USA v Ghana, Last 16, 26th June @ 7.30 pm

Overheal

Would have been nice if Ghana was actually playing.

Absolute joke the number of "injuries"

OPENROAD

mike65 wrote: »

4 seconds early!

brilliant :D:D

The Sparrow

Brilliant. Delighted to see an African team in the last 8.

Also, glad to see USA go home.

steelcityblues

Well done Ghana, but I have to favour Uruguay in the quarters!

USA just didn't play to the standard of their group matches.

ShaneU

U.S.A. wins 1-2!!!!

OPENROAD

ShaneU wrote: »

U.S.A. wins 1-2!!!!

ha ha ha

TouchingVirus

Goodnight Bianca, baby! See you very soon..

steelcityblues

Mike65,

Why the obvious anti-American thing throughout this World Cup, when you are always ready to criticise those (pundits and boards users) who don't like the England football team?

The Sparrow

Overheal wrote: »

If USA loses, I'll change my username to Gonorrhea.

:D:p

OPENROAD

steelcityblues wrote: »

Mike65,

Why the obvious anti-American thing throughout this World Cup, when you are always ready to criticise those (pundits and boards users) who don't like the England football team?

Its ok to have an anti English feeling though (not you personally)

Whats the difference?

Kev_ps3

WP Ghana. Should give Uruguay a good game.

Barr

USA should have finished the game off in the second half.

Paparazzo

TouchingVirus wrote: »

I could have said co-commentator but he's not adding anything to the commentary if you ask me, more colour/fluff/"belief" than anything And was I able to have identified the voice as Ray Houghten I would have said Ray

Let me sum this up, Ray is shite.

Ray is terrible, he's always afraid to say he was wrong. Like he could say someone is way offside/obvious handball/foul and the slow motion replay will prove him obviously wrong, but he'll watch the replay and pretend the player was still offside/still a handball/foul!
Ray, we can see the replay and he's fúcking onside!


Rant over

steelcityblues

OPENROAD wrote: »

Its ok to have an anti English feeling though (not you personally)

Whats the difference?

Ifyou read other posts, threads, he is usually critical of the RTE pundits and other people poking fun at the English (or at least the team and media coverage), yet on a few threads now, his comments have been more anti-USA than pro-Ghana.

Shoe on the other foot, and all that!

Livvie

Really pleased for Ghana.

USA did well to get through, but I'm glad Ghana won as I think that as a whole, it will mean more to them, and their supporters, than it will to the US.

Hope the US will eventually embrace the game a lot more as a nation. Would be very interesting to see how their team would develop if it was more of a national sport for them.

Pepe LeFrits

I hope Ghana can beat Uruguay, I liked their hustle.

USA can go home with their heads held high and I don't think their performance has done any harm to the sport's credence at all.

mike65

steelcityblues wrote: »

Mike65,

Why the obvious anti-American thing throughout this World Cup, when you are always ready to criticise those (pundits and boards users) who don't like the England football team?

All English like to see the Americans fail at football.

/cue your return ball....

The ITV commentary were pretty clearly with Ghana tonight I think. You could tell Beglin was more concerned when a move by the Black Stars failed than when the USA didn't quite make a decisive run.

Headshot

Bill with the no satisfaction

ill get you the door Bill

OPENROAD

steelcityblues wrote: »

Ifyou read other posts, threads, he is usually critical of the RTE pundits and other people poking fun at the English (or at least the team and media coverage), yet on a few threads now, his comments have been more anti-USA than pro-Ghana.

Shoe on the other foot, and all that!

Have seen plenty of that all round though in the last few weeks though

Livvie

mike65 wrote: »

All English like to see the Americans fail at football.

All English?

mike65

Almost all then! (the self haters will naturally want to see someone else win)

steelcityblues

mike65 wrote: »

All English like to see the Americans fail at football.

/cue your return ball....

The ITV commentary were pretty clearly with Ghana tonight I think. You could tell Beglin was more concerned when a move by the Black Stars failed than when the USA didn't quite make a decisive run.

You don't speak for all English. I have no problem with you cheering for Ghana, yet the tone of several posts indicated it was more of an anti-US thing.

Good luck to England tomorrow anyway - finding it hard to call that match!

Livvie

mike65 wrote: »

Almost all then!

Maybe. :P

Probably because the US as a whole isn't football, sorry soccer, orientated, so it might seem a bit of a waste.

Tonight most people probably did want Ghana to win, but not because they wanted the US to lose.

mike65

I would have wanted to see Ghana win unless they were playing England, so that bit holds for me as well. That it happened to be against the States was a win win situation.

Special relationship my arse.

eagle eye

USA are going to get stronger and stronger as the years go by. The amout of kids over there that play soccer now is amazing. There is great organisation in the game for kids over there. They will be a power in the not too distant future, maybe even in 2014/18.

mike65

The trick for them is keeping them playing the game, at 12/13 most get syphoned off into becoming "jocks" (or nerds)

RichTea

Well done Ghana. USA were completely out of ideas in extra time. As terrible as Jozy Altidore was, perhaps it wasn't a good idea taking him off and replacing him with Herc. Altidore at least gives defenders problems.

What a star Landon Donovan is. Hopefully we see him back in Europe soon.

dfx-

Bradley had the USA's chance to win it and missed. Very impressed with him however.

Ghana don't look to have much about them..

eagle eye

mike65 wrote: »

The trick for them is keeping them playing the game, at 12/13 most get syphoned off into becoming "jocks" (or nerds)

Its not like that over there so much. Kids who are good at soccer will keep playing it, they are encouraged to keep their options open with their sports. Some guys go through college playing multiple sports.

