With an opening game win already in hand and heavily favored Germany looming next, the United States’ World Cup fate may well come down to getting a result Sunday against a desperate Portugal team. And that means beating the world’s best player, and doing it without the team’s only starting target striker.
With the Americans’ three points just one behind Germany in Group G, a loss would leave them likely needing to upset the Germans to survive, while a win against Portugal sends them to the knockout round. That won’t be easy with Jozy Altidore nursing a hamstring injury and Cristiano Ronaldo on the other side, expected to play despite a sore knee.
“Jozy’s a special player,’’ U.S. forward Chris Wondolowski said. “You can’t replace him. That’s like saying, ‘Hey, go be Cristiano Ronaldo.’ You can’t necessarily replace certain aspects of it, but both Aron [Johannsson] and I bring different styles, different sets of skills that are useful. That’s what we have to do, incorporate those skill sets and be able to fit into the gameplan as well.’’
Wondolowski is right: Altidore is the team’s only target man, the only forward capable of holding the ball up front. Altidore’s absence — and midfielder Michael Bradley’s uncharacteristic struggles — led to a lack of possession in the win against Ghana.
The U.S. could pair Johannsson and Wondolowski up front in a 4-4-2 with no true target man. Or coach Jurgen Klinsmann could ask Clint Dempsey — playing despite a broken nose — to try to fill the role as a lone striker, despite the fact it takes away much of what he does, and he has struggled in the role even when healthy.
Whatever Klinsmann chooses, the U.S. needs a better performance from Bradley, who was uncharacteristically errant in his passing against Ghana.
“I’m certainly honest enough and hard enough with myself to know that it wasn’t my sharpest night,’’ said Bradley, who will need to be on his game to help counter Ronaldo. The FIFA World Player of the Year has been dealing with a knee injury, but with Portugal coming off a 4-0 loss to Germany in its opener and facing elimination, few believe Ronaldo to miss Sunday’s match.
“A game of this magnitude, of this importance for both teams, you’d always expect that the best players are going to find any way to be on the field,” Bradley said. “We understand what a special player he is. We understand how good of a team they have. But it’s not something that fazes us. We’re excited by the challenge.
“There’s two ways to look at it: One is that they lost 4-0, they played 60 minutes down a guy, suffered a few injuries. It’d be easy to look and say this is a good time to play. But the other side says that it’s a desperate team that’s playing for their lives because they need a result. We have to respect that. We have to understand how much they’re going to put into it. The main thing still is about us.’’
A win clinches a berth in the round of 16, and even a draw puts the United States through as long as Ghana doesn’t both defeat Portugal and overtake them on goal differential.
To stop Ronaldo, the U.S. can’t just leave defender Fabian Johnson — beaten for the only goal allowed in the opener — alone on Portugal’s star. They will have to crowd the midfield and starve Ronaldo for service, as well as being wary of the athletic star on counterattacks.
“The coach is going to have a plan for me, tell me what to do or what not to do. The whole team’s trying to help me out because it always seems like he’s moving all around the field,’’ said Johnson, likening Ronaldo to France’s Franck Ribery. “He’s a very strong player, technical, fast, a guy you can’t stop. He’s very good.”