The US for the first time in this tournament will play in a game with nothing to lose. Yes, the US might be slight favorites to advance over Ghana, but even if the US team loses it will be seen as a successful World Cup in which they played well and demonstrated immense resolve. But free of the pressure of expectations, this is when the US team has historically been its most successful and most dangerous.
While the US should be care free, the Ghanaians will play representing an entire continent. As the only African team to advance out of their group, the Ghanaians have taken on the mantle of Africa's team and they will likely be embraced as such by the South African fans. In short, the US are not going to be just taking on Ghana they are taking on Africa. But how Ghana plays under the pressure of such expectations is an open question. Despite expectations that South African crowds would lift each African team, the fact is that almost all of the African teams have been real disappointments thus far. Ghana advanced, but did so despite losing their last game and were aided by Australia's surprise victory over Serbia.
As for the game itself, Ghana has shown little going forward. Ghana has continued the trend of African teams resorting to playing highly defensive tactical soccer. When going forward they have shown a reticence to throw men forward and they have lacked the technical quality to unlock defenses when being out numbered in the attack. However, their lone striker Asamoah Gyan can be a handful as Serbia learned in the first game and is capable of beating defenders and getting behind the backline.
Ghana play a 4 -2-3-1 formation and the US may struggle to retain possession, as the US has frequently struggled when they have been out-manned in the central midfield. As a result, the US should play with Maurice Edu over Ricardo Clark as the holding player and should play Benny Feilhaber on the left - although with the expectation that Feilhaber will cut in offensively.
Ghana is a team the US is capable of beating and this match represents a huge opportunity for the US to put together a historic World Cup run. But doing so will require the US to play the fearless and relentless soccer that they are becoming known for.
Thankfully, the NFL season will start soon.
Excuse me? Ghana played Germany and lost 1-0. Ghana is a good team. Germany did not have Klose, their best player, but so what? It was still very close.
What is it about the world cup and USA soccer coaches that seems to bring out the stupidity?
I hope you get on the bandwagon for a "draft Klinsman" movement.
The mistake was in thinking that Altidore could score with service from Findlay. Altidore needed to play classic centre forward drawing defence to him and allowing the alternate to score. Bradley never put an alternate next to him with scoring punch.
the winning goal against Algeria came in from Altidore. He did not score it but he sent it in.
Bob Bradley misunderstood the solution to the lack of scoring from Altidore. He kept worrying about service when he needed to put another scorer next to Altidore and that man was not Findlay.
The World Cup soccer tournament ought to be played every two years, and should double the number of teams involved. It doesn’t make sense to wait four years anymore.
http://philiptortora.blogspot.com/2010/06/world-cup-should-be-played-every-two.html
Absolutely absurd and, no offence, but only an American could suggest this. In Europe we have the European football championship every four years and that was last held in 2008 i.e. it happens between world cups. It is simply not practical or feasible to have a world cup every two years plus it would leave players completely knackered and standards would, inevitably, suffer.
The day the US wins a World Cup, Americans will start to be interested in the sport. (All peoples like sports their countries tend to win, but Americans even more so than most.)
If Americans gain interest in football, they'll put their immense potential behind their players and their team, ensuring that the latter becomes pretty unbeatable.
I'd hate to see football go the way of basketball, where only one country is still interested in watching a world cup or an olympic contest: the country which knows in advance it will win.
In short, the charm of football is that this is one domain where the US is nothing more than a medium level participant. And I hope it stays that way.
Which immediately suggests that people are just reading the title of the article, and not the article itself.
Go away conservative. Go watch your NASCAR DVD's.
A pox on all namecallers!
/sarcasm