USA 2, Turkey 1: Blimey, hold on a bit, these Yanks can play!

You can just see it happening in lounges across England. Those lucky enough to get ESPN's satellite coverage of Saturday's pre-World Cup friendly between Turkey and the United States in Philadelphia were suddenly sitting up in their sofas, with beers and crisps flying everywhere.

"Cor blimey, luv a duck, these bleedin' Yanks can play!" they'll have yelped as Fulham's Clint Dempsey was hitting the back of the net to put his side, England's opening Group C rivals on June 12, 2-1 up against a very useful Turkish outfit.

And there we were thinking baseball, the NFL, ice hockey and basketball (oh, and track and field) are what they're really good at. It may be some game. Especially when England were put through such a struggle by Japan yesterday, before running out 2-1 winners in their deeply unimpressive friendly in Graz, Austria.

Certainly the Americans made me sit up in Centurion, my World Cup base, on Saturday night. Today this American side—prepared pretty thoroughly by the experienced Bob Bradley, who has been in charge for 60 games—fly in to South Africa. By tonight Landon Donovan—who made Bradley's goal last night with some aplomb—will be sleeping about a mile from where I am, in the lakeside luxury of the Irene Country Lodge.

I've just been there for lunch, with former South African goalkeeper Deshi Bhaktawer along with the owner of the lodge and most of Irene, Adrian van der Bijl and their families. What a place. A British village in the middle of Gauteng. Today, for about £5, we had "the same lunch the Americans will be eating". The talk was all of football and who'll win the World Cup.

And you can't rule this hard-running US side out. Not when they're based in such a delightful spot. For a sneak preview of where they are, see my video athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OtSyTVjDOc .

It was a pig farm when I was a kid. Now it's blooming lovely, and the staff are great... and they speak American (unlike the German base at the exclusive Velmore Estate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmti01pfUs ) or the Greek hotel at the Beverly Hills (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px-ROLawUnU ))!

Mind you, nobody's quite got what England have at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Complex though (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAousno69r ).

It took the Americans a while to start playing last night. Ranked 14th in the world, they so nearly made a mess of the last game in their "send off series" tour. Everton's Tim Howard was called into action plenty in the opening 15 minutes and eventually conceded the first goal—from Arda Turan in the 27th minute—amongst howls of disbelief from a bumper 55,407 crowd in Philly.

But yes, these Turks were trying to impress their new boss Guus Hiddink. He will take over when his contract to manage Russia finally runs out in the autumn.

For a long time it looked like Michael Bradley, now with Borussia Moenchengladbach in Germany, was getting overrun in the midfield, despite his massive engine. Any thoughts I may have had about nepotism (he's boss Bob's son) were soon dispelled though as he sweated blood to keep his side in the game.

And then who pops up with the best run of the first half? Jozy Altidore, the Hull City striker who managed just one goal—against Manchester City—in the Premier League last season.

And the man whose greatest claim to fame was giving Sunderland's Scottish fullback Alan Hutton a good old head butt towards the end of the season, then produced the 58th-minute equaliser...in his first match since that red card on April 24.

That left Dempsey to send the huge crowd home happy with a well-taken 75th-minute winner as the US dominated the closing exchanges.

The 27-year-old from Texas, showing off his wonderful set of tattoos, said of his 18th goal in 61 appearances afterwards, "It was great, I just stuck it away. We were so much better in the second half."

The US play Australia in a friendly in South Africa next week (June 5). And then, with the very public backing of their President this week ("We are proud of our team, I will have a man in the Oval Office keeping an eye on their fortunes"), it's England, ranked 8th in the world.

Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Palace is the place to be on June 12...if you can get a ticket, as the World Cup's two best-supported visiting teams go toe-to-toe.

Still, with Algeria (ranked 30th) stuffed 3-0 by Ireland last week — the Irish should be here but Thierry Henry's hand denied them the chance in Paris last year—and Slovenia (25) lucky to get past Russia in the playoffs, the US and England should get through from Group C whatever the result.

Just as well really. Because blimey, these Yanks can play! Given that England needed two highly-flukey own-goals to see off Japan, this World Cup is anyone's.

Did anyone notice New Zealand, ranked 78th in the world, beat Serbia (15th) 1-0 tonight? Those Kiwis can play a bit too. Italy be warned! But what about favourites Spain—3-2 last-minute winners over Saudi Arabia?!

Germany cruised past Hungary 3-0, Slovakia drew 1-1 with Cameroon in other friendlies while earlier today, troubled South Korea fell 1-0.

I'm off to South Africa v Guatemala is Polokwane with Desh and the SABC lads tomorrow. It's just around the corner, this World Cup. Can you feel it?

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk .

Altitude and Altidore The Threat To England In Jozyburg

IT’S the game primed to decide the whole tone of the World Cup. England versus the USA, Group C, at the Royal Bafokeng Soccer Palace near Rustenburg on June 12.

