World Cup 2010: USA goalkeeper Tim Howard wary of England attacking threat

Everton shot-stopper cautious of opening clash...

30 May 2010 08:57:00

By Michael Wade

More On :  England, USA, Tim Howard, England vs USA

USA goalkeeper Tim Howard admits he's nervous about facing England's attacking threat in the World Cup, but hopes his knowledge of the Premier League will give his nation a helping hand.

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The Everton gloveman has faced the Three Lions attacking players on countless occassions during the domestic campaign, and is confident his understanding of their game will prove vital on June 12.

However, the former Manchester United shot-stopper is anticipating a difficult clash with some of England's team in the form of their careers.

"I think they [England] are probably better than people think they are. They are a phenomenal team," he told a press conference.

"Their big, key players are hitting the stride of their careers at the moment. They are right in their prime.

"With all the experience that is on that team, Champions League finals, domestic cup finals, league medals and the list goes on and on, you have a pretty good team and that is an understatement.

"They look fantastic and they are going to give us all that we can handle and we are going to have to be very, very good on that day to pull off a result."

However, following their 2-1 friendly victory over Turkey on Saturday, Howard is confident the USA won't roll over to the Group C favourites.

"We know that in the big games, the big moments, we can compete and given the right performances we can put ourselves in the position to get a result," he added.

"We must try and go in there and give the right performance to put ourselves in the thick of it and that is what you have to do when you are going in as the underdog."

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
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