Match Review & Highlights: Ghana 2-1 USA

June 26th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

gyan and prince

It was quite literally a game of four halves. The USA did their now standard trick of starting flat and conceding early, when Ricardo Clark (a surprise selection ahead of Maurice Edu) lost possession in midfield and Kevin Prince-Boateng capitalized by striding forward and beating goalkeeper Tim Howard at his near post with just five minutes on the clock:

Clark went on to pick up a yellow card for a tackle that might have been worth a red, which was enough to persuade Bob Bradley to basically re-pick his starting XI by sending in Edu for Clark well before halftime. Ghana were easily the better team in the first half, being first to every loose ball and just looking generally more lively and more likely to produce something.

Not sure what’s been happening in the US dressing room (or should that be locker room?) during halftime in these World Cup games, but once again they came out looking a different team. Coach Bob Bradley subbed off striker Robbie Findley for extra midfielder Benny Feilhaber, and it seemed to give the US better control of the midfield and more possession of the ball.

In the 61st minute Clint Dempsey darted into the box, and was just too quick for defender Jonathan Mesah, who tripped the US midfielder. Penalty kick to the US, and Landon Donovan stepped up to equalized from the spot:

That was Donovan’s third goal of the tournament, and it put the US level at 1-1. Which is how stayed until the end of 90 minutes, giving us our first extra time of World Cup 2010.

Frustratingly for USA fans, the team started extra time as they started the game. Which was badly. Dede Ayew’s hopeful long ball invited Asamoah Gyan to run through the middle, where he was too strong for Rennes teammate Carlos Bocanegra, too fast for the chasing Jay DeMerit and his on-the-bounce strike too good for Tim Howard to save:

The US had 27 minutes to save the game, and no one an argue they didn’t try. Cross after cross came in, and Ghana had to get bodies in the box to block several efforts at goal. Tim Howard even came up for a corner in the last minute or so, but Ghana held out to win this Round of 16 game 2-1 and move on to the quarter-finals.

- More at the Ghana blog and the USA blog.

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nikoolaa

Well i'm nothing of a US soccer expert but i think the main problem was at front – Altidore has been given too much credit but US team at WC scored only when Donovan or Dempsey did something from the middle. That wasn't to hold up and Gyan made the difference although i strongly believe that US is a better side which they proved by coming back in second half and having better of the game to finish it in regular time.

I'm not a coach and i don't know better than Bradley, but there is just not enough danger up front – maybe Gomez or Buddle should have played earlier on, even start the match since Altidore and Findley were not good enough. Why changing Findley at half-time, and not Altidore? Or both of them?

Also, without trying to be a smartass after the match is lost how about the guys who didn't make the squad – Could Eddie Johnson, Brian Ching or Conor Casey who gave US two crucial goal be called for WC? Johnson and Ching alone scored almost as all US World cup forwards together
Geoffrey72

The key to this match was the combination of poor finishing by US forwards and excellent goaltending by Ghana's Kingson. The Ghana defense was breaking down badly in the 2nd half, and the US got several balls through to a forward in the box past the whole defense with a point-blank shot on goal. Most teams would love to get 1 or 2 chances like this in a match, the US got 3 or 4. A good shot on any of them would have been impossible for Kingson to stop, just like Gyan's shot was. But the US shots were all poor, and Kingson with his feet and hands and lightning-quick reactions was amazingly able to stop every single one of them. Just one decent strike out of the bunch would have been enough for the US to win. And I was pulling for Ghana.