Liveblog: Brazil vs. Ghana
Brazil through to the quarter-finals after beating “the Brazil of Africa” 3-0. Ronaldo made history with his 15th World Cup goal, Adriano’s goal was offside, Ze Roberto’s wasn’t. All credit to Ghana who put on a great display of attacking football, but their offside trap was too high, and maybe a little too disorganised to keep Brazil’s attacking talents at bay.
Final: Brazil 3-0 Ghana
Full time It’s all over, Brazil take this 3-0. Great effort by Ghana but they were never going to keep Brazil off the scoresheet with that offside trap.
90+ Ricardinho with a great back heel through ball to put Juan, the roving central defender, one on one with Kingson. Kingson saves again.
90:00 Ronaldinho didn’t look happy about Cafu not passing, just like Ronaldo didn’t earlier when Adrinao refused to pass. Appiah shoots just over. Ghana’s shooting hasn’t been the best has it?
89:39 Cafu receives a through ball, and tries to chip it over Kingson instead of passing square. Kingson saves. Todays themes: Ghana’s offside trap looks leaky, Brazilian players refusing to pass to each other in the penalty area.
88:00 Ronaldo through, but didn’t quite have the pace to get away from his defender. He gets a shot away, but Kingson makes a good one handed save.
86:50 Bobby Carlos shoots from his own half, straight to Kingson. Optimistic. Tachie-Mensah shoots at Dida, saved.
84:00 GOAL! Ze Roberto. He beats the offside trap (once again), touches the ball round Kingson and then taps home.
82:00 Brazil make a change. Kaka for Ricardinho. Brazil’s bench is ridiculous.
80:30 RED CARD! Gyan gets a second booking, for diving this time. What a way to go. One yellow for dissent, one for simulation. I’m with the ref on this one though.
80:00 Plantisl nearly heads past his own keeper! Kingson saves though.
78:30 Ghana keeps going, but the clock keeps ticking. Gyan shoots from a wide angle and draws a half save, half catch from Dida.
77:00 Balboa wants to give the Man Of The Match award to “the Ghana team”. Not sure he fully understands the concept.
76:30 Muntari plays a one-two and nearly gets through, but Dida covers the ball.
75:00 Dreadful cross from Gyan. Brazil doing a good job getting men behind the ball.
74:00 Draman fouled, but referee thinks otherwise. Brazil break with Ronaldinho who sells his defender a stepover before nearly playing Ronaldo through.
73:30 Kingson comes out to head away a through ball.
71:20 Dave “i love soccerball” O’Brien has been complaining that he hasn’t seen enough creativity from Ronaldinho. Don’t think he realises the number of through balls and smart passes Ronaldonho has provided today. My guess is that O’Brien has seen one too many Joga Bonito commercials.
69:00 Amoah off for Tachie-Mensah. Curses.
68:00 Great shot from Gyan, great save from Dida. Amoah can’t quite get to the rebound.
67:40 A man I can only assume to be Ghana’s assistant coach is preparing Tachie-Mensah to come on. Hope he doesn’t, that’s a bitch to type.
66:00 Ref gives a free kick Brazil’s way after two players barely touch each other going for a 50/50 ball.
65:00 Crowd are whistling and booing as Brazil keep the ball in defence.
64:15 Amoah dribbles and looks to be brought down in the midst of three Brazilian defenders, the ref does the international gesture for diving.
62:30 Ronaldinho dribbles, lays off to Kaka who plays in Ronaldo. Ronaldo’s shot not his best.
61:00 Seems Ghana coach Ratomir Dujkovic has been banished from teh touchline for protesting the second goal a little too angrily. Can’t blame him really.
60:00 Pantsil flashes a header wide from a corner. Brazil make a sub now, Adriano off for Junihno Pernambucano.
58:24 Eric Addo off, Derek Boateng on for Ghana.
56:31 Great passing move from Brazil to slice open Ghana’s defence. Ronaldinho gets it through to Bobby Carlos, but his shot is saved by Kingson’s knees. Seems Brazil can pass through Ghana’s defence as and when they feel like it.
55:00 Ronaldinho plays a great through ball to Adriano, sho can’t quite catch it. Ghana counter but it breaks down.
52:00 Amoah with a pretty rough slide tackle on Roberto Carlos. Amoah and Carlos sit in a sort of spoon position while Amoah whispers sweet nothings. Bobby Carlos not impressed, angry even.
51:30 Great passing move from Ghana, Amoah sent it wide to Draman whose powerful shot went wide.
50:22 Mid-air back heel from Kaka to Ronaldinho, looked nice but went nowhere.
