Ghana 2-1 USA

This loss is more frustrating than anything I can remember in 20 years of following the USMNT in World Cups. We came out flat, and there really is no excuse for that. In a soccer player’s lifetime, there can be no bigger moment than a game in the World Cup that is do or die. I just can’t believe so many of the experienced players played like robots. They looked like inanimate objects. Where was the emotion? Where was the extra burst of speed on the Ghana third of the field to get a goal? ARGH!!!!!

And still, after playing flat, we played just well enough defensively in the midfield to keep Ghana from mounting serious threats for most of the day. It took Reyna’s knee injury (or whatever that was) and a lousy PK call on Gooch for Ghana to score. And that’s what makes this so damn frustrating. Even firing a dud, this team COULD have conceivably won that game. What did we have, two shots hit the post? I swear I’d rather have seen them lose by 5 goals than to play so poorly and STILL have a shot to win. Knowing that it probably would have taken just one or two of the older players to give it their all for a full 90 minutes. Only Dempsey & Boca seemed to have the desire (and Beasley for about 30 seconds of sheer magic).

Well, to all of you who think the US have no soccer tradition I say this: now they do! And before long they will hoist the WC trophey and all of you, out there in Europe, South America and the other places where everyone hates US will be crying your eyes out. You can rejoice now. In fact, you can thank Beckenbauer and his band of goons for giving the US a good kick in the pants; but this will not be forgotten. US will rebound, classify again for South Africa and be afraid…be very afraid. I personally wasn’t rooting for them but after seeing them play against Italy last Saturday; I say that was the best soccer team I’ve ever seen on the pitch for this USA. Good job lads. You got robbed by scrupulous referees. F*** you Blatter and beckenbauer.

Posted from  United States

Oh, and BTW, that excuse for a human being who calls himself a referee, Larrionda from Uruguay, is refereeing tomorrow’s game between france and Togo. Let’s see him stick it to france with 2 red cards. I don’t think he’ll have the balls after what he did last Saturday vs the USA.

Posted from  United States

Mason
you are obviously more experienced than most here but I videod Premier Division football as well as following it since I was 10 which is 53 years ago. My daughter is a soccer star in the main stream and was scoring 30 goals a season in her heyday and I coached her to score a few goalkeeper lobs from 30 yards when they strayed too far from their line. You may have TIVO but the ref does not and either way he was entitled to give it offside to McBride. Reyna was the last man and should have held up to the challenge and that is that. I really dont care about Crouch as he is big enough to fend for himself. The point I made was just that he does not fit the mold of the fit athelete who pumps iron. The team just did not have enough experience at that level period.

Posted from  United States

The US looked really lame throughout the entire 3 games they played. Just one real goal. The US just doesnt have the players. We have guys that play for Real Salt Lake and the others habe guys that play for Real Madrid. That is the difference. Landon Donovan is totally overrated and SHOWED IT

Posted from  United States

Heh… Yours is longer to be sure…

“You may have tivo but the ref does not”

This is why I’m more a believer in human ineptitude than conspiracy theories. Plus, I said that the ref was right to call McBride off even if he didn’t touch the ball. Note the parenthetical in bullet point four above. Last time I checked, a ball in the net by a screened keeper was a bit of an advantage, don’t you think?

I personally love watching Crouch, being somewhat eh… lanky myself. It’s just a shame that he’ll probably be on the bench as England will go 4-5-1 with Rooney up top. Or do you think Sven will push up one of his center mids?? Certainly Theo is too young to go…

The USA does not have a very good national team. All of your exemplary atheletes are in other sports, or our best soccer stars are mired in the MLS. Their talents are stagnant. None of our players are stars in Europe, there was no Michael Essien or Stephen Appiah on the team. We thought we could run over the Ghanians, but one fact is their best players (before mentioned) are vastly better than our best players (Donovan and Beasley). The Fifa World ranking system is BS.

Its good we lost here than to get an embarrasing thrashing from the almighty Brazilians.

P.S. Aussie! Aussie! Aussssieee!

Posted from  United States

Patrick Lockyer–Not to argue with a man with such a long fan pedigree, but are you seriously trying to convince us that Northern Ireland and Wales are stronger sides than the US? Even Scotland seems like a stretch. I know the US wasn’t any too impressive this time around, but… really? If you’re saying that the smaller UK teams are stronger sides than a lot of the ones the US has to play to qualify, I’ll give you that.

Joe–as depressed as we all are, I don’t think it’s fair to say that you couldn’t tell the difference between the 1990 and 2006 US squads. If you’d dropped the 1990 squad into this year’s Group E, they would probably have conceded 15 goals. (Though, sad to say, it’s possible that they might have scored the same number.)

Posted from  United States

Mason–I have to admit that I’d love to see Theo Walcott play. Even if just as a sub. He’s young, likely to be fearless, and he’ll probably never be as fast again. (Michael Owen at age 18.)

Posted from  United States

While I do support Ghana as one of the underdogs
in this cup, and the fact that have many good players
in top European clubs, I have to give my fair opinion
that the match last night should have been won by
the USA, at least 1-0. The USA played extremely good
and professional football in this game.

