Soccer News of Monday, 5 May 2014

Source: footy-Ghana

US scouts closely monitoring Black Stars

American soccer instructor and scout, Carlos Juarez, has revealed the US have their watchful eyes on the Black Stars ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The Americans who face Ghana in the opening Group G fixture on June 16 in Natal, are leaving no stone unturned in their bid to avoid a third successive defeat at the hands of the Black Stars in the FIFA flagship competition.

The Yankees lost to the Black Star in their last group match of the 2006 World Cup by 2-1 courtesy a Stephen Appiah penalty after both sides were level, a situation which handed Ghana passage into the round of sixteen.

Four years later in South Africa, the Americans would once again be on the receiving end when they lost to the Black Stars in the round of sixteen by a repeat of the first score line.

Heading to Brazil and with barely a month to go, the US have begun preparations to break their recent international football jinx at the hands of Ghana, as chief scout, Carlos Juarez reveals.

“My job during the World Cup is to scout,” he told USsoccer.com. “There are four scouts. What we’ll do is have three of us scouting games and one putting together the report. There will be four of us scouting opponents at the World Cup. Most of the work though is going to come before the World Cup,” he told the American soccer website.

“We’re trying to put together a database of players with the help of Dave Chesler. We want to make sure we have lots of information on Ghana. Most of this work will be done prior and then during the World Cup,” he added.

The US are paired with Ghana in Group G along with Portugal and Germany at the 2014 FIFA World Cup which runs from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in Brazil.