49:00 Brazil subbed out Emerson for Gilberto Silva at half-time. Gyan shoots high and wide.
47:25 Another booking, for Gyan this time, for kicking the ball away. Dave O’Brien had no idea what happened until Balboa explained it to him. I almost pity him.
46:20 For the record, I’m 100% behind Ghana following Adriano’s off-side goal.
45:00 Second half underway.
-Brazil’s second looked offside to me, waiting to see another replay.
Half-time
47+ Heartbreak for Ghana, they’d been looking the better team. Though it pains me to agree with Celo Balboa he’s right, Ghana were playing their offiside trap far too high.
45+ GOAL! Adriano. Cafu with a low cross from the right, which Adriano sidefoots home from a very short distance. Ghana protest the offside, but refs not having it.
45:00 Muntari plays a one-two with Appiah but his dribble is cut off, Brazil break and counter…
43:00 Juan gets a yellow for taking down one of the Addos. Ghana free kick, which Appiah bends over the crossbar.
41:00 So close! Mensah meets a corner with his head from three yards out, Dida somehow saves with the bottom of his foot.
39:30 Eric Addo down injured after Ronaldinho steps on his shin. See, he was evil all along.
38:00 Appiag tries to show Brazil some tricks, Emerson decides to show him some tough tackling.
37:00 Adriano with a good turn and run, but he goes down under a challenge from Eric Addo. Addo booked for his trouble. Just for a second, Adrinao though he’d been booked for diving again. Ronaldinho fires the free kick well over.
34:30 Juan’s clearance up the line is blocked and fed into Gyan, who had a quick tussle with Emerson before shooting over.
32:00 Good cross from Pantsil but Dida is fouled in the air.
31:20 Emerson was down injured, but is up again. Not sure how long he’ll last. He looks about 100 years old.
29:20 Ronaldinho with a cross/shot that Kingson just saves. The corner produces a goalmouth scramble that’s eventually cleared by Mensah. Ghana counter attack but someone (not sure who) shoots just over the bar.
28:45 Pantsil gets booked, giving us 302 total yellow cards in the tournament.
27:30 Amoah shoots at Dida, who holds. Is it just me or is this 1,000 times better than Ukraine 0-0 Switzerland?
26:00 Muntaor made space for himself with a quick change of direction on the edge of Brazil’s box, but his shot goes nowhere.
24:20 Fantastic sliding tackle from Muntari to stop Kaka mid dribble.
23:30 Amoah finds a hole between Lucio and Juan and fires a decent shot just wide. Encouraging stuff for Ghana.
22:30 Amoah with a hlaf chance, just too far ahead of him.
20:48 Ronaldinho with a nice pirouette to go past two men, but it comes to nothing. Good skills though.
18:00 Draman strikes from 40 yards! Dida just tips it over the bar. Amoah has a chance from the resulting corner, but fires weakly at Dida.
16:40 Juan broke up a Ghana attack, gave the ball to Ronaldinho and then ran the length of the pitch looking for a return pass. Ronaldinho provided it but Juan was offside. Adventurous stuff for a central defender though.
15:00 Cafu tries to battle his way to goal. He fouls, but has a lot of fight for an old fella.
12:29 Ze Roberto springs Ghana’s offside trap (again) to play Adriano through. Adriano tried the Ronaldo style stepover but Kingson didn’t buy it. Adriano tried tripping over Kingson for a penalty but the ref didn’t buy it, and books Adriano for his cheek. That’s 3 yellows now already.
10:10 Speaking of which, Muntari gets a yellow for his chopping Lucio’s legs from under him.
8:00 Adriano gives ball away. Re: yellow cards in knockout phase. Accumulating two yellow cards (in separate games) get you a one match suspension, as in group play.
4:40 GOAL! Ronaldo! The big man with a stepover and Kingson brought it, leaving Ronaldo to walk into an empty net. That makes him the all time top scorer with 15 World Cup goals.
3:50 Essien looking impatient suspended on the bench (not literally suspended). Dramn gets a cross over but no one there to attack it.
2:26 Brazil being patient and keeping possession.
0:03 ESPN’s Dave O’Brien waited 3 seconds before using the phrase “powerhouse”.
0:00 We have football!
-Ghana’s anthem. The players all looked a bit nervous. That can’t be good.
-Brazilian national anthem. Ronaldinho licking his lips - in anticipation of the skills he’s going to show us?
-Sepp Blatter is taking his seat, so the game must be starting soon. Does anyone else get the feeling this whole tournament is just put on for his personal enjoyment?
-15 minutes or so till kick off.
