Alright. For US fans: Vorsah plays for RB Salzberg, Mensah plays for Evian in France, and Boye plays for Rennes. Better pedigree from the two in France, but still not necessarily much better options (if better at all) than what we have available. Edit: Obviously club pedigree is not the end all be all. We have a Bundesliga starter on the bench behind two MLS players. Two of our top 3 players play in MLS. But it's at least a good place to start.
I've got a question, how good are your full backs? We are quite decent on the flanks and launch a lot of attacks from there on the counter.
Uhhh, no comment. But seriously, it just depends who we play there. Brad Evans has started recently and he works hard but isn't anything going forward and isn't very fast. Geoff Cameron starts at RB for Stoke and has been excellent recently, but he could play CB or CM as well. LB DaMarcus Beasley is a converted LM and is very weak but has experience and some speed, still. Fabian Johnson can play both LB and LM. He's very good with the ball in tight spaces, but may not be the best defender.
Our best fullbacks are actually pretty good at FB. Unfortunately, our best LB plays LW (our best LW plays LB) and our best RB is out of favor. Our second-best RB is very good and plays there for Stoke in the EPL. However, our 3rd best RB, who is actually a central midfielder, usually starts (bc Klinsmann has a hard on for him) so our RB is usually weak. Correction: our 3rd best RB is coming back from injury and starts for Hannover when healthy, but he's 34 so coming back into form from a knee injury may be impossible.
Ghana's back line and keeper are still a huge weakness, even if the starters are injured. The starters in defense and goal aren't exactly world class players.
As athletic and fast as Ghana our, that backline is....not great. Not that ours is amazing, but whoever our keeper is is a far better last line of defense than they have as well. They don't space each other very well and are not technically above average. Our attack created multiple excellent chances 4 years ago; I don't forsee that changing. Their midfield will have to keep their backline out of trouble, because if they don't, there will be gaps and spaces to exploit, and our best attacking players excel at that. This game will be won by: -Whoever's midfield controls the tempo -Whoever's back four makes the fewest mistakes. I think our defenders are better than theirs, even if its Evans and Beasley on the flanks. However, I do hope it's Johnson and someone else.
We have the advantage at GK, and maybe even striker this time around... That is if Jozy and Aron can perform at a high level. Gyan is good, but was never a star before he moved away from Sunderland. I'd like to say our defense is better, but I don't know much about their defenders. Their midfield is good, not at an elite level like a world power, but certainly better than ours.
Nobody's underestimating them, but to create some false narrative where they were clearly better than we were in either game is nuts. The first game, we played without 2 starters from the jump, lost our CM halfway through the first have and conceded a questionable PK to lose 2-1. The second game...come on. We outplayed them from minute 35-85. We had 6 clear scoring chances apart from the PK than on any other day, would have resulted in another goal. And we would have beaten them even up, without an exhausted team where like 7 starters had played every minute of 3 pressure packed games prior, chasing the game desperately for 2 of them, and then had to come back down 1-0 early and then get through AET and not make any mistakes. They're a good team. They definitely can beat us, but I am positive we can beat them, and the odds of us beating them, with all that prep time, and a full-strength squad, are a lot, lot higher than them beating us. We have better central defenders, a better goalkeeper regardless of who's in there, a midfield that matches up with theirs well enough and attackers who have been there and done that. They aren't "better" than us anywhere on the field. And again, we won't be playing shorthanded and/or exhausted this time around.
Unless we have an injury to Cameron, Besler or John Anthony Brooks, Omar Gonzales will not be starting a game for us in Brazil. He's not the quality we need next summer.
I think Altidore is the key here, this guy has a chance to be one of the best strikers in this World Cup and put on a serious display for everyone to see. But.............Jermaine Jones is done, Landon Donovan just does not have anywhere near the speed that he did in 2010 and Dempsey has not looked like the same player in the last 4 months. I think we do have the makings of a terrific bench though, Aron Johansson, Brek Shea, Mix Diskeruud and Eddie Johnson all look real good coming off the bench if we need to push forward for goals.
That's the weakest part of our roster by far, and everybody who plays against us knows it. Your manager knows it, too, and looking to launch your attack from out wide (which you apparently like to do anyway) will almost certainly be your plan against us. You guys are most likely going to try to clog the middle, and make quick strikes from out wide.
You touch on the important points in mid/final third. Jones looks set to contribute in limited minutes while Dono and Dempsey are no spring chickens.
This tournament is going to be about Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and whomever our CB's are, maybe a John Anthony Brooks. This one is for the young guys to put their mark on. If we need to count on Donovan, Dempsey or Cherundolo, we're f-u-c-k-e-d so I don't at all agree that Altidore isn't key. I simply think Klinsmann needs to use 2 strikers.
I just edited out what I said about Jozy against Portugal because I just realized this is the Ghana thread and I actually think Jozy will be key against Ghana. I think you will find at the end that Ghana and Portugal require two different approaches. With regard to Germany, give me a year and I might think of something. In the past I thought we were crazy to go with anything but our best 11 but this is not your father's USMNT anymore. We have some flexibility and choices to make. What fun.
This will be a close match on paper. Given ten games on neutral ground, I'd say three US wins, 3 Ghana wins, 3 ties and 1 win to whoever is feeling it that day.