Portugal favored to beat USA with Cristiano Ronaldo expected to play

The United States enter their game against Portugal in a unique situation after the Germany draw against Ghana. The United States could move into first place in Group G, also known as the “Group of Death” with a win.

On Saturday, Ghana did the American’s a favor by holding Germany to a draw. Portugal was steamrolled in their World Cup opening game against Germany to the tune of 4-0. Portugal will be without defenders Pepe and Fábio Coentrão and Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly dealing with knee issues.

It looks like the odds of the Americans moving into first place and beating Portugal should be higher than you might have anticipated before the tournament. That isn’t the case though.

Portugal is still favored to win the game, with Ronaldo expected to play. In fact, a United States win has the worst odds out of any potential outcome.

Ronadlo’s former manager and fellow Portuguese national thinks Ronaldo will play.

“Of course. He says he has no problems, the reports in the press, some doctor denied already to make any comments. The doctor we have to listen to is the doctor of the Portuguese national team, which says that Ronaldo is in great conditions,” Mourinho, who is serving as Yahoo’s Global Football Ambassador, said.

“And the fact, that today, people were commenting that after the training session, he was leaving the session with some ice on his knee. I think this is more than natural, because you always have a little knock here, a little knock there. And it is normal that after the recovering session you have some ice. I really don’t understand the fact that Portugal, today, they had a training session in front of ten thousand people.

“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 in his knee. But I think, no problem. He played for ninety minutes, I saw absolutely no problem and the doctor from the Portuguese national team is saying that he’s in perfect condition and I really believe he is.”