Thursday 30 August at the Cheonan Sports Complex will see the eagerly awaited Round of 16 clash between Germany and the USA. The teams fared very differently during the group stage, but the counters are now set to zero again as the knockout phase begins.
The game
Germany - USA, Cheonan, Thursday 30 August, 20:00 (local
time)
The stakes
Heiko Herrlich's German U-17 team will be going into
the match full of confidence, having finished top of a very tough
Group F and played some excellent attacking football along the way.
Toni Kroos and Co. will now be looking to reach the quarter-finals
of a FIFA U-17 World Cup for the first time since 1997. The USA, on
the other hand, lost their opening two matches and only scraped
through on the last day with a 2-0 win over Belgium. This victory
will nevertheless have lifted their morale ahead of the knockout
rounds.
The players
Although Germany centre-forward Richard Sukuta-Pasu
suffered a cut along the shin against Trinidad and Tobago as well
as bruising and had to be taken off, he should be fit for the USA
clash. Defender Konstantin Rausch has sat out his one-match ban and
will be available again. For the Americans, attacker Billy Schuler
will be forced to watch from the stands after picking up his second
yellow card of the group stage against Belgium.
The past
This will be the first match involving these teams at a
FIFA U-17 World Cup. The first time the two countries met
competitively was at the 1972 Olympic Football Tournament when
Germany cantered to a 7-0 victory. At the 2002 FIFA World Cup
Korea/Japan™, Germany again won, 1-0 on this occasion in the
quarter-final in Ulsan. The only American win to date was a 2-0
success at the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup. At the FIFA U-20 World
Cup, the teams have met on three occasions, Germany winning twice
(2-1 at Chile 1987 and 3-1 at UAE 2003) with the other match
finishing 0-0 at Netherlands 2005.
The words
"About a month ago, on 20 July, we lost 3-1 to the
USA in a warm-up match. The Americans also qualified out of a tough
group with Belgium, Tajikistan and Tunisia, so we know what
we'll be up against. But we've had a good tournament so far
and can have every confidence heading into the Round of 16. Our aim
now is obviously to keep the upper hand and make it into the
quarter-final."
Heiko Herrlich, Germany coach
"We have achieved our first goal, which was making it
through the group stage, and we certainly did it the hard way. It
proved the character of my team and now we need to believe in
ourselves and play the kind of football we know we can."
John Hackworth, USA coach
