Fatigued Americans face daunting task against Spain

By Mark Gleeson

BLOEMFONTEIN (Reuters) - The U.S. are prepared to battle fatigue and frustration in a daunting Confederations Cup semi-final against Spain on Wednesday.

"We are very excited to still be around in this tournament but it has been tiring," U.S. captain Landon Donovan said at a news conference in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.

"It's a big challenge in a lot of ways. It's a game in which we know they will have a lot of possession and a big part of playing against them is not getting frustrated.

"On the other hand, we need to try and put them under pressure and see how they react to that," added the 27-year-old.

"We have never been to the semi-final of a tournament of this calibre and in some ways this is even tougher that the World Cup just in terms of the quality of opposition."

In terms of quality, it does not get any better than Spain, the European champions who extended their winning run to a record 15 matches with three comfortable victories in the group phase.

The U.S. lost their two opening group games to Italy and Brazil but staged a near-miraculous recovery to beat Egypt 3-0 in their last Group B game in Sunday and qualify for the last four ahead of the world champions on the number of goals scored.

"It's a big accomplishment to have gotten to this point," Donovan added.