Official Ghana - USA POST Match Thread [R]

Excuse me Beasley played a great game today. I blame Arena for not letting him play on the left side earlier on and his public bashing of the team. Players should be able to take it, to be fair, but right before the WC seems like poor timing.

 

Well,Beasley was very disappointing in all three games. Donovan was disappointing in two. Our 4-5-1 setup was disappointing in all three games. And we didn't get the breaks (questionable reds and penalties go against us; shots of the post against Czech, Ghana). If you're going to have your stars disappear, you can't have questionable calls going the wrong way and poor coaching. If you're going to have poor coaching, your stars need to step up or you need to get some lucky breaks. If the breaks aren't going your way, the coach and players need to step up. None of those happened.

Though I did think Lewis was fabulous today.

And I have no respect for all the stalling Ghana did. Going down just because you're tired and wasting several minutes, IMO, is classless.

Congrats on the win, however, and go get Brazil!

 

first goal for ghana a foul .... and the penalty the second misstake from merk.

with ottmar hitzfeld or christoph daum, the us team will win the world cup

(my english is verry verry bad....sorry )

 

Talk about choking!

I'm curious how one expects to win a MUST WIN GAME! with one forward?

You know what really happened - Donovan was homesick so he decided not to play so he could get back home ASAP...

embarrassing...

Good for Ghana though, at least their country cared...

 

Ghana didn't out play the US, lucky play in the 1st half and a PK that should never have been called. Just goes to show you the Refs deside who wins. Ghana will never beat Brazil.

 

I Can't Believe I Paid $100 On A Landon Donovan Usa Jersey!!!!!!!
This Jerk Off Is Nothing Buut A Big Baby, Stick To Mls Ya Baby!!!!!!

 

A quick good bye to Reyna, Arena & Pope . . Good bye!

A long and sad good bye to Keller and MCBride . . we'll miss you guys, thanks for the memories.

 

Wish you luck against Brazil. I am saddened to see Essien get a yellow. I was hoping Ghana would win because they are scared of no one, even Brazil. I wonder what formation Arena would put out against Brazil 5-5-0

 

can you name any physically fast teams which outmatch ghana in that department who are left in the competition?

 

Congratulations to the U.S.A. I think they have come a very long way. They could have made it to the next round if they had been in another group. African teams have been denied penalty upon penalty. On the other hand, the yellow card on Essien was bogus. Without the penalty, may be it would have been 1-1 with Ghana still moving on. Also without the penalty, Ghana would have attacked more in the second half. The U.S were very rough on our players though. Without Essien, our chances against Brazil is bleak; but we will not be disgraced. Muntari and Gyan will be back! An upset cannot be written off.

 

you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to getting no respect. none. vastly overrated? nobody in europe rates us at all. finishing with 1 point and 1 non own-goal is a bigger abberation than drawing italy down a man. even in a group like this.

 

My bad. I knew that, but was paying attention to other things.

Has Bruce Arena resigned yet?

 

I'm sorry, but i think the ref in the USA-Italy game made all the correct calls.

 

I love all the talk about the formation.

That wasn't the U.S's problem. The problems are:

- vision
- passing
- first touch
- 1 vs 1 skills
- no anticipation of what a teammate's about to do
- inability to cross properly
- inability to shoot from outside

beasely made a great pass in to dempsey, but generally, he was utterly horrific in every game. a complete libability. mcbride did nothing the entire tournament. no threat.
why these two saw so much playing time is beyond me.

 

Absolutely. 4-5-1 is the new 3-6-1. Arena had been very consistent and conservative with that 4-4-2 all throughout qualifying and then he gets to the world cpu and goes nutso. We need a coach who will play like he's been there before (since Arena hd been he has zippo excuses.)

 

It sucked to watch such a dismal US display, but it sucked even more to lose to a bunch of cheating, diving bastards.

