MANAUS, Brazil -- With Cristiano Ronaldo on the field, a one-goal lead is never safe. The world player of the year rarely sparkled on a hot and humid night in the jungle, but his inch-perfect stoppage-time cross set up Varela for the equalizing goal Sunday in Portugals 2-2 draw against the United States at the World Cup. The Real Madrid winger, who has been playing despite a left knee injury, showed flashes of his best, but his impact was minimal until the final seconds of the match. He curled the ball in to a diving Varela, who headed past Tim Howard to give the Portuguese team a slim hope of advancing to the second round and deny the Americans instant advancement. "He made a great cross," said Howard, Ronaldos former teammate from their days at Manchester United. "Footballs cruel sometimes." The United States now has four points in Group G, the same as Germany. Both Portugal and Ghana have one point. The Americans will face Germany on Thursday in Recife, while Portugal takes on Ghana at the same time in Brasilia. "Obviously were disappointed, but at the end of the day youve got to look at the positives, we got a point," said United States captain Clint Dempsey, who scored to give the Americans a 2-1 lead in the 81st. "Its going down to the last game and hopefully we get the job done." Nani scored first for Portugal, shooting past a sprawling Howard in the fifth minute. But the Americans responded in the second half as Portugal seemed to wilt in the stifling heat. Jermaine Jones made it 1-1 with a curling shot in the 64th after a cross from Graham Zusi made its way through the Portugal defence. And Dempsey, playing with a broken nose, then put the Americans ahead, using his stomach to direct the ball into the net from a cross by Zusi. "Now we have to go out and beat Germany, thats what we have to do," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. "We have to play Germany, we have one less day to recover, we played in the Amazon, they played on a place with less travel. We have to do it the tough way." Dempseys goal was his fourth at a World Cup and second at this years tournament. Jones scored his third goal for the United States national team and first in almost two years. It was all Portugal for much of the first half, with Ronaldo in the starting lineup but getting less involved as the match progressed. The Americans, however, started to get more and more chances and even had a shot from Michael Bradley cleared off the line by Ricardo Costa in the 55th. "There didnt seem to be any problem with Cristiano Ronaldo," Portugal coach Paulo Bento said. "What happened during the game has something to do with our other players." The heat in the Amazon rainforest, however, seemed to slow the Portuguese as the match wore on. In the 39th minute, referee Nestor Pitana of Argentina called for a cooling break, the first such decision to be taken at this World Cup. At the start of the match, FIFA listed the temperature at 30 degrees C (86 degrees F) with 66 per cent humidity. FIFA uses the "Wet Bulb Globe Temperature" to determine when official cooling breaks should be added, and says the WGBT must be above 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) for them to be considered. The breaks are supposed to occur in the 30th and 75th minutes. There was no break in the second half, but that didnt stop Ronaldo from creating the final goal. "It was a thriller," Klinsmann said. "Everybody who had a chance to be today in Manaus will talk about this game for a long time." ------ Lineups United States: Tim Howard; Fabian Johnson, Geoff Cameron, Matt Besler, DaMarcus Beasley; Kyle Beckerman, Jermaine Jones, Alejandro Bedoya (DeAndre Yedlin, 72), Michael Bradley, Graham Zusi (Omar Gonzalez, 90); Clint Dempsey (Chris Wondolowski, 87). Portugal: Beto; Andre Almeida (William Carvalho, 46), Ricardo Costa, Bruno Alves, Joao Pereira; Miguel Veloso, Joao Moutinho, Raul Meireles (Varela, 69th), Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo; Helder Postiga (Eder, 16th). Cheap Swingman Pelicans Jerseys . Blown save in the ninth inning? No problem. Anthony Davis Jersey . Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., were second with 77.01 points, just behind Olympic bronze medallists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. The four-time world champs lead at 79. http://www.cheappelicansjerseys.com/ . Footballs governing body said Tuesday that of the 2,577,662 tickets allocated for this years tournament, 1,041,418 have gone to people in Brazil. The U. Cheap NBA Jerseys .Y. -- A month ago, Syracuse was unbeaten, ranked No. Cheap Pelicans Jerseys China . The Redblacks host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7-9) Friday night in their last home game of the year and as of Thursday afternoon, the team was anticipating a ninth consecutive sellout. You can watch all the action on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, and TSN5 beginning at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt.I spent time on Wednesday reviewing and adding some things to my protections