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The US Team Ready For Match Against Belize
posted (July 8, 2013)
And while that was Belize's first time, Jules also got an opportunity to see the US team go at it on the field.

Although it was just an abridged version, he got a chance to see them at work, and he spoke to those top players that Belize will face.

Here's how their session looked:

Jules Vasquez reporting from Portland
The media was only allowed to tape the warm-up's for the US team's workout. They weren't as high spirited and didn't exhibit the kind of team unity that the Belize team did at its practice. But under German Coach Jurgen Klinsmann, they were disciplined and dutiful.

For his part, Klinsmann said all the right things about the Belize team he would be facing:



Jürgen Klinsmann - US National Team Coach
"Well Belize is here because they did very well in qualifying against very good nations and if you watched their games you know - they were tight, they kept Honduras on their toes for 80 minutes until Honduras finally scored a goal. So we expect a difficult game, we expect a game that they'll come out more as a defensive shape and we'll try to avoid an early goal. That is what we need - to come out and open them up as quickly as possible and break them down soon in the game, but we expect a difficult game but we're looking forward to it."

Jules Vasquez
"Are you concerned about the risk of embarrassment that smaller nations, particularly Belize - only has 300,000 people?"

Jürgen Klinsmann
"No - I think it's fascinating, it's wonderful for Belize to be a get this opportunity, to be a part of the Gold Cup, they deserve it because they did well in the qualifiers that's why they are here. Every game starts nil -nil and every game is a lot of work and you need to get it down and I think the players know that. We are trained for it and we're ready for it and hopefully we can break them down the earlier the better."

Jules Vasquez
"What are you expecting from the Belizean team with their very defensive smuggling style?"

Oguchi Onyewu, US National Team
"The team that plays defensively against us, we've faced that before - against Guatemala they played defensive style against us but that's why we're here to become a better team and to be able to try and break down those teams. I'm anticipating that they're not coming out here to try to loose, that they are going for the win as well just like us."

Jules Vasquez
"What style of game would you anticipate from the defensive Belizean team?"




DeMarcus Beasley, US National Team
"We're going to play our game the way we know how to play - try to break them down and try to defend us, they're going to play and score and that's what we're going to do as well. We're going to start off on a good foot."








Start Holden- US National Team
"The first time in the Gold Cup - they're going to be working to impress and working really hard and it's going to be a tough team for us to break down so we're going to do more work scattering them in the next few days and make sure that we're prepared for Tuesday."

And while the US is conservative in its projections - as it should be in a tournament that has seen major upsets so far, one should never forget that this is a team of seasoned professionals:

Jürgen Klinsmann
"It's a very good team that we've put together here for this Gold Cup and with tremendous amount of experience and guys that know that this is a huge opportunity . We want to win this competition because it gives you access to the confederation cap that we'll be playing years from now in Russia - we just finished off in Brazil and those are the competitions that you want to be part of."

And while Belize hopes to shock the world, the US is also trying to regain it's prominence as a regional powerhouse:

Jürgen Klinsmann
"It's about proving to everyone that we want to be number one in CONCACAF." Start Holden
"We want to win the Gold Cup - it's no secret. The last two we lost in the final to Mexico."

DeMarcus Beasley
"This is our tournament, we're at home and it's CONCACAF and we want to be the best team in our region - again. It starts Tuesday."

Jürgen Klinsmann
"Guatemala gave us a really good game in the first half - they ran out of gas in the second half because they've been off season and we know that so we know how to judge that game. But now reality kicks in - the Gold Cups starts and we're all excited."

Not overly confident after crushing Guatemala on Friday night in san Diego and not looking too far down the schedule; Klinnsman didn't even want to discuss future games in the tournament.

Jürgen Klinsmann
"Well we take it one game at a time and we have to beat Belize first which we respect and which we know takes a lot of patience and work to break them down."

There's more controversy to report on as Rawel Pelayo, a member of the Belize Delegation, has been detained by US authorities. We can't confirm the reason he is being detained, but we will continue to follow that situation, and have more on it tomorrow's newscast.

And as we told you, the Football Federation of Belize confirmed today that Cristobal Gilharry has replaced Elroy Kuylen who was denied entry into the US on Friday July 5, 2013. He is traveling Portland, and reliable information to 7News is that Kuylen was sent back to Belize yesterday because overstayed in his most recent visit to that country.

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