Comments on: LiveBlog: Ghana-USA

By: Punjabi Ringtones

Punjabi Ringtones — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 12:03:55 +0000

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By: Welsh

Welsh — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 06:55:20 +0000

The only sadness I have from this game is that we lost a great player in the form of Caludio Reyna. A player of high quality with great work ethics and understanding for the game; a player that I held and still hold the utmost respect for.
It really sadens me to see some ignorant section of our fans blaming him for the loss. The defender who passed the ball to him should have known better not to pass the ball to a player in that situation and should’ve opted to kick the ball out for a throw. By doing so he put Reyna in unnecessary pressure without support. Dramman who was too quick and he was on top of Reyna before he even raised his head. The challenge was legal and whitin the means of the game, it was strong but nothing cynical, “fair play”. Of course the penalty was questionable, but again I doubt if that would’ve mad any difference. The African teams play strong physical football, so are the Europeans. Watch out for the Samba boys and their theatrics, I will not be surprised if I see few red cards because of that. We all expect Brazil to win that game and with good reason, but I still think this African team is more than capable to pull the surprise of the tournament. But, it’ll all come down to the refreeing as we all saw in this tournament already. Many teams have suffered already because of it including us, why Ghana should be different. The way the WC draw was made it is so clear that it favours the Europeans against teams from other continents. Why? because the tournament is played in Europe and it is not desierable for others to win it as the tradition dictates. Unless of course someone else has other ideas!!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 23:51:03 +0000

I was proud of the US. They weren’t the best out there but they were one of the 16. How would Engkand or France or Spain fair in the US’s group. Don’t tell me it’s just coincidence that it was the hardest group. How would these same teams do down a man againsta team like Italy? No better most likely worst. How would these same teams do when teh other team was basically given a goal on a horrendous penalty call? They would lose.

If this had happened to any of the elite European teams thee would be a major controversy and FIFA would do soemthing to appease. England, France or Spain would not have advanced if they had to overcome what the US did.

Also, I am especially proud that the US doesn’t dive. It’s tiem to sart pulling the yellow card out for diving. The game is turning into a theatrical performance versus an athletic one.

By: Cocoliso

Cocoliso — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:09:04 +0000

Ok, I was wrong, everything that Ghana needed was a tie. Just too many games and too much heat here, don’t sue me.

By: minhoca

minhoca — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:21:15 +0000

Ok, so from the first game I saw that the USA’s offense sucks and that we did not deserve to advance past the 1st round. I can accept, and very much expected defeat.

But the refs were either incompetant or purposefully trying to put the USA at every disadvantage, starting with the Italy game. Everyone knows the Italians are famous for taking dives, but the ref ignored that. Instead of penalizing the Italians for feigning injury, he handed out reds to the USA for tackles that warranted only a warning or a yellow at most.

He had no choice but to give a red to the Italian who drew blood, and then it seemed like he said “oh shit, I better do something to even things up or a USA loss is not ’soldi nella tasca’ (money in the bag), 100% guaranteed”. That’s right, the other thing the Italians are known for is bribery. But there’s one thing you can’t bribe… —>

IT’S TIME TO IMPLEMENT VIDEO REPLAY FOR MAJOR, GAME ALTERING EVENTS LIKE A CONTROVERSIAL RED CARD OR GOAL!

By: Nadj

Nadj — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:47:34 +0000

Mason,
Quiete frankly I sense racism in your comments. When I said Ghana is a better footballing nation like many Afrivcan countries I meant, because that is the reality whether you like it or not. You are not just angry because we lost I sense you are angry because we lost to Africans. You denial of this fact and insisting on saying that reyna meant the Eauropean nations is absurd and an indicator of your true self. Wake up man, don’t jusge people because they are poor. To ad insult to injury a guy from malaysia of all places is critisizing Africans “Tham” what a pity. I am not African, I am of a Serrbian origins, but some comments that I read in this blog lack wisdome and accuracy and are 100% biased. I’ll say it again we are a small footballing nation, not only compare to African nation, but also to Asian nations. We should not deny these facts. We have the money and the facilities to catch up. Lets work onthat instead of whining and refusing to give credit where credit is due.

By: Tham

Tham — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:24:09 +0000

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
and disgraceful manner.

A good writeup by The Guardian on this game :

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/matchreport/0,,1804059,00.html

By: Conrad

Conrad — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:02:13 +0000

1) No one likes a diver…
2) Ghana’s play was disappointing with wasted time, I felt like they were weak…
3) USA’s play was okay, but still disappointing…namely Donovan’s refusal to slip the ball in with his left foot.
4) The PK call was absurd.
5) Great athletes are developed through the sports they decide to play early on…
6) The US soccer talent pool gets better all the time. I’m always impressed with our youth.
7) The US youth talent loves the game, and you can bet they will continue to strive to be better regardless if they think they will have tons of fans.

By: Mason

Mason — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:24:49 +0000

Maradona -
To wit: Brazil and Argentina are considered medium-income countries by most transnational organizations.

It’s an interesting point you’re trying to make, but then why doesn’t Venezuela (heil hugo), the Dominican Republic, or Cuba have a stronger team? Oh yeah, they play beisbol, and they play it well. In many cases they start playing it with balls of socks and a table leg. Their best athletes come to the states to ply their trade. They don’t go to Old Trafford, they go to Yankee Stadium.

This is similar to the problem the US has. Young players pick up the game at an early age, but the best focus on other sports that can pay (including scholar ship sports). You want the US’s a poo’ man’s leauge? I direct you to look at the NBA.

By: Mason

Mason — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:06:03 +0000

Vittorio-
The angles I saw had dempsey behind the last defender, but EVEN with the ball. If you’re even with the ball, you’re not in offside position.