******** you, Ghana. I hope Brazil humiliates you, and I hope some Brazilian defender breaks Eissien's knee.

 

When I saw Convey come in, I thought Lewis was maybe tired and he needed somebody to go around Ghana's right back like Lewis did a couple of times to deliver dangerous crosses...the RB was ripe for some one-on-one but we just let that slip. Brazil has too much success...go Ghana

0-1 Reyna
1-1 Dempsey
1-2 Bocanegra + Merk

 

Relax buddy

McBride - there is no doubt that McBride is past his prime but he is still a useful player...unfortunately - his days with the NT are done
EJ - is still an awfully young player.....against CR - he showed some promise and looked dangerous....writing him off is absolutely unwarranted

Convey - what are u talking about....if you paid any attention to football - you would realize that Convey was arguably one of the best players in the league and his team Reading... completely dominated the league....btw..Reading is in EPL this year...
Lewis - he didnt get stripped off the ball over and over...what game are u watching? -
Gooch - as far as I am concerned - the main thing this guy needs to work on is not using his hands to push off- he is going to be top class in EPL this season....
Donovan - great dissapointment - I concede this much - perfect example of a player that needs to go overseas and hone his skills

Overall - I am disappointed as all hell.....personally - I didnt think Arena did a bad job....we often forget that the players play - and the primary responsibility must rest with them.....
as for as today - Reyna and the Ref made a huge mistake....
bright spots - Clint Dempsey is going to be a stud for years to come...smart, fearless, and technically gifted...
if Beasley played against CR like he did today - result might have different
congrats to Ghana .....but i am still massively pissed...

 

dont really know what to say. so there was this phantom penalty kick call, o well. donovan still played like trash and no one on our team can make a nice cross to through ball. the refs helped ghana, but we sure hells didnt deserve the win anyway.

 

We (the USA) deserved to lose.

I blame Bruce. Why did he not start two forwards? If he was so paranoid about giving up goals, then go with two d-mids and two forwards and play like the '01 - '04 Quakes. What crap!

We deserved to lose because Arena was stupid enough to start Landon "Narcissus" Donovan. He played ok in the first half, but totally disappeared in the second half. Instead of taking out Dolo for EJ, he should have taken out LD for EJ. Hell, I'd have pulled LD ten minutes into the second half when it was clear that he had no intention of playing. I hope he never represents my country again.

And when EJ came in, he mostly lagged. He didn't show his speed, he didn't seem to make a lot of effort. Again, I blame Bruce for not having our guys totally fired up for the match. With your backs to the wall, you've got to play like your lives depended on it. I know that they are pros and at this level should be self motivating. So where was the motivation? Where was the will to win?! We sucked. And if Bruce wasn't going to get the guys fired up, then Claudio should have!

Olson wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great either. At least he tried. Gooch is nearly a wasted roster spot. While I think the PK call against him was bogus, you can still see that it was a foul. What was he thinking?! By that point he knew that the ref was giving Ghana the benefit of every doubt. And his distribution was totally crap!

Reyna again looked like our best player, but he did slow the play down. The Ghanians game plan clearly included hurting Reyna and they did. That second foul should have been a yellow instead of giving Ghana a goal. That was a classic knee tackle.

Very cynical play by Ghana. I would not be honor with their performance if I were a fan.

But again, our guys mostly play with hostile refs, and hostile crowds. So this should not be more difficult that a CONCACAF qualifier. Play focused, play with passion, play tight. We did none of that. I blame us.

I am ashamed of our team.

Puke!

- Mark

 

Then we should be seeing 8 or 9 such "correct calls" (penalty kicks) in every game this cup. It all goes back to consistency in officiating.

 

Correct on all counts. Rep coming your way.

 

LOL, what are you 7?

Well better Ghana than the U.S.... Brazil would have broken the scoring record against the U.S.

 

Does the US know how to finish? Bah! I've never been a fan of Donovan, who is only slightly better than the average soccer player. I am still bitter towards Reyna who is my estimate is responsible for the goal v. Italy. Why the Captain just stood there is beyond my comprehension. I am going to go cry in my beer now and stop whining to the board.