Pressure

I agree with just about everything in Michael Lewis's US-Germany preview except Soccernet's description of it:

As the U.S. prepares to face Germany in today's World Cup warmup, the pressure is on coach Bruce Arena to get the most out of his team, writes Michael Lewis.

Soccernet needs a better blurb writer, because that's not even slightly what the article's about. But more to the point, that statement just isn't true. Coaching a team missing several starters, and playing the host nation in front of a huge crowd, Arena's under absolutely no pressure at all. He'll be pleased with an organized, gritty performance regardless of the result. 0-0 would be a great scoreline for the USA, but a disaster for Germany, and once that would increase the very real pressure on Jurgen Klinsmann.