Portugal
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho questioned why Portugal allowed a training session to be broadcast live, allowing viewers to see Cristiano Ronaldo walking gingerly with an ice pack on his knee. Mourinho rarely allows cameras at training at Chelsea. “I really don’t understand why Portugal had a training session in front of 10,000 people,” he wrote in a blog for Eurosport. “In my office I was watching the training session live, which is something I don’t understand. And because of that, everybody could see around the world that Ronaldo was having ice on his knee. I don’t understand.” Nonetheless, Mourinho is convinced Ronaldo will be fit to play in Portugal’s crucial clash with the United States on Sunday. Also, Fifa cleared teammate Pepe to play in Portugal’s final Group G match, banning him for one match for his red card against Germany.
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Cameroon
Cameroon coach Volker Finke blasted his players’ “disgusting” behaviour after one was red-carded and another headbutted a teammate during a 4-0 loss to Croatia. In the loss, which ensured a first-round exit, Alexandre Song was red-carded for punching a Croatian player and Benoit Assou-Ekotto aimed a head-butt at Benjamin Moukandjo following a fight between the two teammates. “It’s disgusting and I don’t like it,” Finke said. “We will need to talk to certain players. The behaviour of some of them was not at all satisfying. It’s unacceptable to see that kind of thing.” Cameroon made the World Cup quarter-finals in 1990, but have not gotten out of the group stages since.
United States
US forward Jozy Altidore will miss Sunday’s match against Portugal. Altidore left the team’s opener against Ghana after straining his left hamstring in Monday’s 2-1 win against Ghana, leaving his status for the remainder of the World Cup in question. The forward, 24, was competing with Ghana’s John Boye when he grabbed the back of his left leg and fell to the ground, then was taken off on a stretcher.
Spain
With the football world still in shock at the early elimination of world champions Spain, midfielder Xabi Alonso was brutally blunt in his review of what went sideways in the team’s two defeats. The Real Madrid midfielder was taken off early in both games and suggested that his teammates were not prepared to defend their World Cup crown. “We did not know how to maintain the hunger, the conviction, the ambition to go for the tournament,” he said. “Our quota of joy and success had been used up, emptied. We made a lot of footballing errors. We lost the know-how, the solidity which had won us so many games. We were not up to it, and we deserve to be out.” He expects a major squad makeover. “I believe things are going to change,” he said. “Normally cycles end with a defeat, and this has been a very painful defeat. For sure things are going to change.”
Belgium
Belgium’s World Cup captain Vincent Kompany missed team training yesterday with a groin pull, coach Marc Wilmots said. Belgium play Russia in their second Group H match on Sunday, but Wilmots did not indicate whether the Manchester City defender was a doubt. “No Vincent Kompany in training today, slight groin strain,” Wilmots said on his Twitter account. “He is working individually today with the medical staff.” Playmaker Eden Hazard missed training on Wednesday, but was back in action with the squad yesterday.
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