Jozy Altidore Ruled Out Of Portugal Game

United States forward Jozy Altidore will be out Sunday when the U.S take on Portugal due to a strained left hamstring suffered during the Ghana game on Monday.

"He will not be available for Sunday's game, but we are hopeful he will be available in the tournament," U.S. Soccer spokesman Michael Kammarman said of the 24-year-old.

After the Portugal game, the U.S play Germany on June 26th to finish out the group stage.

With the loss of Altidore the U.S need 23 year old forward Aron Jóhannsson and veteran Chris Wondolowski to step up in a big way.The United States won without Altidore for majority of the match against Ghana, and it has an opportunity to do the same against a weakened Portugal with a total team effort.

The best case scenario for the U.S is get the win against Portugal, and Germany beat Ghana. If this happens the U.S will automatically secure a spot into the knockout round.

This result would also give manager Jurgen Klinsmann a chance to rest players during the Germany match such as CB Matt Besler, and F Clint Dempsey who both picked up injuries during the Ghana game.