Big stage jitter for US

US coach Bruce Arena has looked in vain for a weak point in Portugal, the Americans’ powerful first opponents in group D, He said on Tu...

US coach Bruce Arena has looked in vain for a weak point in Portugal, the Americans’ powerful first opponents in group D, He said on Tuesday. “I haven’t been able to detect a weakness in Portugal,” Arena told a news conference in Seoul a day before the match with group favourites in Suwon.

“The one thing that stands out with Portugal is their great attacking quality. The combination of players. It’s just not one player or two players,” he said.

PROBABLE TEAMS

USA: Kasey Keller; Tony Sanneh, EddiePope, Jeff Agoos, Frankie Hejduk; Claudio Reyna; Earnie Stewart, John O’Brien, DaMarcus Beasley; Brian McBride, Clint Mathis.

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Portugal: Vitor Baia; Nuno Frechaut, JorgeCosta, Fernando Couto, Rui Jorge; Armando Petit; Sergio Conceicao, Rui Costa, Luis Figo; Joao Pinto, Pauleta.

Referee: Byron Moreno (Ecuador)
Linesmen: Bomer Fierro (Ecuador), Awni Hassouneh (Jordan)

Arena, who would not speculate on his starting line-up, was cryptic about his approach to heavily favoured Portugal. “What we do tomorrow is not going to be radically different from anything we’ve done in the past,” he said.

He predicted a slow start to Wednesday’s match as the two sides “feel each other out”. “The first 15 minutes will probably be a cautious 15 minutes for both teams, and then perhaps the game will open up,” Arena said.

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