News everyone knows already: Michael Essien is suspended after collecting two bookings in Group E, and Ronaldo needs just one goal to become the World Cup’s all time top scorer.
News you may not know: according to the BBC, Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira worked as a physical trainer for the Ghanaian national team in the ’60s.
-Hi Andreia & Alex, I’m watching the pregame on Univision too. Like you, I have no idea what they’re talking about, but when I checked ESPN they were showing NASCAR and that makes even less sense than a foreign language.
-the teams are in and they look like this:
Brazil
* 01 N Dida
* 02 M Cafu
* 03 F Lucio
* 04 S Juan
* 06 R Carlos
* 05 F Emerson
* 11 J Ze Roberto
* 08 R Kaka
* 10 G Ronaldinho
* 07 L Adriano
* 09 L Ronaldo
Ghana
* 22 R Kingson
* 15 J Pantsil
* 07 I Shilla
* 05 J Mensah
* 06 E Pappoe
* 23 H Draman
* 18 E Addo
* 10 S Appiah
* 11 S Muntari
* 14 M Amoah
* 03 A Gyan
-It’s the Brazil of Africa vs the real thing, and I’m hoping to enjoy some attacking football after yesterdays snoozefest.
Pregame: Who will win this match?
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 432 comments.
Read the rest of the comments
By joanne D | June 27th, 2006 at 8:01 pm 
Surprise, surprise!!!! You get beat 2-1 and what’s next???? You’re all bitter…. That’s ugly. Keep the personal attacks coming, i don’t expect anything else from people who do not understand football. Go back to drinking, something you actually are good at!!!!
Posted from 
United States
By Idler | June 27th, 2006 at 8:01 pm Mhanayaji also uses the “redneck” slur–and to call someone else racist! Get a clue, people.
Posted from United States
By joanne D | June 27th, 2006 at 8:03 pm You know you are a redneck when……
Google Dan and Co to find the answer
Posted from United States
By Eric Phillips | June 27th, 2006 at 8:05 pm Joanne,
After that redneck crack, you have no grounds to complain about people “getting personal.”
Also, it’s silly to keep on talking about how sore Americans are from losing to Ghana, and how much Brazil is going to cry after losing, while you’re in the middle of acting like such a sore, weepy loser yourself.
The irony _is_ delicious, though.
Posted from United States
By Mhanayaji | June 27th, 2006 at 8:06 pm And Idler shoots…and scores a mighty three….some! Whotaloser!
Posted from 
Germany
By footiefan | June 27th, 2006 at 8:08 pm I tend to stay out of these silly arguements and just enjoy the blog for the soccer aspect, but this is just too much for me. Joanne, stop trying to be all noble and accusing others of getting personal. You are the one who started the personal atacks to begin with. And bragging about having a PhD doesn’t mean a thing when talking about soccer.
Brazil won, they played better and deserved what they got. On to the next match.
Posted from 
Canada
By pf | June 27th, 2006 at 8:14 pm “…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck…” to those who don’t know.
It would be most appreciated to bring football knowledge to the table now personal insults (yes Joanne and Mhanayaji). So any good arguments are welcome while low-life personal attacks do not belong here.
Silence is golden, so unless you have something intelligent to say, don’t try to be an internet bully - it doesn’t really make you into a hero.
Btw. The point of Brazil being overrated was noted, but I can’t rebut it since it really is a personal perception, not a fact.
By dietmar | June 27th, 2006 at 8:15 pm for the record, redneck originates from scottish-irish immigrants, very closely related to crackers-and heres the kicker,joanne, crackers are braggards. open-mouth-insert-foot. since your THE ghana fan you may need some help with that!
Posted from United States
By joanne D | June 27th, 2006 at 8:22 pm Let’s talk when you can raise your IQ…. Therefore, i will no longer respond to your childish comments
Posted from United States
By SES | June 27th, 2006 at 8:24 pm Thank you, footiefan. 
Posted from United States
By SES | June 27th, 2006 at 8:27 pm Ghana played magnificently and lost graciously. Brazil may have advanced to the quarterfinals, but both are winners in my opinion.
Please stop the ad-hominem attacks. It just reflects badly on your character.
Posted from United States
By Idler | June 27th, 2006 at 8:32 pm So, Mhanayaji, your point is that it’s perfectly fine to make fun of someone’s ethnicity and race while calling them a racist?
Posted from United States
By footiefan* | June 27th, 2006 at 8:36 pm “Let’s talk when you can raise your IQ…. Therefore, i will no longer respond to your childish comments”
As I said before, you are full of hypocricies.
