United States Squad Report: Team learns from Fred's flop

After watching the World Cup opener late Thursday, the national team trained early Friday before boarding their plane for the 3 ½ hour flight to stormy Natal, where they’ll face Ghana on Monday.

Meanwhile, several players spoke to the press late Thursday for their comments on the opening match of the 2014 World Cup, a controversial 3-1 win for Brazil in which Fred was awarded a dubious penalty for dropping to the floor under light contact from Croatia’s Dejan Lovren. 

Keeper Tim Howard, who admitted he slept through part of the match, was the most frank on the call:

“I don't agree with it. But that's not going to help Croatia. Any team I've ever been on, if we feel contact in the box, go down. It's the referee's job to get it right. If you dive, book the guy or you play on. If it's a penalty, then you call a penalty. But the decision lies with the referee."

Others, like Jermaine Jones, sounded a note of caution. “They already say we have to watch out with the hands in the box or on corner kicks, especially with me with yellow cards,” Jones explained. Other players spoke out on the penalty.

You can refer back to these quotes of course should the US forwards get up to anything weird on Monday.

Fixtures/Results

Group G — June 16 — Ghana vs United States

Group G — June 22 — United States vs Portugal

Group G — June 26 — United States vs Germany

Squad News/Rumors/Injury Report

Squad remains fit and healthy.

Five Quick Notes

1. US viewership up 8% for this World Cup over 2010, according to Nielsen.

2. Still, football may never be dominant in the United States: “"We have alternatives. In a lot of countries across the world, soccer, for varying reasons, it's not competing with five to eight other sports. That's what football has become in America.

3. Time magazine tackles soccer in America, again. “It’s hard to exaggerate how much soccer’s incursion into American life threatens to erode American exceptionalism…”

4. MLSsoccer.com on Jermaine Jones, an integral component of the USMNT without a secure place in the formation.

5. The Dodgers' Yasel Puig gives a shout out to Nick Rimando, who thanked him nicely.