Hamburg: The US will have their backs to the wall for their decisive Group E match against Ghana but that pressure should bring out the best in his team, coach Bruce Arena said on Monday.
Needing both three points against Ghana as well as an Italy victory of the Czech Republic to advance, the Americans will have an edge as far as motivation goes over their African opponents -- who could make it to through with a draw.
"It's pretty clear what we need to do," Arena told a news conference. "Ghana may say 'a point gets us through'. But for us, it's pretty clear. So it's a lot easier to prepare and get their mentality right."
Arena said his team's 1-1 draw with nine men against 10-man Italy on Saturday proved that his team play well under pressure.
"Our players responded quite well to the fact that we had a poor start and knew that we had to get a point against Italy to stay alive. I think the result has given us a lot of confidence and have no doubt that our team will be ready to play."
Arena said he was not sure how he would replace suspended defender Eddie Pope and midfielder Pablo Mastroeni -- who together have more than 130 caps. Both were sent off on Saturday. Ghana's great team speed will pose a challenge, he said.
"They've showed considerable improvement as a team," he said. "They have great athleticism. They have one of the best players in the tournament in (Michael) Essien. It will be a wide open match. Hopefully we can deal with their team speed."
Landon Donovan said he thought the group had turned out to be the toughest with all four still in the running.
"When a team that everyone already counted out, like Ghana, beats the number two team in the world (Czech Republic), then that's the 'Group of Death'," Donovan said.
The attacking midfielder said even though the US fought a bitter battle against Italy on Saturday, with three red cards and their forward Brian McBride left bloodied, the Americans were now all cheering for Italy against the Czechs.
"I'm rooting for Italy for the rest of the week," he said. "I could care less (about any bad blood) now. As far as I'm concerned, they're the nicest guys in the world."
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