I had to work photographing a wedding and only saw snippits on my cell phone here and there (the wedding party also had a cell phone with the game on) and didnt get a grasp of what happened today. So in a Nutshell, what the hell happened? I'm so dissapointed....but not shocked.
We gave up a goal early. We scored fewer goals than the opposing team because we don't have any true strikers. Do not pass go; do not collect $200. See you in 2014.
We started the wrong lineup, got burned by conceding a soft goal, rectified it and rallied but in the process burned ourselves out and had no legs or subs to chase the game in OT after conceding a second lame goal (albeit with a nice finish).
Lets see... 5th minute turnover in the midfield by Clark leads to Ghana oppurtunity, Demerit gets turned, Howard isn't in position...1-0 Ghana. Rest of the half Ghana is the much better team by a mile, Clark goes off in the 30th minute after getting a yellow in about the 10th, Edu comes in. US comes out with energy in the 2nd half and is rewarded with a penalty on Dempsey, probably a light penalty but we will take, Donovan converts although just, he knicked the post. US gets more chances in Ghana for the next 30 minutes but none are converted. Goes to extra time.... 3 minutes into extra time, Ghana kicks a long ball to their striker, Boca and Demerit are both in the vicinity but neither are able to break down the play, he puts an absolute beautiful power shot over Howard and into the back of the net. For the next 27 minutes the US tries frantically to score the equalizer but no luck. Ghana 2:1 USA
they finished, we didn't. Rico with silly attempt to dribble through Ghana player at midfield center spot. Collides and loses ball. Bradley already up with Clark. Pass into space behind him. Shot from 18 about in line with left post beat Howard. You want him to get a finger to that, but the play is all Rico going boneheaded and lack of speed in central defense. We are on our heels - Boateng in particular caused problems - until Mo comes in for Rico. Start to get lively. Many chances, esp. in top of 1st half. Combo of Ghana keeper coming up big and us not managing the killer pass, shot or head in the box kills us. Ghana's D was very shaky at times but we did not take advantage. LD and Dolo got it working a bit late in the game, but we could not make it pay off. Adding Benny at half helped a lot. Gomez not so much. Team started running out of gas. Demps played very hard starting at about 60. He nutmegs a defender and is run through after a quick touch in the box. LD converts PK. We have a few half chances but can't put it away. Ghana gets a chance or two of their own. Start extra time. Ghana hits a hopefull ball out of their end to a double teamed Gyan. Boca inexplicably stops running on the play. Demerit stays with him but doesn't get good enough position and Gyan drives a shot over Howard. Very good shot quickly released, to be fair. We didn't quit, but were pretty gassed. It was really our finishing that failed us. And our slow CD's. Howard could have been a hero if he saved the first shot - maybe a soft goal, not a flub, for sure. Borenstein played very well. LD had moments, but didn't stamp himself on the whole game. Altidore did not have a great game. Dolo was pretty good. Benny was very good. Edu and Bradley had a decent, but not exceptional game. Demps was very good. Demerit and Boca were not great. Rico was poor. Findley pretty anonymous. Gomez same.
Bob Bradley is not a good coach. Everyone here knew it would be uphill when they saw Clark on the team sheet.
what happened is this: - Bob Bradley did not start the best lineup that we could have - Ricardo Clark is absolutely terrible. Honestly. The only thing he did right was not get any red cards. - our forwards are just not good. All we have is a dude who scored 1 goal in 28 appearances with a relegated EPL side and some MLS bums. I enjoy MLS but those guys are not going to contribute successfully at the WC - in every game we got behind early (except Algeria, but we almost did there too) with the strength of our roster in the MF, why not go 4-5-1 and take off a 2nd forward, since we don't even have 1 good one, why bother starting 2? Probably because we didn't experiment enough when we had the chance.
BY the way, the wedding was at a Country Club and I went into the Golf Shop after the game and there was a TV there and some Middle Age Gold guy having a drink and watching...I asked him what happened and he went into a long diatribe about how he knew Bradley in Princeton (NJ..thats where we were) and how unsocial he is and bad to his players...and how the US needs BIG STRONG ATHLETES like Ghana has and that one day we will have Kobi Bryant types in Goal...bla bla bla....I wanted to shoot myself...I regretted asking...he even taked about needing bigger goals...yikes...
Not to threadjack, but what? That was about as stonewall a penalty as you get at this level. Dempsey touched it past the last defender and was clattered into from the side.
