On June 22, within the framework of the second round of games at the football world championship, rivals in Group G met. In the Brazilian city of Manaus, the national teams of the USA and Portugal entered the field of the stadium. The match was very important from the point of view of the distribution of the final places in the group, since the Portuguese lost the first meeting, and the Americans could secure their way to the next stage.
The beginning of the game was marked by a quick goal. Already in the 5th minute of the match, the Portuguese Nani took advantage of the sluggishness of the Americans' defense and opened the scoring in the meeting. 1 - 0 quickly led the Portuguese.
After this event, the match went into a quiet mode, but one cannot say that the game took place without dangerous moments. It is worth recognizing that the US national team players in the first half more often threatened the opponent's goal. The Americans dangerously shot at the Portuguese goal from long distances several times. The Europeans also tried to attack, but they could not create super-role moments. Unfortunately for the Portuguese fans, the team leader and captain Cristiano Ronaldo did not show sparkling football.
The first half of the meeting ended with a minimum score of 1 - 0 in favor of the Europeans, but it was felt that the US team players would not give up three points so easily.
In the second half, the players of the US national team added significantly. The Americans began to have more and more favorable situations for scoring the gates of the Europeans. The bell for the latter rang on the 55th minute, when Bradley miraculously did not score. The Portugal defender cleared the ball off the goal line.
Cristiano Ronaldo continued to show his unpreparedness for the championship by playing. Perhaps this also affected other Portuguese players. As a result, this led to the fact that on the 64th minute Jermain Jones equalized the score. After a corner kick, the ball bounced back to the American, who delivered the most accurate blow from outside the penalty area. The score became equal.
At 81 minutes, the American players shocked the fans of the Portuguese team for the second time. After the confusion in the penalty area of the Europeans, the ball bounced into free space to the US national team player, who made a verified pass to Dempsey. 2 - 1 and the US team is jubilant. It seemed that the Americans would not let go of the advantage. They had more chances to score, sometimes they looked better on the field. We can say that the Klinsman team deserved to win. However, the American lacked quite a bit.
The referee added 5 minutes to the regular time of the match. The Portuguese tried to attack, and these impulses were rewarded. When there were 30 seconds left until the end of the meeting, Ronaldo hung into the penalty area, and Silvestre Varela equalized the score with his head.
The final result of the match is a fighting draw 2 - 2, which cannot suit Portugal. Now the Europeans need to win big against Ghana and hope that Germany will beat the US team.
