The World Cup is live with England and Uruguay on Thursday at 3 pm ET from ESPN on TV and the WatchESPN website online and it comes from the main stadium in Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo for the Group D match and these two teams need this game, as both come in after opening the group stage with a loss and that means Wayne Rooney needs to step up.
England is in a must win situation against Uruguay after losing their opening match against Italy and Uruguay comes in after getting upset by Costa Rica. Luis Suarez is expected to return to the lineup for Uruguay after sitting out their first game and it will be tough for him to be in top form after missing time, but the team needs him back. Suarez matches up with some of his English Premier League foes and teammates, including Daniel Sturridge, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerard.
Rooney needs to step up in this game for England, as they need to get to the knockout stage and they are playing with the history of 1966 behind them and would love to get to the finals this year. Spain is one team they will not have to worry about after they lost to Chile and they are now the first defending champion to lose their first two games in the group stage while scoring just one goal.
England lost against Italy 2-1 after a great play from Mario Balotelli and now the Italian team has a clear path to the knockout stages. Brazil remains one of the favorites along with Germany and Argentina while the Netherlands is also in the mix after the way they have played over their first two games. Robin van Persie had a brilliant header in the first game against Spain before winning against Australia and they will play against Chile to see who will win the group heading into the next stage.
The United States has a chance to make it into the knockout stage after winning against Ghana and they need to get at least a point from the game against Portugal to keep things going and that could put the team in great position to advance. Portugal will be playing with a chip on their shoulder after getting throttled by Germany and while Pepe will be out with a red card, the United States will also not be one hundred percent with Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore dealing with injuries, although Dempsey will be playing.
The US team won over Ghana in dramatic fashion and it started with Dempsey, as he scored just 30 seconds into the match after making a great individual play following a pass from the outlet. Dempsey scored the fastest goal in American World Cup history and that gave the team a 1-0 lead that they held for nearly the entire match. Ghana scored late around the 80th minute and that had many American fans upset thinking the team had just squandered three points and any chance of getting to the knockout stage. But John Brooks didn't waver and he was able to give the US a 2-1 lead after putting in a brilliant set piece shot off of a corner kick from Graham Zusi, who joined Brooks as a sub in the second half, making the scoring okay even more amazing since both just had come into the game late.