Like many USA supporters, I know very little about Ghana. Can anyone recommend any good sites to read up about squad/players? Any analysis here would also be appreciated.
Very skilled and athletic team. Can quick strike you with the best of them. Lots of talented young players - more so than the US. However, if you go up early on them, they can be stretched and countered quite easily as they can quickly become disorganized in the back. While they do create chances, they have yet to show an ability to finish them (both of their goals have been PKs). Bottom line, the US must withstand the early onslaught as Ghana, with the support of the local fans, will come at them in waves. If they can, the US can take advantage on counters and set pieces.
closer to a webcrawler, but youre on the right track. if you want to make a decision about ghana, i keep seeing commercials for an engine that would help.
Just looking at their results over the past couple years, they very rarely score more than a goal against similar quality opposition or better. But they rarely concede more than that either.
In their past 13 matches, Ghana has scored more than one goal only once, a 5 - 2 drubbing of Burkina Faso. This...this is not a good team. I'm not guaranteeing a US victory, but Ghana's struggles in front of goal are not limited to this World Cup. They were extremely lucky to get out of their group, having scored only two goals (both penalties) and twice playing against 10 men. Again, I'm not suggesting the US will walk through, or even win at all, but Ghana will not go far in this tournament. Edit: I forgot to add they are defensively very strong. The Dutch put four past them a few months ago, but the Dutch would do that to a lot of teams.
Even without Essien a there strength is in the midfield, they've alos got a couple of good defenders, a good goalkeeper. Where they lack is upfront. As is typical of the top sub-saharran African teams they're strong and athletic. As a neutral, I'd say overall I'd say this fixture does not present an obvious winner. My own feeling is that given how lively Donovan has been this tournament he could be the difference-maker.
I think it will be a cracking game for the neutral but I think Ghanas goalkeeper Kingson is very erratic. Donovans deliverys could cause Ghana a lot of problems tomorow night.
I don't know what to make of Kingson. Sometimes he looks like the best keeper on the continent, other times gives up howlers. Plays for Wigan, but has only made 4 appearances in three years. If it goes to penalties, the US has a distinct advantage in goal, and maybe in finishing. Maybe.
I think the best goalkeepers are the ones you dont notice and I always seem to remember him lol. He was poor at Birmingham before Wigan and is an accident waiting to happen.
Bunch of divers and floppers. The refs had better be on their game. In the Germany game, there was a play where a German player ran past a Ghana player, and maybe they brushed elbows. The Ghana player immediately covered his face with his hands and fell to the ground. Truly disgusting - luckily the ref didn't call a foul, unluckily he didn't card the Ghana player either. And then there's this from the NYTimes about the last time the US played Ghana in the World Cup: The critical moment of the match came in stoppage time just before the end of the first half, with the score tied, 1-1. The American defender Oguchi Onyewu headed the ball away from Razak Pimpong while taking care to keep his hands off the Ghana forward. But Pimpong dived, the German referee, Markus Merk, was fooled, and Stephen Appiah converted the subsequent penalty kick to give the Black Stars a lead they never relinquished. The Ghanaians, almost all seasoned professionals in top European leagues, continued to take advantage of Merk’s officiating for the rest of the match. The Daily Mail in London noted of Ghana, “Their diving and feigning injury put a total of 9 minutes’ stoppage time onto the regulation 90 and took much of the gloss off what they have achieved here in their first World Cup finals.”
Divers and floppers is right. And they can be physically very rough as well. We really need to play it safe at the back, pressure in midfield, and attack relentlessly. I don't fear their counterattacks as I did against Slovenija.
My inner-librarian says to go the CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html .
Not as good as the team that beat the Czech Republic, but as you watch today's game you'll see their incredible focus on defensive + midfield positioning over the field. USA should be able to win this game but won't be easy. The US has to get a lead in the 1st half or we could go to PKs.
the diving and faking is definately going to be ugly. i would go as far to say, they're worse than italians and probably the worst in the world. ghana's strategy against the US? cheat.
Maybe you benefit from the game being played in vacation time. The first time Kevin-Prince Boateng was suspended from the German U20 was at the Toulon tournament, when he tried to convince his team mates to lose on purpose, because he wanted to get home early.
Allegedly, they are probably 5 years older than their listed age. You know that's why they have so many Youth Championships!