McBride's courage praised by US coach

Hamburg: US coach Bruce Arena heaped praise on Brian McBride for the courage the striker showed in the 1-1 World Cup draw with Italy.

"McBride is a warrior," Arena said on Sunday after returning from Kaiserslautern with a valuable point from the Group E match.

A bloodied McBride played on after Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi was sent off for elbowing him in the face in the 28th minute on Saturday.

"You never know if there's some kind of facial injury," said Arena. "He's fine."

Arena was also impressed with McBride's hard work as he helped the nine-man Americans salvage a point against Italy's 10.

"The second half was obviously difficult for a striker," said Arena. "He was forced to defend for 40-odd minutes."

"It takes a special player to deal with that. There wasn't a single time in the second half where we had to get Brian's attention. You saw him covering for midfield players, you saw him getting back to the box, you saw him fighting to keep balls alive for us. It was just a great, great effort."

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller also praised McBride, who needed three stitches under his left eye.

"Brian has titanium plates in his head already," joked Keller.

"You need somebody who's going to put their head in places where others might not want to, that's a big part of it, especially when you know you are going to be under pressure against teams like Italy.

"He has a presence up front. He won lots of balls and allowed us to have a bit of possession," added Keller.

The US, who have one point from two matches, must beat Ghana in their final group game in Nuremberg on Thursday to have any chance of reaching the last 16.