United States vs Portugal World Cup open thread

We again turn from football to futbol as the United States World Cup team faces Portugal today. It's the second game of the FIFA World Cup for the US team as well as Portugal. In the first round the US won an exciting match against Ghana 2-1 and Portugal lost 0-4 to Germany.

Portugal's star is Cristiano Ronaldo, considered by many to be the best soccer player in the world.

The US score on Ghana just :31 seconds into the match. Then they played the soccer version of the prevent defense for a couple hours, with Ghana getting 12 shots on goal. The 12th shot was true and Ghana tied it up at 1-1. Then US team then woke up and within a few minutes they re-took the lead on a header out of a corner kick.

In the process, the US team lost one of their starters, Josy Altidore with a hamstring strain. Clint Dempsey suffered a broken nose but is expected to play.

Portugal is without Fabio Coentrao due to injury, while Pepe is suspended. Hugo Almeida hasn't been ruled out for sure, but isn't expected to start.

If the US wins, they will punch their ticket to advance in the World Cup. If they lose, their fate may depend on beating Germany to advance. Germany is a far stronger team so the US faces their best bet to advance by beating Portugal.

The game starts at 3:00pm Pacific Time (6:00pm Eastern).

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