U.S Portugal breakdown

After the 81^st minute of last night’s game against Portugal, it seemed that the U.S was going to sail into the knockout stages after two games. However a perfect ball from Cristiano Ronaldo stopped those thoughts and broke the hearts of every American watching the match, for now. Let’s break it down.

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•      The defense lack got to us: I knew at the beginning of the tournament our backline would be the weak point of the American team.  Geoff Cameron had a terrible clearance to allow the first goal by Nani, and the entire team was caught ball watching as the team failed to get back on defense and Cristiano Ronaldo delivered the perfect ball, if the U.S want to shock the world any more, these issues need to be addressed.

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•       Dominating the game: Despite those two defensive lapses, the U.S was the better team tonight, Portugal failed to get through the midfield most of the match, and the Portuguese defense without Coentrao and Pepe was very vulnerable.

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•       A goal of skill and a goal of heart: The first goal from Jermaine Jones will be on every highlight reel involving the tournament for the next week.  The ball came out to him outside of the box and it was beautifully struck to go into the goal, the next one came after Deandre Yedlin came barreling down the wing, crossed it to Michael Bradley, when Clint Dempsey gutted the ball into the net, it was a typical work hard goal from the Americans, showing that they can

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•                        The U.S have a great chance of making to the knockout stage: For the U.S to not advance, they have to lose to Germany, which to be fair is likely, however Ghana have to win their match by 2 or Portugal have to win their match by 5, both of which I do not see happening, so despite this I see both Germany and the U.S advancing to the next round.