pages in my playbook and I thought it would be a good education about how involved protections are. It is, I believe, one area that the fans have no idea how much communication goes on and how much the offensive line, backs and quarterback have to be on the same page. Lets start with a team running a drop back protection from a one back set. From a base coverage look, there will be usually six defenders that are "threats" to the QB. We also have secondary defenders, or threats, that are covering the receivers that may rush the QB from coverage look. Lets start with four defensive lineman and two linebackers in the box area, which is the area just outside the tackles and everything inside the tackles. The centre will make a call and identify the front, or where the defensive players are aligned as pertaining to the offensive players. A term like "UNDER" means that the two defensive tackles have moved or shifted to the boundary, "OVER" means that the Noseguard has aligned over the centre and the field guard is covered. "EVEN" is a term that the centre will say when he is uncovered by a defensive lineman and the guards are covered by a defensive lineman. "ODD" usually means the centre is covered and the guards are not covered by defensive lineman. "TRIPLE, DOUBLE EAGLE, SOLID" are terms that the centre will use when the centre and both guards are all covered by defensive lineman. Once the front is set, the centre will determine which defenders they will be blocking. There is five offensive lineman, so that would leave one threat in the 4-2 (four DL and two LB) six man box. The sixth defender is the running backs responsibility. The front four DL is handled by the OL and the centre will point to the LB and say his number that they are going to be responsible for. The back will then block the next closest threat and if he doesnt come, look for anything from the secondary (the guys covering the receivers). It is crucial that the RB and the offensive lineman see the point by the centre because if not, you could block the wrong people or leave a rusher unblocked. Usually the back will be taking the LB on the side that he is aligned. Sometimes the centre will identify the front and make a call and a signal like "SOLID" and that would tell the back that the OL is going to take the LB to the backs side and that the back must now adjust and find the sixth threat wherever he is aligned. A lot of times, a mistake in protection is when the RRB does not get the call from the OL and he and the line block the same LB.dddddddddddd After the centre IDs the front and sets the protectors, the QB then understands where the unblocked players are that the QB has to throw HOT off of. Hot means that he must throw before that defender can run and hit the QB. A lot of times the OL is reading the most inside threat of three defenders. For example, the guard and tackle look to see if the inside LB threat comes with a defensive lineman and if he doesnt they can work to an outside threat that is coming. They will always handle the inside two most threats if three come, the QB will have to throw HOT off of the third threat to that side. Some terms that offensive lineman will use to communicate with each other: Dog - A linebacker that blitzes the QB Stunt - Twists and gap exchanges between two adjacent defensive linemen Blitz - A secondary player that is rushing the QB Fan - Guard and tackle fan out and block the two defenders outside them Pop - When an uncovered lineman gets away from the line of scrimmage to look to his threat and any other threats from the outside. Roger - Three offensive lineman slide to the right Louie - Three offensive lineman slide to the left Squeeze - Call by the offensive guard or tackle where they both step inside and take the defenders inside of them. It is made when they are blocking by themselves and they have three threats. They will leave the most outside threat for the QB to throw HOT off of. Ronnie -The line blocks a full slide protection to the right, protecting their play side gap. Lonnie -The line blocks a full slide protection to the Left, protecting their play side gap. MDM or Trollie - When a tackle is blocking a down lineman and a defender not accounted for rushes inside of the down lineman. The tackle will take the inside threat and let the QB throw HOT off of the outside threat. Each team has their own calls and have many different calls which tell how to block rushers and who will block rushers. Zone protections with 2, 3, 4, 5 offensive linemen all have their own terms and calls -- calls to tell the back that he will block a gap and not a man. It is an amazing process that the offensive line and backs do on every single pass play. Each protection also has their own set of calls. For example, there is a different set of calls when there is no backs in the backfield or when the offensive line is using a sprint out protection. As you can see, the OL have to be an intelligent crew and they all have to be on the same page. Want to learn more about offensive football? Start with the offensive line! ' ' '