Haminu Draman’s goal should not have been allowed,
and indeed he should have received a yellow card
for his foul on Claudio Reyna.

And Stephen Appiah’s penalty was quite dubious and
indeed ridiculous - it was a fact there was totally no
foul by Oguchi Onyewu on Razak Pimpong.

There’s a lot of talk in my office that the German referee must
have had a big betting stake on Ghana. This way well be pure
speculation or just allegations of course, but even to the
neutral observer, it is quite obvious that Markus Merk
was completely out of order in this game.

The staff in my office are also commenting that Ghana’s team
play like ….. hooligans. I have to agree with this to at least some
extent. Ghana has players of great individual talent, but their
whole team plays more like rugby players, at least in this game.

As for me, it’s unfortunate that Fifa is basically a useless (and

biased) body - they keep belting out disciplinary action on players
all the time - but they never discipline (a more appropriate
action should be to remove from their roster rather) their own

referees for faulted (and biased) decisions, which is particularly

disastrous for games of this level.

It is indeed unfortunate too that a team which I have good respect
for has to win and advance to the next stage in such a dubious
manner.

A good writeup by The Guardian on this game :

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/matchreport/0,,1804059,

00.html

Posted from  Malaysia

Guys, I love my new country of five years but you are soccer ‘babes’ Scotland Northern Ireland and Wales have all got ‘World Cup’ history. Oh I also played Rugby in Wales on a School Playground of Tarmac and Tom Jones was a schoolmate three years older. Sorry that we don’t value ’rounders’ ‘netball’ and ’sissy rugby’(kidding) but over 150 countries play the beautiful game and have done for decades. USA will prevail but not with a coach who thinks he can turn it around and all he is needs is ‘amazons’. I can spot a foul or an offside or a handball on a 20″ screen from 20 feet when commentators here are blaming all sorts of factors for their demise. USA will ‘grow’ to that knowledge and the fanbase will understand the game more eventually but clearly do not right now and blogs and comments online show that a mile off. England may not survive longer that Sunday and whether Sven plays this or that player matters not. As long as it a heart and soul game and if you see my column there are many links to prior ones. I was in Germany when we won the 66 cup in the military and it was devine. go to my archives to read about it.
http://www.jacksonville.com/community/cc/britpatjax/

Posted from  United States

Tham
While I do not know your pedigree in soccer matters I do know Pele’s and you should read his write up about refereeing of these games and he is glowing about them so expand your reading a bit and listen and learn from others. Australia deserved to advance. So did Ghana despite their ‘poor’ foul record. They did not make too many ‘bone crunching’ tackles like the ones we saw in the USA V Italy match. They merely broke up play to scupper attacks. Mostly the best teams are advancing and this is the best ‘first stage’ of the games for the longest time and over 100 goals to delight in.

Posted from  United States

Yeah, the penalty was pretty bogus, but the US player (and coach) should man up and take some responsibility. The penalty may have changed the game some, but the US still had to score and win to advance. They were outhustled and outplayed by Ghana from about 15 minutes on.

If US had comed out and played as if their pants were on fire like they did in the Italy match for ALL 3 games, then they could go home with their heads held high, win or lose.

I certainly do not expect them to win every game. But I can see effort, and if the players give it their all, then all I can do is applaud them. And yes, effort and hustle mitigates lots of things in the eyes and minds of fans.

If the US strengths was overall athleticism (not soccer skill), fitness, and aggressiveness, then please by all means play to your strengths!

Surprisingly, only a few players stood out in my mind as not being afraid and not letting the pressure get to them:

Keller did a fine job, he was what I expected, just below the top echelon of goalies. Solid.

Convey played what he could was not afraid to do what he could. He had some misplays and mistakes, but he went for it.

Gooch is in that category, he wasn’t afraid to do what he needed to do but again he made some mistakes.

Dempsey was my favorite US player here because he wasn’t afraid to run at people and challenge them! Shocker! Plus he showed absolutely no nerves or hesitation on his absolute rocket of a goal. The US needs more players who are confident and block out pressure.

What happened to the energetic, confident, and fearless DMB and Donovan I saw in ‘02? When did hesitation and fear creep into their games?

All refs should be red carded.

Posted from  United States

Jon E -

I would agree that Wales are currently better than the US, even without Savage (whos had an argument with the coaching staff). You don’t have anyone with the quality of Bellamy, like they do. No-one close. Simon Davies and Reyna are of similar standard, and Gabbidon is better than what you have in defence - other than that your teams are of a similar standard.

The Scots are a strange lot at the mo. After several years of being rather terrible, they appear like they are on the up. Neverthe less, wheras the US have the one EPL standard midfielder, the Scots have two, Ferguson and Fletcher. Id say the rest of the teams of a simlar standard to yours, although Kris Boyd could change that. Scotland vs U.S would be a good game. I suspect it may be won on US confidence.