Yeah fair enough, I just thought in the replay that he got alot of the ball also. We were definitely due a nice makeup call from 2006.
Um... Clark has an awful first half, I really didn't expect, Bob didn't either. Findley...........Findley........we play better when he isn't on the field. And the backline just wasn't that good today. Dang.
Bradley's starting line-up and tactics gave us no advantage in the midfield and lost us physical presence on the backline leading to one break-away goal and one route A goal. Both Ghanaian goals are a direct result of poor line-up consideration. As a side note, Bob kind of makes the mistakes most top level managers or CEO's make when confronted with their first real success. They ride their luck too long with the same people and put faith and trust in certain personnel where a more systemic approach is warranted. I see it all the time. His players were fatigued because he did not rotate properly. His choices in personnel matched his own previous conceptions and not the issues at hand. Personally I think it is a shame because this team, if managed just a bit more effectively from teh start was poised to do some real damage. Dempsey was outstanding the last two matches. Anyone who doesnt think so does not know football. I can't imagine he has an iota of strength left. Donovan was the primary benefactor of Dempsey's enormous physical exertion. Jozy is snake bit like a mootherfracker. Poor baby Bradley is completely exhausted by the 55th minute, but who is going to tell dad: I'm tired. Ditto Demerit, that guy should have been rested. So many things that were not in 'hindsight' but were being expressed by many posters over the last week. Shame.
You might want to watch again. The defender clears the ball to the side before ever touching Dempsey, the replays show this clearly. To be fair, it's easy to call that a penalty and not wrong necessarily but the defender does get the ball in the replays.
What happens? Sometimes you just lose. We were good enough to win, but Ghana was good enough to beat us.
Agreed. Ghana had one chance after 45 minutes, they took it. We had chance after chance after chance and didn't. It's a cruel game.
Once again we allowed the opposing team's forwards to set up shop in the space between our center midfield and our centerbacks - played a high defensive line and our backs got burned for pace by the Ghana forwards.
Ghana is the better team, and right off the bat Bob's lineup made a difficult task nearly impossible.
All these are nice reasons but theres a bigger picture here: Training coaching and natural talent. -Holding Midfielders (Clark and even Edu) Despite the word "holding" do not hold, they wing balls, distribute and do not pretend to be Ronaldinho. This must be taught and perfected. -Centerbacks were out of position and slow al tournement. Sure Boca and Demerit played well but the few mistakes lost a game. -We. Dont. Have. Fullbacks. Bornstein is soso, and we can't find anyone better than Cherundalo? -Strikers don't have a killer instinct or finish. Findlay fluffed a great chance, even the better Deuce & LD were trying killer balls instead of picking a corner. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Yeah the team selection looks suspect now. My biggest complaint was not taking Freddy Adu. Not that he would have won us the World Cup but the absolute worst he could have done was come on late and run around some people.
We didn't quit, but were pretty gassed.[/QUOTE] That's quite true. We had a very good stretch of play to start the second half to about the 75th minute. After that, I thought we only had one half way decent chance (Jozy in the 81st minute--would have been a miraculous shot had it gone in, and he didn't miss by much). Our crosses and free kicks lacked any zip or accuracy as they had in previous games. I blame that on tired legs. Trailing early in 3 of our 4 World Cup matches and the energy we had to expend to come back in those games and play at nearly full-throttle to score a late winner against Algeria doomed us. Also, the transition time from the last group game to the Round of 16 contest is the quickest turnaround of any match in the World Cup (3 days). If a team doesn't have great depth (like USA), you can expect to see guys look a little less than sharp.
Cliff notes: - Team starts the game "feeling out" Ghana. - Clark gets cute on the ball and inexplicably tries to beat a good defensive midfielder 1v1. 0-1 Ghana. - 40 minutes more pass. The US refuses to acknowledge the presence of a midfield, endlessly kicking the ball long to tired Jozy Altidore and incapable Robbie Findley. Halftime. - The US decides to play with a midfield. Feilhaber in. We look like a soccer team. - Dempsey "tries shit" and wins a penalty. The previously invisible Donovan steps up to put it away. 1-1. - The US backs off and returns to the kick ball game. - Ghana starts to press. Why not? The US defenders are being so generous by gifting them the ball. Full time. - Ghana continues to press. Then send a simple direct ball of their own into Gyan's path. Bocanegra is shading Gyan. DeMerit cannot get back in time to help. The ball splits the US defenders, and Gyan finishes the play by powering past Bocanegra and putting it away. 1-2 Ghana. Game.