United States and Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard and US and Fulham midfielder Clint Dempsey spoke with US Soccer about preparing for England:
Howard
On what the team needs to improve on before facing England:“We can always get better at everything. I can’t pinpoint just one thing, but things are starting to click. We’re feeling good about our last two results, coming behind against Turkey and in this one we kind of controlled things. Training has been good, and like I said we’re very excited and have a very positive spirit.”
Dempsey
On how familiarity with English players will help him:“Well, I think it helps me because it’s one of the best leagues in the world, and for three years I’ve been consistently good. So I’m taking that confidence with me to the World Cup, and that’s how it helps me. When you get to international play, it’s different from club and all you can take with you is your confidence in your form and those are the positives that I’m going to take from that league and take into this game. But we’re going to watch tapes, like we do for any opponent, to know what their strengths and weaknesses are and know what we have to do to get a result.”
On the ability of this team to make history like the 1950 U.S. National Team did:
“If we didn’t believe that we could, why would we be here? It wouldn’t be right. I shouldn’t be part of this team if I didn’t feel we can do something special. Every time you put on the U.S. jersey, you should think you can do a good job. If you don’t, you shouldn’t be here. We’re trying to do something special. Hopefully we can do something special like we did in the Confederations Cup here.”