The real problem over there is that kids don't get into a professional setup early enough but that has changed over the last 5 or 6 years with teenagers being picked up by MLS teams, I think when Freddy Adu was picked up at 14 that other teams started looking at it a bit more.

eagle eye

RichTea wrote: »

Well done Ghana. USA were completely out of ideas in extra time. As terrible as Jozy Altidore was, perhaps it wasn't a good idea taking him off and replacing him with Herc. Altidore at least gives defenders problems.

What a star Landon Donovan is. Hopefully we see him back in Europe soon.

Altidore is only 20 years old, that kid has a very bright future imo.

leninbenjamin

Glad for Ghana, but I'd imagine Uruguay would beat Ghana fairly handily. I missed the first half but both teams looked pretty average, Ghana were better at holding onto the ball I think but overall the only real threat both teams offered came from long balls over the top. Uruguay's cagey counter-attacking setup will probably show up Ghana's vulnerabilities.

leninbenjamin

eagle eye wrote: »

Altidore is only 20 years old, that kid has a very bright future imo.

He's a bit of a headless chicken tbh, I can't see him going too far.

Headshot

there's something about Altidore I like, i know posters say he's worse than heskey but i think that is very harsh. Altidore has strength and pace, i could really see him thrive under a good manager and with more experience I think he could be one to look out for

eagle eye

leninbenjamin wrote: »

He's a bit of a headless chicken tbh, I can't see him going too far.

I don't think he is headless at all, he is only learning the game at the top level, you gotta give him some time but he has all the ingredients to make it to the very top of the game. He has blinding pace, power, good ball control and he is a big lad too.

dartbhoy

Well done to Ghana tonight,a good result for African football and i reckon this team will beat Uruguay and reach the semis. Overall it was a good tournament for the USA but they must be disappointed tonight,they just seemed to run out of ideas after Ghana took the lead in extra time.

RichTea

http://worldcupdailyblog.com/2010/06/26/asamoah-gyan-takes-ghana-to-the-quarter-finals/

Condensed match-report.

fryup

you gotta love Ghana

FatherTed

Fair play to Ghana, the US can't make mistakes and expect to keep coming back from behind. US is getting better. As eagle_eye mentions, the MLS team now have youth acadmenies. It is fairly new, only about 2 years old but they'll start producing better players than the traditional route which was through the US college system e.g. the likes of Dempsey, Clark, Bocanegra came through college before joining their MLS teams. Most of these players started out in MLS except Demerit, Cherundolo and Feilhaber so the league is doing something right even though everyone loves to bash it.

One final note, my local team(New York who I support) had a good number of players who started out there: Bradley, Altidore, Howard, Clark.

unkel

It was great for the US to make it to the last 16 - and only just. Ghana completely outclassed them tonight, surely we can all agree on that????

I've always said it and I'll say it again: any of these last 16 can win it, but it will take skill, performance, team spirit, hard work and of course luck, luck and luck

Xavi6

fryup wrote: »

you gotta love Ghana

No you don't

I hope Forlan and Suarez rip them a new one

dfx-

unkel wrote: »

Ghana completely outclassed them tonight, surely we can all agree on that????

No, we can't..

KittyeeTrix

Gutted the US didn't get through:(

Le King

Really disappointed. Completely gutted. Don't agree at all that Ghana out-classed us at all actually.

Fair play but I hope Uruguay rip them a new one.

ROCKMAN

Fantastic result for football ,great to see a African team in the QF's ,Missed the Game so cannot comment on the quality of either team ,
With Ghana v Uruguay QF's a least one so called smaller team will make the semi's, which can only be a we a good thing.

_Bella_

This seems pretty harsh, thought the team did fairly well with the players available:

US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati says he is disappointed with the national team's performance at the World Cup and is planning a meeting with coach Bob Bradley to discuss his future.

Hazys

Very harsh. The US has some good players but very few world class players. Finishing 1st in their group was a great achevement and losing a tight battle to a strong Ghana team was no disgrace.

The US federation needs to manage their expectations better.

FatherTed

Hazys wrote: »

Very harsh. The US has some good players but very few world class players. Finishing 1st in their group was a great achevement and losing a tight battle to a strong Ghana team was no disgrace.

The US federation needs to manage their expectations better.

I think it is a disgrace. US went behind in 3 of their 4 matches at the WC and came back in all 3. Going behind a fourth time was one too many. Bradley did not learn from his and the team's biggest mistakes i.e. giving up the early goal. Starting Clark and Findley against Ghana who had been useless in the other games was a crazy decision, and having to sub both after 45 minutes left him with few options once extra time came. When Ghana went ahead in ET, the US players were spent, having played a great second half and getting back level. They resorted to launching long balls because they couldn't run any more.

eagle eye

Hazys wrote: »

Very harsh. The US has some good players but very few world class players. Finishing 1st in their group was a great achevement and losing a tight battle to a strong Ghana team was no disgrace.

The US federation needs to manage their expectations better.

Bob Bradley is likely to be offered a job in Europe imo after getting that team as far as they got. Outside of Tim Howard and Donovan I'd struggle to pick out any other player on that team as world class right now based on their club form but they certainly played way above themselves for their country and thats all down to the coach.

They will get better too if they are left together, Jozy Altidore is only 20 years old, imo he is going to be a superstar in the game and there are a lot of young players there besides him.

And Freddy Adu might make it yet, he is only 20 too.