USA V Portugal World Cup 2014

USA V Portugal Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Group G of Beer World Cup: http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-group-g/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? SuperBock V Samuel Adams Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers.

Get the beer result after, much after!

SuperBock V Samuel Adams: 1-1.Score draw. Samuel Adams, an American craft beer classic. Has the look of a great beer, with its nice golden colour, good frothy head, and good lacing. All very enticing. But SuperBock is also a beer that looks pretty good, pouring a crystal clear golden colour with a huge white head on top, which was very frothy. Draw there. Both beers had pleasant but not overbearing smells. Adam’s with a faint smell of malts and a bit of floral hops, while SuperBock was faint and gentle, grains, malts and some light hints of grassy hops. Another draw there. On tasting, Samuel Adam’s strength was definitely its strong variety of flavours all well balanced, and I found a slight hint of Caramel which was very interesting. The finish is strong with a long lasting heavy aftertaste. Overall a nice solid beer and a great delicious taste. SuperBock, had a mildly sweet taste, and also had a nice bitter and sour aftertaste that lingers for a short while. It’s a very easy beer to drink, is relatively strong and goes down well. So I liked both beers and don’t really want to pick a winner here, I think a score draw is fair as they are slightly different, amber lager v pale lager, but both delicious and very easy to drink. Enjoyable game, enjoyable beers. Click on links below for full beer information and reviews

PreGame: USA:

The USA were very lucky to come out of their first game with a win. Ghana really deserved a point. It was a good game to watch with lots of drama and goal mouth action.

My man of the match was Tim Howard in goals. He is a old style goal keeper in that he can actually catch a ball, no flapping,and instill huge confidence in his back four. A safe pair of hands, who kept his team in this match with a couple of good saves. Will need to be again at the top of his game for tonights match, but it will take a supreme shot to beat him.

There were a lot of passengers in the first game: Jóhannsson who came on and did very little, and even Bradley didn’t play well at all, not up to his usual high standards, seen avoiding tackles and not tracking back. For the USA to win all players will have to be on deck working together. To beat Portugal tonight it will take a team effort. No shirking allowed.

Shout out to Clint Dempsey playing with a broken nose. Now that’s commitment, hope it goes well for him.

In the first game. Ghana had 21 shots towards goal with only three on target. That’s quite amazing. But give half of those opportunities to Ronaldo, and the USA wont be so happy after the game.

Portugal: The less said about Pepe and Portugal in the last game the better. I am sure Portugal will want to wipe the slate clean with a victory against the USA tonight.

Ronaldo in the last game tried but its hard when it a one man team. Everything went through him, even if other players were in better positions. Arrogance? No, its a reality, the other Portuguese players are not as good, you have to get it to Ronaldo has fast as possible. Good try Ronnie against Germany but they were just too difficult on the day. Next up the USA. With Messi on two goals Ronaldo will have to get off the mark soon.

A more detailed review on USA here and on Portugal here

Portugal’s participation at this World Cup now hangs in the balance after they drew 2-2 with the USA. Although they managed to salvage the draw with a brilliant injury time goal from Silvestre Varela’s, realistically they were knocked out last night. To stay in the competition they will have to beat Ghana by about 5/6 goals AND hope that Germany beat the USA. So that’s a very small chance. Knowing this you would have thought that they would have tightened up a good bit better at the back, and showed a bit more composure in front of goals, but alas it never works to plan.

USA were a little susceptible to quick breaks from Portugal, and on a few occasions they had to rely on their top goalkeeper to bail them out. Tim Howard once again showed his world class goalkeeping ability. He is one of the USA’s best players of this World Cup. He pulled off some amazing saves and I still don’t know how he managed to save the Portuguese shot where he was heading one way yet his frailing arms pushed the ball over the other side of the bar. A save that in the end proved very beneficial for his team.

USA did have their chances in the second half, in one counterattack they were 4v2 but fluffed it. But there chances came. Jermaine Jones’, who has had a wonderful World Cup so far, once again showed his skill by scoring a superb goal to level the scores at 1-1

And captain fantastic, Clint Dempsey. Already showing great courage to play with a broken nose, the captain gave another standout performance, and scored a lovely goal which at the time looked like it might be the winner.

But that wasn’t to be as instead of shutting up shop, Michael Bradley who has had an average World Cup by his high standards, gave the ball away very cheaply in the centre of the park to which Portugal countered and with a bit of Ronaldo magic on the wing and Varela’ brilliant shot, got them their draw in injury time. Why didnt he just push it to the corner flag!!!

Ronaldo was always dangerous, especially on the counter attack, and even though he had a few chances himself in the game that he fluffed, his cross in the end for the equaliser was majestic.

But I shouldn’t take anything away from TEAM USA. They, once again, played with a lot of heart and they have a strong collective spirit molded by their manager, that creates a very decent exciting team to watch.

A draw between Germany and USA will see both through, while Portugal must beat Ghana to have any chance of progressing. Portugal are relying on a German win and must also achieve a five or six-goal swing if they are to pip the USA to second place and reach the last 16. I am thinking of that game with Austria in 82. It’s always funny when history repeats itself, especially when it involves zee German’s!

Music to get you in the mood

Nelly Furtado V Blue Öyster Cult