted a penalty after Geoff Cameron was ruled to have handled the ball in the box.
Photo: EPA
“Overall, I thought it was good, open game,” US coach Juergen Klinsmann said. “I think, defensively, especially in the first half, we needed to make some corrections at halftime, we need to close the gaps a bit better and we still have some work ahead of us, but overall, it was a good game to watch ... and you can tell that everybody is getting more and more excited about the World Cup.”
Turkey were unlucky not to score earlier when their captain Nuri Sahin hit the post in the first half, but had difficulty containing their rivals as the match went on.
Playing in front of a full house at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, the US had anxious moments in defense, allowing the European side to breach their last line on a handful of occasions, but held firm and looked sharp in attack, despite having just finished a grueling training period.
“This is all normal, it’s all part of the process,” Klinsmann said. “We are comfortable with every position, that we have top-quality players to get the job done. The fine-tuning element is coming along, it’s getting better, it’s not there where we want it, but we’re working on it.”
US forward Jozy Altidore had an early goal disallowed for making contact with goalkeeper Onur Recep Kivrak, before Johnson gave the home team the lead with a spectacular goal in the 26th minute.
Bradley, the heartbeat of the US team, deftly flicked the ball over the defense into the path of Johnson, who hit a perfect left-foot volley into the net for his first international goal.
Dempsey gave the US a 2-0 lead in the 52nd minute with a typical poacher’s goal, poking the ball in after Kivrak fumbled Timmy Chandler’s cross from the left.
Turkey got on the scoreboard in the dying moments after a mix-up in the US defense saw Cameron lose the ball to Mustafa Pektemek and fail to get his arm out of the way when the Turkish substitute rifled his shot at the goal to concede a penalty.
The US beat Azerbaijan 2-0 in San Francisco last week and have one more warm-up against Nigeria in Florida on Saturday before they head to Brazil.
The US are drawn in Group G with Germany, Portugal and Ghana for the tournament, which starts on Thursday next week.
In another World Cup warm-up match on Sunday, a brilliant solo effort from Eden Hazard after Romelu Lukaku’s opener were enough to give Belgium a comfortable 2-0 win over Sweden in their penultimate World Cup test in Stockholm.
Despite training twice a day for most of the week, there was no sign of tiredness from the Belgium 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.
Lukaku, who scored 15 goals for Everton in last season’s Premier League, broke the deadlock in the 34th minute when he fired a fizzing left-foot drive past Andreas Isaksson after Kim Kallstrom surrendered possession deep in his own half.
A sluggish Sweden, who will be spending the summer at home after losing a World Cup playoff to Portugal, struggled to create chances in the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, out with a back injury.
Ola Toivonen glanced a header wide just before the break and Jimmy Durmaz skimmed the top of the crossbar with a long-range effort in the second half, but in truth there was little to trouble Thibaut Courtois in the Belgium goal.
The visitors coasted for much of the second half until Hazard put the game beyond doubt in the 78th minute. The Chelsea winger cut in menacingly from the left before playing a one-two with De Bruyne and slotting home.
De Bruyne almost netted one in stoppage-time, but his effort following a counterattack shaved the outside of Isaksson’s post as it flew wide.
Belgium face Tunisia on Saturday in their final warm-up game before opening their Group H campaign against Algeria on June 17 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Meanwhile, Honduras, who face France in their World Cup opener in two weeks’ time, suffered a second straight loss in a warmup for the tournament, falling 4-2 to Israel in Texas on Sunday.
Honduras face England in their final warm-up game on Saturday in Miami, before heading to Brazil to take on France, Ecuador and Switzerland in Group E.
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