USA Earns Tie Amass Late Portugal Goal

(fanside.com)

MANAUS, Brazil - The United States was just seconds away from clinching its second consecutive berth to a World Cup knockout stage. But in the blink of an eye, Silvestre Varela headed in the game-tying goal to save Portugalfrom being eliminated from the tournament and drawing level with the U.S. for a 2-2 final.

“We’re a little disappointed, but still optimistic,” U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard said. “We thought we’d put one foot in the Round of 16, but we are where we’d aimed to be before the tournament: going into the final game with a good chance of progressing. We’re not going to let the last-gasp goal get us down.”

In a back-and-forth match, the United States came away with a crucial point that ties the U.S. with Germany entering its final group game.

“Crazy game,” said midfielder Michael Bradley. “We put so much into it. I thought after a difficult start, the response and the commitment and the effort was incredible. Difficult conditions and still we found a way to push through. Every guy left everything on the field.”

Portugal was able to score an early goal in the 5th minute as Luis Nani was able to bury a shot after Geoff Cameron‘s clearance glanced off his foot and flew backwards to the Portuguese midfielder.

After the U.S. trailed 1-0 at halftime, the second half heroics of Jurgen Klinsmann‘s squad proved to be similar to the performance against Ghana. Jermaine Jones blasted a right footed shot in the 64th just outside the 18-yard box to level the game thenDeAndre Yedlin, a late substation for Klinsmann set up a cross to Bradley in which his shot deflected to Graham Zusi who found Clint Dempsey to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead in the 81st minute.

But just as the U.S. entered stoppage time and the closing seconds of the match,Cristiano Ronaldo fired a right footed cross which found Silvestre Varela on the run to head in the tying goal and salvage a 2-2 draw in the 95th minute.

For Portugal, it was a last minute effort that saw the fourth best team in the world gasping for breath to stay alive.

“It’s clearly not a good result for us,” Portugal head coach Paulo Bento said. “The 2-2 doesn’t put us out of the World Cup mathematically, but it does leave us in a very difficult situation. Not just because of what we’ll need to do against Ghana, but also because we’ll need a favorable result from the Germany-United States game. Now all we can do is to give everything in our very last game and try and make the most of the very little chance that we have left.”

Now the U.S. will face Germany on June 26 in Recife with a chance to advance out of the group stage on the line. For Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad, they can advance with a win or a draw against the Germans, but a loss puts numerous scenarios into play, something that according to Klinsmann could have been avoided.

“When you concede a goal in the last second then it’s unlucky,” Klinsmann said. “Our boys put in an extraordinary performance. The journey’s now a little bit longer for us, but we want to beat Germany to confirm our place in the Round of 16. I’m a little frustrated with this draw, but we’re going to work hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”