You better than the Northern Irish, although they do have a few players that would walk into your squad - Damian Johnson (Birmingham City) Steven DAVIS (A. Villa) and Aaron Hughes (Newcastle U), and possibly Roy Carrol (W. Ham i think). Unfortunately for them, they have a serious depth problem, but look at the size of their population!

As for the Irish, they’d give you a good gaoing over. They have the EPLs best Keeper in Given,a regular each from Liverpool and Man Utd in defence,the Reids and Duff (Chelsea) in midfield and Robbie Keane from Spurs up front.

As you can see, Reyna aside, now Big Brads gone (along with his accent!) you lack a couple EPL/la Liga / Serie A standard stars - this has been whats propelled the Ghanians who have Essien, Appiah and Boateng above you. And once you get to the knockout stages you also need depth of this quality to progress!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Writeup on Markus Merk :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Merk

Posted from  Malaysia

The Guardian writer, Peter Doyle, on Merk :

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/22/defrock_these_pernickety_refs.html

Posted from  Malaysia

More on Merk :

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1802372,00.html

Posted from  Malaysia

I find it funny that everyone keeps saying that Donovan needs to play in Europe. It is a big assumption that there are clubs that will actually want this pussy, after his high-school caliber performance.

He’ll stay in California and continue to be “comfortable”. Which is why he needs to never be mentioned as a superstar or captain again.

Posted from  United States

Donnovan a super star? LOL are you guys drunk? the moron had 1 shot, just 1 shot in the entire world cup and it wasn’t even on the goal and the sad thing is that he is your super star..grow up or wake up. He is an average player and even below average. the proof, well lol he was ready to beat any team in the world at any given moment not even 3 weeks before the world cup…what happened? did you guys even notice his little skinyy ass on the fieled? you guys know damn well that if there sick pig were Italian or Brazilian or an Argentine or German, he would be nothing but a water boy..why do you think he was a bench warmer in Germany the ENTIRE season?
when was the last time he scored? when was the last time he had a an impact on a game? when was the last time he showed up against a stronger team? when was the last time he scored? when was the last time the team depended on him and he was there for them? when was the last time he was a player? lol
but you know what, I don’t blame : Diva Prima Donnovan”…I blame the press, the media and mainly Arena for never subbing him ever, and making him a “Soccer God”, where in reality he is nothing but a big mouthed below average skinyy ass moron who thinks he can compete in a world cup.
Like Mark Twain once said, ” some people look big and perform big because those who surround them are small and perform too little”
Like Flynn said, he needs to stay in California and makes sure next time he looks much better and sexier to the cameras… lol

I am so glad that you guys know that 2002 was a big fluke. stick to Basketball…oops, even in Basketball we got out asses whooped..damn ! )-:

Posted from  United States

The German newspapers have big stories about Merk, who was elected two times in row as “world’s best referee”. It is said that his perfomance in the US - Ghana game was surely one the worst ever shown.

He gave a penalty for Ghana, that was not one, and he gave a yelloc card to Essien, that was none, but excludes this world class player from the match of his life, Ghana - Brazil.

But blaming the referee seems to be too easy. The US got a selfgoal as present from Italy, so they had luck in the World Cup, too.

Posted from  United States

Oh sure, every team is going to get good and bad luck in 3 games. Nobody’s saying the US only got bad luck. But, on balance, I think reasonable people will agree that the US got more bad luck this time around than good. I mean, as poorly as they played against Ghana, they still could have won that game 1-0 or at least tied it 1-1. Reyna’s knee and a horrible PK call are the only reasons Ghana scored, after all. One was just bad luck (Reyna). I look forward to the day when our team doesn’t have to worry about luck at all.

Talking about biased refereeing :

I am surprised that the Swedish FA did not protest
after the world cup game with Germany.

It was plain for all to see, from the close-up video replay,
that the cynical referee was on the side of the Germans.
He was clearly seen smiling cynically and sarcastically
in front of Teddy Lucic when he showed the red card.

Those two fouls by Lucic were hardly fouls at all. In the
first case, he had already kicked the ball away when he
tripped the German player - that was intelligent defending,
and at most only a free kick should have been given against
Lucic - clearly not a yellow card. In the second situation,
Lucic merely tugged Klose’s t-shirt gently - I’ve seen much
worse shirt-tugging in other games and not so much a whistle
was even blown. To my shock, that dirty Brazilian referee,
Carlos Simon, gave him a second yellow card,

When the video zoomed in -
Carlos Simon was clearly seen smiling later with a German
player who PATTED him on the back, then applauded him !
This makes me wonder if that Simon had been hand-picked
by the Germans for this match.

This is why I’ve always said that FIFA is a useless hypocritic
body - they penalise and suspend players all the time, but always
protect their own people - their referees.

Posted from  Malaysia

that was nice they r going in such a way to get the cup.

Posted from  Pakistan

One quick question. Was that Gary Payton who picked Claudio Reyna’s pocket in the first half, then took an easy sprint to the goal? It sure did look like him, and if The Glove(Gary Payton) were to play soccer, that’s how he would pick someone clean.