SAO PAULO --€“
They looked a tad bleary as they shuffled into Sao Paulo FC’s leafy training facility, but the United States men’s national team got a light workout into their legs on Monday afternoon. It was their first on Brazilian soil, where they open their 2014 FIFA World Cup against Ghana in Natal on June 16.
Following two weeks of training camp at Stanford University, three scrimmages behind closed doors and three more exhibition games against Azerbaijan, Turkey and Nigeria – all of which the Americans won – the final leg of their preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event kicked off here. The team was complete thanks to a clean bill of health, save for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who is in Miami scouting Ghana’s final tune-up against South Korea in Miami.
On Sunday night, the day after the 2-1 win over the Nigerians in Jacksonville, Fla., Team USA flew down to Miami and connected on to Sao Paulo on a commercial flight – traveling in business class – close to midnight to arrive early on Monday morning. They flew nine hours in all. “Tired,” goalkeeper Tim Howard told a cluster of 50 or so journalists, when he was asked how he felt. “It was quite easy, but long. My eyes were still closed coming off the plane.”
This will be a long and grueling month, even by World Cup standards. Brazil is a vast country with an infrastructure system that will be pushed to its limit, and perhaps well beyond it. If the traffic snarl in Sao Paulo is any indication, it will take the national team a great deal of time just to get around. Klinsmann predicted that it “will be a World Cup of patience.”
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