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The talent is there. The US needs to replace Bradley with Kinnear as manager, 'cept that means he'd have to leave the Dynamo and that would suck.
Because France isn't in it?
The talent is there. The US needs to replace Bradley with Kinnear as manager, 'cept that means he'd have to leave the Dynamo and that would suck.
Italian defense is really, really bad. Brasil 3-0 up at half-time.
USA makes the semis!
!!!111
Damn, a 6 goal difference in the 2 games, what are the odds? 1st italy, then Brazil, day off with egypt, now Spain (what a 4 game stretch for the U.S)
Spain will destroy....ok, it's too early for the buzzkill. What a day.
Enjoy the day today and tommorow its back to reality..
I think the US is still lacking a top notch striker.
Yeah... they need someone to help Landon out...
The US needs more than a quality striker. Talent wise they are far behind the elite teams in the world. When your best man is Landon, you know you have a lot of things to improve
Spain v USA
Fifa Confederations Cup, semi-final
Venue: Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein Date: Wednesday 24 June
Start: 1930 BST Coverage: Live on BBC Three and BBC Sport website from 1900 BST
TEAM NEWS
Spain should be at full strength ahead of their first ever Confederations Cup semi-final.
Liverpool duo Pepe Reina and Albert Riera have been declared fit after a training ground collision left them both nursing minor knocks.
The USA may stick with the same 11 players who outplayed Egypt.
They are boosted by Sacha Kljestan's return from suspension, while ex-Fulham defender Carlos Bocanegra has recovered from a hamstring injury.
MATCH PREVIEW
Spain go into their semi-final meeting with the USA just 90 minutes away from stamping their name into the history books.
Last Saturday's victory over South Africa gave the European champions an unprecedented 15th successive win. If they avoid defeat to the USA they will set a new world record of 36 matches without defeat.
Spain boss Vicente del Bosque has praised predecessor Luis Aragones for the gift of a squad he inherited from him, saying: "Luis left me the toy with the batteries in." The vision shown by Aragones has made Spain the formidable force they are today.
The USA shocked even themselves by qualifying for the semi-finals. With a little help from Brazil, they overturned a six-goal deficit to beat Italy and Egypt to second spot.
Bob Bradley's side answered some of their recent critics with their emphatic 3-0 win over Egypt. It was also the first time during this year's tournament they finished a match with 11-men, having had a player sent-off in the defeats against Italy and Brazil.
Defender Sacha Klejstan is convinced the one area where the USA can dominate Spain is that of sheer power. He's also predicted: "It's time for them (Spain) to lose one." With spirits high in the US camp could his confident prediction come true?
The winners advance to the final in Johannesburg on Sunday where they will meet either Brazil or hosts South Africa.
The losers will contest the third place play-off match in Rustenburg earlier on Sunday.
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- Spain have won all three previous encounters against the USA. They emerged 3-1 victors in the group stages of the 1950 World Cup, and claimed friendly wins in 1992 (2-0) and 2008 (1-0).
Spain
- Spain are on a world record streak of 15 consecutive wins. Italy were the last side to deny them victory within 90 minutes; they drew 0-0 in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 before Spain won on penalties.
- Spain have also equalled the world record for most successive international matches without defeat (35), which was first set by Brazil (1993-1996).
- Coach Vicente del Bosque has won all 13 of his matches in charge. He is the first ever national team coach to start with at least 10 successive wins.
- Spain have only conceded twice during their 15-match winning streak. Belgium's Wesley Sonck and Turkey's Semih Senturk are the only players to have breached the Spanish defence in 1,350 minutes.
- A goal for David Villa would see him equal Ronaldinho's 1999 Confederations Cup feat of scoring in four straight games.
USA
- The United States are making their fourth appearance at the Confederations Cup. They finished third in both 1992 and 1999. Only Brazil (26) and Mexico (19) have played more Confederations Cup matches.
- USA became the first country to progress from a Confederations Cup group stage with three points since the introduction of the current eight-team format in 1997.
- The only goal the USA have ever scored against Spain was 59 years ago. John Souza scored after 17 minutes in their 3-1 World Cup defeat in 1950.
LAST MATCH LINE-UPS
Spain (W2-0 v South Africa): 23-Reina; 5-Puyol, 3-Pique, 2-Albiol, 19-Arbeloa; 10-Fabregas, 12-Busquets, 8-Xavi; 18-Riera (20-Cazorla 81), 9-Torres (16-Llorente 60), 7-Villa (6-Hernandez 60)
USA (W3-0 v Egypt): 18- Guzan, 21-Spector, 5-Onyewu,
15-DeMerit, 2-Bornstein, 8- Dempsey, 12-Bradley, 13-Clark,
10-Donovan, 9-Davies (4-Casey 82), 17-Altidore (22-Feilhaber 69).
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uru)
Assistant referees: Pablo Fandino (Uru) & Mauricio Espinosa (Uru)
Fourth official: Coffi Codjia (Ben)
USA is looking good early.
Very good...they're trying to put a lot of pressure on Spain early, which is exactly what they need to do.
YEAH!! USA up 1-nill. First goal Spain's goalie has given up in the tournament.
why do they say nill instead of nothing?
OH ! Look at USA
good question...it's probably a language thing. Nil means nothing...
OH ! Look at USAThey believe in themselves... of a lot you can do when you believe in yourself.
yeah
19 year old kid has the only goal in the game so far.
Wow...Spain has had the ball 61% of this game..guess it's about quality, not quan y.
Goal by Jozy Altidore!! I like the potential of Jozy. He has the physical attributes and the talent to be a very good striker. Playing in La Liga will help him get better.
What?! USA leading????!!!!
That's true, its all about the spirit and right motivation. Australia at the worldcup 2006 and South korea at the worldcup in 2002 are good proof of that! They both got the best trainer, hiddink, who is able to give a team that needed right spirit and motivation for the players to believe and fight.
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