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Monday, February 24, 2025

Knock­out phase be­gins on Sat­ur­day

Americans face the Netherlands

by

814 days ago
20221202
Christian Pulisic of the United States attends a press conference before a training session at Al-Gharafa SC Stadium, in Doha, Thursday. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Christian Pulisic of the United States attends a press conference before a training session at Al-Gharafa SC Stadium, in Doha, Thursday. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Ashley Landis

DO­HA, Qatar (AP) — Chris­t­ian Pulisic be­came an Amer­i­can star with the win­ning goal — and the in­jury he got while scor­ing it — that lift­ed the Unit­ed States in­to the round of 16 at the World Cup.

He in­jured his pelvic bone, Pulisic in­sist­ed, when he col­lid­ed with Iran’s goal­keep­er on the goal that sent him to the hos­pi­tal as the Unit­ed States won 1-0 and ad­vanced in foot­ball’s biggest tour­na­ment.

Pulisic was cleared to play Sat­ur­day, when the Amer­i­cans face the Nether­lands in the knock­out round.

Every­body ex­pect­ed him to be on the field even be­fore doc­tors gave him the med­ical go-ahead Fri­day.

“I will do every­thing in my pow­er to work with this med­ical team and make sure that I can play,” Pulisic said of his in­ten­tion to be on the field.

The Unit­ed States is try­ing to get to the quar­ter­fi­nals for the first time since 2002 and con­tin­ue to de­light the Amer­i­can au­di­ence, which has tuned in­to the first three match­es in record num­bers.

The Unit­ed States is win­less in its last 11 World Cup games against Eu­ro­pean teams, a streak that in­cludes five loss­es and six draws. On Sat­ur­day, the Amer­i­cans face a Dutch squad that, like sev­er­al oth­er World Cup teams at this tour­na­ment, is bat­tling the flu. The bug ran through the US squad last week.

Nether­lands coach Louis van Gaal gave his team the day off on Thurs­day in­stead of run­ning a typ­i­cal 11-on-11 match.

“I gave them a day of rest,” Van Gaal said Fri­day. “With this group, they com­mu­ni­cate that to me. I lis­ten to my play­ers.”

He de­clined to elab­o­rate on how many play­ers are af­fect­ed, but by aban­don­ing the typ­i­cal train­ing sched­ule Van Gaal cre­at­ed spec­u­la­tion that at least six play­ers are ill.

“We are not go­ing to elab­o­rate on that,” he said. “But if it goes around in the group, it is wor­ry­ing.”

Frenkie de Jong has said a scratchy throat dis­rupt­ed his abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate dur­ing a vic­to­ry over Qatar, and Marten de Roon told re­porters he had a cold ear­li­er this week.

Nether­lands mid­field­er Cody Gap­ko is try­ing to be­come the first play­er from his coun­try to score in four straight World Cup match­es, and the Dutch team is on an 18-game win­ning streak that the Unit­ed States is de­ter­mined to snap.

AUS­TRALIA-AR­GENTI­NA

Li­onel Mes­si goes in­to yet an­oth­er match that could be his last on the World Cup stage.

“No one ex­pects us to win,” Aus­tralia for­ward Math­ew Leck­ie said. “So let’s shock the world.”

Ar­genti­na was shocked by Sau­di Ara­bia in its open­ing match and had to beat Poland ear­li­er this week to en­sure that Mes­si could con­tin­ue in his fifth World Cup. One of the great­est play­ers of all-time has nev­er won this tour­na­ment, and this one in Qatar is ex­pect­ed to be his last.

Ar­genti­na turned a cor­ner with wins over Mex­i­co and Poland and emerged as the win­ner of Group C to face Aus­tralia, ranked 38th in the world. Aus­tralia is in the knock­out round for on­ly the sec­ond time, its pre­vi­ous trip a 1-0 loss to Italy in 2006.

Ar­genti­na won’t take Aus­tralia for grant­ed, even though it has five wins, one draw and one loss in eight meet­ings dat­ing to 1988. This is the first match be­tween the two teams since 2007.

“We know, at the mo­ment, every­thing is very dif­fi­cult,” Mes­si said. “All the op­po­nents are com­pli­cat­ed. We know it as well as any­one.”

Ar­genti­na, Aus­tralia, Brazil, Croa­t­ia, Eng­land, France, Japan, Ko­rea Re­pub­lic, Mo­roc­co, the Nether­lands, Poland, Por­tu­gal, Sene­gal, Spain, Switzer­land and USA have made it through to the last 16 at the FI­FA World Cup Qatar.

Fi­nal Stand­ings

Group A

Place*Team *P*W*D*L*GD*Pts

1*Nether­lands 3*2*1*0*4*7

2*Sene­gal*3*2*0*1*1*6

3*Ecuador*3*1*1*1*1*4

4*Qatar*3*0*0*3*-6*0

Group B

1*Eng­land* 3*2*1*0*7*7

2*USA*3*1*2*0*1*5

3*Iran*3*1*0*2*-3*3

4*Wales*3*0*1*2*-5*1

Group C*

1*Ar­genti­na*3*2*0*1*3*6

2*Poland*3*1*1*1*0*4

3*Mex­i­co*3*1*1*1*-1*4

4*Sau­di Ara­bia*3*1*0*2*-2*3

Group D

1*France*3*2*0*1*3*6

2*Aus­tralia*3*2*0*1*-1*6

3*Tunisia*3*1*1*1*0*4

4*Den­mark*3*0*1*2*-2*1

Group E

1*Japan*3*2*0*1*1*6

2*Spain*3*1*1*1*6*4

3*Ger­many*3*1*1*1*1*4

4*Cos­ta Ri­ca*3*1*0*2*-8*3

Group F

1*Mo­roc­co*3*2*1*0*3*7

2*Croa­t­ia*3*1*2*0*3*5

3*Bel­gium*3*1*1*1*-1*4

4*Cana­da*3*0*0*3*-5*0

Group G

1*Brazil*3*2*0*1*2*6

2*Switzer­land*3*2*0*1*1*6

3*Cameroon*3*1*1*1*0*4

4*Ser­bia*3*0*1*2*-3*1

Group H

1*Por­tu­gal* 3*2*0*1*2*6

2*South Ko­rea*3*1*1*1*0*4

3*Uruguay*3*1*1*1*0*4

4*Ghana*3*1*0*2*-2*3

FIFAFIFA 2022 World Cup Qatar


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