Everton and U.S.A goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Antigua-and-Barbuda-c2840 and Guatemala.
The33-year old will feature for America against the unheralded Antigua and Barbuda on Saturday- a team mostly comprised of players competing in the third division of the US league.
The Yanks are currently placed 28th in the FIFA rankings.
Even though the American team are expected to trounce the Caribbean minnows on Saturday, the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Everton-c39043 shot stopper threw a word of caution towards his side not to take anything for granted, as they cannot afford any slip ups.
While talking to reporters, he said: “We don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing how to perform. We’re a smart enough group, top to bottom, to know what the days following Antigua will look like if we slip up.”
America have been stationed in Group A of the World Cup qualifiers for the North American region, which also features http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Guatemala-c2913 and Antigua and Barbuda.
They will play their second group game against Guatemala away from home on 12th of June. Howard was wary of the fact that playing an away qualifying match was never easy, and felt his side needs to be at their best in order to meet the challenge.
He added, “They're two different teams. Going away for qualifying is always difficult, so that will be a big challenge for us against Guatemala.”
The team, which is currently under the management of Jürgen Klinsmann, underwent a successful World Cup 2010 campaign in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/South-Africa-c757, finishing at the top of the group for the first time since 1930. During the tournament, they played out impressive draws
against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ghana-c2905.
Earlier in February, USA grabbed a stunning 1-0 win against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926 which was their first ever against the four times World Cup winners.
Nevertheless, Howard felt http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/America-c38390 needs to achieve maximum points out of their home fixtures, and should give equal importance to all the games.
He went on to admit that his side will be the favourites against the Caribbean team and backed them to finish on top of the group.
He added, “For Antigua, we're at home, so we need to win that game. We need to really put a lot of pressure on them and make them feel like they're going to be in a really difficult game.”
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