The U.S. team won't win the World Cup this year, but there is plenty of pressure to improve on the showing of 1998.
The U.S. team won't win the World Cup this year, but there is plenty of pressure to improve on the dismal 1998 showing.
The U.S. women won't win any awards for aesthetics in this tournament, but the Germans and Italians don't apologize for their inelegant World Cup victories, and these women won't either.
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Playing the Germans, a traditional world power that hasn't won this tournament or the World Cup since the 1990s, has once again become an exercise in frustration.
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Now we know our audience isn't as big as the World Cup's, but we have a nice audience and we appreciate every one of you, and you'll be happy to know we have just figured out a way to increase our listenership by a factor of, oh, 100 trillion, without adding anybody new.
It stops tonight but I don't think it was a bad World Cup by us.
But a move to Europe just one year ahead of the World Cup isn't without a degree of risk.
But Neymar's decision to move to Europe just one year ahead of the World Cup isn't without a degree of risk.
"What happened at the World Cup won't have any effect, " he said.
Likewise, early exits from the World Cup don't cause a lot of people in the U.S. to get too hot and bothered.
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Hopefully, it won't be any different at this World Cup and once again we'll thrive on that pressure and relish that home support we'll hopefully have.
Fleming won't get his hands on the World Cup but at least he has the respect of his peers, and maybe that's not a bad consolation prize.
And while there may not be much depth in central defense, the World Cup isn't a season-long competition: As long as your starters remain healthy and available for seven games, you're fine.
"We don't want a repeat of the last World Cup, " Blatter said Friday.
But at least one of the five World Cup finalist won't make the semifinals, and I'd be surprised if they keep their head coach.
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His success at Santos has also made Neymar the biggest star on the Brazilian national team and he had previously said he wouldn't move to Europe until after the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, when he will carry the hopes of the host nation as it seeks to win the tournament for a record sixth time.
"I don't really think I'll win the World Cup this year, " said Maier.
"We're very fortunate because, no matter what happens at the World Cup, I don't think it will mean the end of an era, " he continued.
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"I am delighted for him as he's been in and out of the team and didn't get in the Ireland side in the World Cup so this has given him and the whole of the set-up the ideal boost ahead of next weekend in Scotland".
In-form Spain head to the tournament as favorites, while a resurgent Brazil side and World Cup holders Italy also can't be discounted.
It is a tactic some clubs have used in the past and a risk he didn't want to take, especially not with the World Cup on the horizon.
"I dreamed the dream that I'd be lifting the World Cup - but it wasn't to be, " said Fleming, after announcing he was giving up the captaincy of the one-day team.
As far as World Cup shocks go this wasn't perhaps on a par with their win over West Indies in 1996, but was certainly more special for being on home soil.
"We haven't had any cancellations, and I don't think we will have bookings withdrawn for the World Cup either - we are still struggling to cope with the demand, " the official said.
Despite being one of the few Italian players to emerge with any credit from a dismal 2010 World Cup, Di Natale hasn't featured for the national team under new coach Cesare Prandelli.
While the tournament doesn't carry with it the same prestige as a World Cup, it is essentially a trial run of the main event for the host nation, and for the lower-ranked countries involved it offers invaluable experience playing against the world's best.
The biggest threat in the next four years for Team USA, which hasn't lost since 2006, may be the 2014 World Cup, where a wily Spanish team that lost to the U.S. in the last two Olympic gold-medal games will be playing in front of a home crowd.
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"Maybe I can't say it in public but there's a World Cup in New Zealand next year, " he said.
Britain didn't want any publicity undermining its bid to stage the World Cup.
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