Another one of note: You constantly say “you lost 2-1″ yet you claim to be an American citizen yourself…Interesting.
I guess in the States guess they give a PhD to anyone these days. I sorely hope your PhD thesis had a stronger argument than the one you have put forth today.
That said, lets keep it to soccer EH?!
Spain vs France! oooh!
Posted from Canada
By Sam | June 27th, 2006 at 8:49 pm Some people love to troll, and unfortunately people don’t always get when to stop feeding them. One doesn’t always NEED to respond to the kids on this blog who pretend to have PhDs, we can let them keep making insulting comments to no one.
Posted from United States
By Joe Fernandez | June 27th, 2006 at 8:54 pm Well Done Brazil.You scored.Ghana had many chances but just could not score. I enjoyed watching the match. There were good moves by both teams throughout. The refereeing got better in the second half. Did it have to take the Ghanain coach to blow his top to get some fairness, that he was confined in the basement?Ghana will be one of the teams to watch in 2010.
Posted from 
Malaysia
By Angelo Abruzzese | June 27th, 2006 at 9:26 pm Well I am glad to see that the ridiculous post game is not restricted solely to the Italian blog.
I can’t wait to see the replay of this thing when I get home tonight.
Go Brazil, hopefully we can have a rematch of that loss with the PK’s.
But of course that is a long long long ways off yet.
Posted from United States
By G-race | June 27th, 2006 at 9:50 pm I have a feeling “Joanne” is really Juanita and was born in Argentina…
Hey, Brazil won, ok? Ghanna played well, but did not win. End of story.
Posted from United States
By Bobbio | June 27th, 2006 at 10:12 pm Dissapointingly I doubt there are direct translations of the word “Nerd” used in different language. I’ve never heard a dutch version anyway.
Posted from 
Netherlands
By Ipolite | June 27th, 2006 at 11:51 pm Brazil game the line’s man was sleeping………
He really killed Ghana spirit.
I am sorry I dont know when this cheating will stop.
CAF and FIFA needs to do something about this cheating…they need to bring instant replay in the game.
Ghanians I am proud of you guys and I think you guys were better than the Brazilians today
Posted from United States
By Scorp | June 28th, 2006 at 12:12 am Ghana certainly played better than Brazil. But i think the younger Nation in the world cup got robbed in this game. I would like to see ghana advance to the quater finals in 2010.
Posted from United States
By Welsh | June 28th, 2006 at 1:40 am Well, I see still bitterness in some comments here. Brazil won the game and that’s that, but Ghana certainly gave them a run for their money. As the Brazilian and their coach admits they deserved at leat a goal in the first half. The point that most people miss is that African football though it lacks the xperience of the big stages is in many ways similar to the Brazilia and vice a versa, as both sets of players have learned the game in similar circumstances, that why Brazilians have hard time playing African teams, be it in youth level and senior level. Brazil is undoubtedly the masters of the world and they will show their game against a European team, but when playing African teams it’s been like that always because of the difficulty to maneuvre players that predict most of your moves. These facts are to be seen whenever they meet an Africn team, as a Brazilian coach once told me. Today’s game was the most critical game for Brazil and from now on we will see the true Brazilian game, even though France is a dificult opponent unlike many might think.
Expect Brazil vs Germany Final..
Posted from United States
By Dan | June 28th, 2006 at 2:34 am For the record, I had moved to germany in 1970 and lived there for 6 years - Iearned German, learned and followed football - saw the world cups of 1970 and 74, the 70 world cup is where I became a fan of Brazil - esp. Pele, Jarzinho, Gerson, Felix etc., went to school with several African friends - one from Ghana - Stanley Lartey to be specific - he and I were best friends until he left germany in 1974. We played football together everyday - even messed around on the reperbahn a few times. Racist is the last thing I am -
Ghana played well, but as I had stated earlier, maybe the plan was for Brazil to let them run around and to play a little smarter, finish the chances they would get due to Ghana’s own errors - to play the game like a marathon and not a sprint. Everyone at this level has skill, but as one looks at the last 8, it is abovious that expereince has a lot to do with getting through - save for Ukraine - but they had more stars than the Swiss and it showed in the penalty kicks. Brazil did not play with the ‘life’ it showed against Japan, but it played smart. For sure Ghana should have scored at least once, but it did not - Brazil for certain should have had at least 3 more. Brazil will need to play with a little more possession and quickness against France - but France is a question mark too.
p.s. I don’t think I attacked you personally joanne d - I was confused as to why you had so much hatered towards Brazil and why, if you were an american, you were so passionate about Ghana? For the record, I am not a fan of the US team - and it does not bother me that they lost. My two teams are Brazil and HSV…
Posted from United States
By fing | June 28th, 2006 at 4:05 am I haven’t seen brazil really pull out a lot of effort in this world cup. Brazil is no more the Brazil that the world saw in the last 3 world cups. The players are playing selfish. If they keep on like this they will not win this worldcup.
