SAO PAULO — Imagine an NFL team asked to play Thursday night in steamy Miami, then another game Monday across the country in San Diego. Now imagine its opponent in that second game had an extra day’s rest and an easy trip from Oakland.
It isn't very fair, obviously, and yet FIFA has made life just that miserable for the U.S., which must travel to Recife in northeast Brazil for a Thursday afternoon match against a better-rested Germany, which has 27 extra hours more recovery time.
The whole thing has upset Jurgen Klinsmann, who wasn’t thrilled with the way the seedings and schedules were set in the first place at the original draw last December.
“We have one day less to recover,” Klinsmann said. “We played in the Amazon, they played in a location where they don’t have to travel much. Everything was done for the big favorites to move on. We got to do it the tough way, so we’re going to do it the tough way.”
This is as close to charging a FIFA conspiracy as Klinsmann has come, though in this one instance he is not being backed up by his biggest supporter, Sunil Gulati,. When asked whether he was upset by the schedule, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation shrugged and said these things happen.
“In South Africa, we had the least travel and the most favorable schedule,” Gulati said. “Nothing you can do about it.”
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