This remote venue – built by the local tribal king with his vast platinum profits - will play host to the two nations responsible for the highest foreign tickets sales in what has been, up to now, a difficult market.

England see it as a chance to reverse their worst ever World Cup result – the infamous 1-0 defeat at Belo Horizonte in 1950 – but Hull’s Jozy Altidore, as we shall hear later, reckons his lot are in for a crack at the final after their success at the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year.

It’s a good 90 minutes across the single-track Hartebeespoort Dam wall from Johannesburg (also known, ironically, as Jozy) and Pretoria, and it could be a damn wall by the time the fans bottle-neck it in early June. After the vast, scenic reservoir, the R4 to Rustenburg is a toll road, the alternative roads are pot-holed (but being repaired, I’m told) as you drive through 60 miles of platinum mines and shanty towns, punctuated by huge fruit farms.

This is the road to Sun City, the golf and gambling paradise. And it’s always been a risk. If the fans don’t turn up for this one, it will be a very poor start for Africa’s first World Cup.

Both sides –given their FIFA rankings - are expected to qualify from a group which also features Algeria (27) and Slovenia (29). England (8) are scheduled to return to the Palace – just four miles from their World Cup base at the Royal Marang Hotel - for their first knock-out game as Group C winners (their plans to stay near high-altitude Rustenburg have been in place for 18 months which is why I’ve always suggested the World Cup draw was fixed, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26B6civ-8qk, a video recorded after the draw on December 4). The USA (16), as runners-up, will head for Bloemfontein, which ain’t a holiday resort. No sir.

That’s why the Yanks won’t want to lose this one. They’ll want to see off England and play the Group D runners-up in Rustenburg, disturbing England’s carefully laid preparations. That would send England on the 500 mile journey to Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, traditionally the heart of Afrikaner country. And they don’t much like the English (don’t bother yourself, this grudge goes back to 1888 and a series of Bore Wars, sorry Boer Wars).

Talking of wars, Group D, of course, is a bit of a group of death. Kind of a gathering of gloom. It contains Germany (6), Australia (19), Serbia (15) and Ghana (31). My guess is Germany will win it, Ghana will finish second. And I know who I’d rather play, especially with Chelsea’s Michael Essien expressing doubts today over his knee before Africa’s greatest footballing month.

So who is perfectly placed to look ahead to this crunch game, the scene-setter for the two best-followed nations in South Africa on June 12? The Americans have several players operating in England – their star man Landon Donovan came over on loan with Everton, crocked our left-back Ashley Cole (accidentally of course) and went home to prepare.

But Altidore, the huge, lightning-quick Hull winger, will stay to the bitter end of the Premier League season, with compatriots Tim Howard (Everton), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Jonathan Spector (West Ham), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolves) and club-mate Boaz Myhill.

Josmar Volmy Altidore, all muscle and pace, is still just 20 but he is a definite in a tricky squad selection for coach Bob Bradley.

Altidore, skating over the twin disasters of a car crash involving his mate and fellow US international Charlie Davies and the earthquake in his parents’ Haiti, says: “As we found out in the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year, anything can happen. Italy and Spain were there but we were beating Brazil 2-0 in the final.

“We had the win in the bag. That’s what we thought. But you can’t do that against a team of Brazil’s calibre and we lost 3-2. But it was a good lesson to learn.

“I think that all of us agree that we’re in a group which will allow us to play our football. We’ll be up against a world force in England and two quick teams in Slovenia and Algeria, and I think these opponents really suit our style of play.”

Nothing to be scared of then, for the lad from Livingstone, New Jersey? “We're never scared,” he grins, “We’re really looking forward to the England game. I think that we’re capable of beating anybody on our day and there’s no team in the world that can beat us easily.

“We’re up to the challenge and the English will realise that when we meet them. It'll be a tough match; no team can walk over us.

But Altidore admits: “I’ve been through a lot over the last two or three years that people don’t know about. I was trying to put the car accident behind me when the earthquake struck in Haiti. I’ve still got family there but you have to be strong and not let the sadness weigh you down.

“Even before all that I had family issues which stopped me from focusing completely on football. They affected my performances. Things are better now and I’ve vowed to myself that this will be the year I return to the very top, taking full advantage of the World Cup. I'll be getting back to doing what I love.”

Altidore insists playing for lowly relegation candidates Hull is no bad thing. He grins: “It’s very different to Villarreal and New York, where I played before.

“I knew moving to England wouldn’t be easy. I was aware I was joining a team where I wasn’t going to score lots of goals. It was a challenge and a decision that I’d really thought through. I don’t regret it at all.

“Things are different at Hull. We’re battling against relegation. That makes every goalscoring opportunity, every point and every win valuable.

“I was the first American to score in La Liga. Being the first American to score in a World Cup final would be unbelievable - but it’s very possible. Just look at the Confederations Cup.”