As Per Tommy he feels this is a winnable match for USA, but he went on record as saying this team is largely made up of the side that beat Brazil in the U-21s. They know each other well and they're the fastest and youngest team in the tournament- They're physical too. He feels that even though they are missing Essien, they will likely top USA tomorrow. He also said that USA's backline will have it's hands full with Ghana's speed and that Ghana will recover quicker from match 3 than will the Americans, primarily because USA had no choice but to leave it all out on the field to qualify and that the turnaround time to the round of 16 is too quick for The Americans to recover from the type of emotional expenditure that they experienced. He said (doing a lot of paraphrasing here) that if Ghana nick an early goal that the well will run dry this time for the emotionally-spent Americans and that lady luck is going to run out on them if they keep digging the holes that they've been digging all tournament. Of course he also mentioned USA losing to Ghana four years ago, and that the home support from African fans will be a factor. Let's hope he's wrong. As an aside on tomorrow's match, is anyone else concerned that if Gooch gets the start the Ghanians will be going down like crazy trying to get a penalty called after what happened four years ago? Finally, this team is going to need to be really prepared and focused tomorrow and the last thing they need is Landon Donovan and Bianca's relationship drama on the cover of newspapers all across the country. I hope he refuses to answer another question about it, and addresses it if anything after USA's tournament is over, which hopefully won't be until a week or so into July at the earliest. C'mon You Yanks.
I too worry about our players being emotionally hungover on Saturday. They really did leave it all out on the pitch on Wednesday, and it was such an emotional victory. Two days just isn't a lot of time to recover from it.
I heard the show this morning, i like Tommy Smyth and he makes a lot of sense, i just hope he's wrong, i think he's hoping he's wrong too.
ALL African teams do well in youth tournaments. That's a very poor predictor of future success as this World Cup has evidenced. Ghana to me is a better quality Algeria: Fit, organized, compact defensively but very limited in the goal scoring department.
I doubt Gooch will start or even play. I dont think he was benched against Algeria for his play in the first two games but more for his lack of speed and Bornsteins having speed. I know Bornstein is scary but he plays well against speed just not against technical teams.
They pretty much sound EXACTLY like how Algeria was described. I'm not worried about our boys fitness. The U.S. is always one of the most fit teams in any tournament. Emotionally I would be more worried, but listening to Tim Howard on Mike and Mike this morning, he seems focused and I have no doubt the rest of the guys are as well. Again, I'm not sure the crowd will be as big of a factor. If anything, it's just more vuvuzelas buzzing.
Our luck is going to run out? We got "lucky" with the goal vs England, but if we had any luck the last 2 games, it was bad luck.
Also it is worth pointing out we are playing in the same stadium that we beat Egypt in last year and tied England in. Ghana also played in the stadium in their 1-1 tie verse Australia.
I'm not aware of any U21 USA win over Brazil. If we're talking about the U20 World Cup in Canada in 2007, yes we did beat Brazil then. But the only members of that team who are playing for the USA in this Cup are Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley. I started a thread about this around a week ago or so.
I like Tommy as much as the next guy, but it's killing him that we made it out of group stage. I'm sure that he still believes we should have lost 3-1 to England, were lucky to comeback against Slovinia and should have tied Algeria. Now he's picking Ghana..no surprise there, and he makes valid points. But he seems to downplay the depth of our team and Ghana's lack of scoring and BB's ability to put a game plan together that can lead to victory. Tommy is like mnay old school American announcers who can not come to grips with the progress being made by the US.
How could these so called experts feed the American public with such lies? The only player in the Ghana team that is a first choice is Andre Ayew. The other two are on the bench; so I don't know where they are getting this 'crap' information from. This may mean the U.S will not be prepared for what is going to knock it out tomorrow. What a shame these experts only pander to patriotic and surreal sentiments. Don't listen to them; they don't know what they are talking about. They may be setting you up for a heartbreak! In 2006, John Mensah, Paintsil and Kingson played in the game against the U.S. Asamoah Gyan and Muntari were suspended for the game. So even though the U.S team claims they were cheated in that game, they actually played against a weaker Ghanaian side that day. The current Ghana team was only assembled in December 2009. Kevin Prince Boateng has only played with Ghana on 3X. The two centre-back have only played as partners in competitive football 2x.
The U.S has only scored because of woeful defending. Nothing extraordinary unlike Ozil's goal for Germany.
Yeah Ghana will have all of Africa behind them, but the USMNT will have something they have never had before, " The whole United States behind them"
While that may be inspiration, its also a curse for having an entire continent on your shoulders. Also the emotion stuff is why we hired Skeletor as coach. He is already talking about the next game right after a game. And I bet he is reminding people, it was nice to qualify, now forget all that. It doesn't mean squat anymore. All that matters is winning 4 games now.
i tend to agree with everything he said, except one big thing, BIG. the US hasnt been running on luck save for the england howler. the US has made every single thing since then with skill, all the goals have come as a result of our tactics and gameplan and it has worked. if anything we have been on the wrong side of lady luck since the first game and if there is a change in the luck we will be benefiting from it. for some reason that really pisses me off, calling what we have done up to this point as complete luck. its such a bullshit pawn off by people who believe their teams are better than the ones who finished ahead of them, when i reality they arent anywhere near as good as they lead themselves to believe.
piss off ghana troll, seriously, everything you have posted in this forum since ghana was announced as the US's opponent has been complete trolling crap.
Oh so when Dempsey shook Gerard to fire the shot that beat Green it was woeful defending? When Donovan blasted the ball so hard it scared Slovenias goalie it was all woeful defending? Or what about Bradleys where he ran into the spot to net that home? Or Edus game winner?
I agree that they've made a lot of their own luck, but that is both good and bad. If we put together a complete effort against Slovenia instead of digging ourselves a hole then we don't need a 91st minute strike against Slovenia to go through. Was it exciting? Hell yeah.. But it was mentally exhausting and draining too. I think that we will be ok tomorrow. I don't think we should push up for the win though. Let Ghana come to us and counter them. Bradley and his partner have to track and close on attacking Ghana midfielders. That is a must- there can be no laziness in the center of the field. If we go into the half level or even if we counter for a goal then we will be fine. Worst case scenario, with Howard in goal you have to like our chances in the penalties too if it comes to it. Just don't dig a hole for ourselves with poor tactics that will force us to chase the game (yet again) is all I'm saying.
Slovenia defended woefully, dude! When the U.S met England, aside from one good effort from Altidore -- the goal was a gift -- the U.S did not bother the English defense at all. If Heskey had taken his chance, it would have been a different story. One more thing, Ghana is a better team than Algeria.
The problem the USA is going to have is Ghana's physical pressing game, and the fact that they will have an advantage in midfield. 3 central midfielders to the USA's 2. That will make retaining possession for the US team extremely difficult. I think Ghana will create a ton of chances by forcing mistakes out of the extremely error prone US defense, but their lack of finishing quality will see them fail to capitalize. I think the US wins 2-0 on a couple of counters.