• Fifa mistranslation gets up Howard’s nose • USA goalkeeper says ‘talk is cheap’ It is not often you hear Tim Howard warn an opponent that “talk is cheap” or tell him to be prepared to “stand toe to toe” – but two words, lost in translation, have spiced up tomorrow’s encounter between the biggest and smallest countries in this year’s World Cup. This week the Slovenia midfielder Andrej Komac, regarded as the most humble member of the squad, told reporters: “We will play to win” – a gentle statement confirming his side’s intentions to book their place in the last 16 before facing England. However, Fifa’s interpreter turned his innocuous words into the more emphatic “We are going to win.” • Follow the Guardian’s World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our great Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more That statement went on press wires and bulletin boards, and was put to Howard, who warned Komac: “Talk is cheap, he’s got to stand toe to toe and they’ve got to stand toe to toe with us for 90 minutes. And if he’s still standing, then I’ll take my hat off to him. But a lot of boxers talk too and they’re looking up at the lights. And the next thing they know, they’re trying to figure out how they got there.” Howard will have a painkilling injection on his ribs before kick-off but will be fit. Komac is set to be named on the bench. Perhaps it is just as well. Slovenia’s coach, Matjaz Kek, who is expected to stick with the 11 who beat Algeria as he attempts to guide his country into the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time. Expectations are high in Ljubljana; cinemas will show football instead of films, and bars will be overflowing. And Kek is promising his team will go for it. “We might be the smallest country in this World Cup but we have not come here as tourists,” Kek said. “We are really focused.”Slovenia face a nation a 150 times bigger in terms of population but Kek insists: “We don’t stand in awe of the US.” His team are certainly in form, having won seven of their last eight matches since losing to England last September. As usual, Bob Bradley gave little away in his press conference. But the USA coach is a tinkerer and maybe minded to start Jose Torres in midfield instead of the more defensively inclined Ricky Clark. “Slovenia are a very good team,” said Bradley. “They are very well organised and tactically very smart. We have a great deal of respect for them. Robert Koren is the engine of their team. [Mile] Novakovic is a tall player with a creative side and [Valter] Birsa has a great left foot. They do a good job of staying very tight,” he added. “But we’ve been in many of these games before. I expect the game to be a tactical but we are looking at a way to get an edge.” With the stakes so high, the football might not be pretty. The USA captain, Carlos Bocanegra, was quite upfront about it, telling US journalists: “We will have to approach this game in an intelligent fashion. We have to be smart and not open up because a loss would put us out of the tournament.” But Bradley does not intend to lose too much sleep over what lies ahead. “I sleep from 12am to 6am every night,” he said. “And that’s not going to change.” World Cup 2010 Group C Slovenia USA World Cup 2010 Sean Ingle guardian.co.uk
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World Cup 2010: USA’s Tim Howard offers Slovenia some trash talk
