The US face a stiff test in Costa Rica today and a quick turnaround to host Honduras on Saturday in 2010 World Cup qualifying in the North and Central America and Caribbean region.
The US top the standings after three matches in the six-nation final round of CONCACAF qualifying, with seven points. Costa Rica are just a point behind in second place.
The US have never won at Costa Rica’s Saprissa stadium. In their last World Cup qualifier there the Americans lost 3-0, although they had already booked their berth in the 2006 finals.
Often steamy weather, raucous fans and the artificial turf at Saprissa promise another tough encounter for the US.
“Obviously, the majority of us aren’t used to playing on [artificial] turf,” said defender Oguchi Onyewu, who was among the US players who trained at the weekend on artificial turf in Miami prior to the team’s departure on Monday for San Jose.
“You feel the heat a lot more on turf, the ball rolls differently, your touches have got to be a lot different and you’ve got to concentrate more when you have the ball at your feet,” Onyewu said.
Several key players, including Landon Donovan, Carlos Bocanegra and DaMarcus Beasley, missed the training camp because of club commitments but are available for the match.
Frankie Hejduk misses the match with a groin injury as does Rangers’ Maurice Edu. Jozy Altidore returns to the team after toe surgery.
Today’s match comes ahead of a full slate of CONCACAF qualifiers on Saturday, when the US will host Honduras in Chicago, Trinidad and Tobago host Costa Rica and El Salvador host a Mexico team hoping new coach Javier Aguirre will make a quick difference in his first qualifier at the helm.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
Italy are finally heading to the World Cup — just not in the sport most people might expect. Amid dark times for the country’s storied, but ailing soccer team, some salvation comes in the form of the Azzurri’s unheralded cricketers after their first-ever qualification for a global tournament. Add Italy to cricketing superpowers like India, Australia, England and South Africa competing at the T20 World Cup starting tomorrow. “Just to be there and playing is the end of 45 years of hard work,” Italian Cricket Federation CEO Luca Bruno Malaspina said. That is a reference to the formation of the sport’s national federation in
RSS