Posted from United States
By Ricky David | June 28th, 2006 at 6:39 am Dan and Joanne D
Please let us not take things personally.
I’d love for Ghana to win. They played so beautifully.
But that is football. Not the Beautifull playing Team ends up winning.
Dan, I studied in West Germay too. I can speak very fluent German. Did you remember the cheating game played by Germany Austria against Algeria in 1982 World Cup?
Soon after the Ghana-USA game, I read a lot of angry and NASTY-RACIST comments on World Cup Blog against ALL Ghanaians!!
Now I am reading nasty things against all Brazillians. Africans should see Brazilians as brothers and sister. Even the white Brazillians have some African blood in them whether thery want to admit it or not!
Their food, Music, Dancing is African.
The REAL CRIMINALS in this World Cup Games are the officiating Refrees. After that 2nd DUBIOUS goal against Ghana by a BIASED Refree, there was no way Ghana was going to RECOVER against Brazil. It was a lost cause. The Ghana coach went to protest and said “RACIST/Nazist, it will be better for us if you were wearing the YELLOW Jersey of Brazil”
He was given the RED CARD.
Soon after the Games, the Refree-Linesman went there asking Ronaldo for his Jersey as a sourvenir( or trophy) for remembrance!! That certainly raises eyebrows
The next world Cup should probably have 2-3 Refrees on the Field. 1 Black, 1 White and probably 1 Chineese. That is the only way to stop BIASEED Refrees from officiating the matches
Posted from United States
By Dan | June 28th, 2006 at 8:46 am Hey Ricky - thanks for the nice dialoge - I guess my off color humor did not resonate with Joanne - I just found it odd that an american had such a) hatered for Brazil and b) love for Ghana - americans as whole - are pretty neutral if not down right negatively anti world cup and/or soccer. She was going off against Brazil.
Unfortunatley, once I got back to the states in the late 70’s, it was very hard to follow soccer. I remember the heart break Brazil had in 82, but I don’t know the specifics of that cup. The games were on in the states but it was on spanish tv. Same with 78, 86 and 90. Although things got better in the 90 cup and on with espn and all.
I am not sure about Adrianos goal but it looked like it went off the the foot of the defender first? this would elimenate offsides - to me he looked even when the ball was kicked. Plus, first offside on Ronaldo was not offside and the non-penalty on Adriano in the box should have been a penalty. The goalie left his leg out and the ball had passed – plus Adriano’s foot got caught. Ghana got a penalty on much less than that in the US game as did Italy vs. Australia
I agree that officiating is very problematic. I will raise another point though, since the cup expanded to 32 teams, no second level teams (17 to 32) have done much beyond the first stage of knock-out. The adding of teams to 32 has made more money for fifa, enlarged the cup and added more teams from other regions - all of which is up lifting to these countries, but all it seems to do really at tournament time, is force the big teams to play a few more matches in a survivalist approach. These big teams use these games to warm up. Does this make sense? It seems that if you are one of the big 8 or 12 teams, you have to pace yourself through opening rounds, hope to not have injury, use the least amount of energy, because you have to survive more than anything. This is very different than 1970 or 1974 - play 6 to win the whole thing. The extra game is huge - so much can happen - now its 3 knock games instead of 2, to get to the final. Plus those players in the 70’s played together in league play more than these players do. Germamy in the 70’s only allowed 2 non german players on its Bundesliga teams. So it takes a few games to come together within the pressure of the tournament.
There is no way Ghana, the US, Togo, Trinidad or Costa Rica and some others even belong at this level. They have nice players, but Ghana got through because the czechs got hurt and were old and then the US game they rolled around like the Italian teams of the 70’s used to do to kill time.
Brazil knew that Ghana were going to be running today and try to out pace them. But when you do that you run the risk of making mistakes. For sure they got pressure on the defense, and should have had a goal or 2, but it did not happen. The mistakes were turned into goals and Brazil survived - which was the plan all along.
Brazil need to play different to advance on - I think they will - they have so much in reserve. I really liked the way they played in the confederation cup last yaer - they took apart the Argentines and the Germans.
By the way, I read that South Africa has not even built more than 2 stadiums and the infrastructure to move people around is lacking. There is a possibilty that the cup might be moved - and the US is one of the options. Hope this makes sense do you - cheers!
Posted from United States
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