THE REVENGE MATCH: U.S.A. v. Ghana

Come on you Yanks!!!

 

If we can somehow get by Ghana, I like our match up with Uruguay. Suarez vs. Bradley II. Like it.

 

Ghana.. upside: Shoot a lot and miss a lot
downside: the law of averages.

 

not liking this at all.. starting Clark, dolo Yellow.

 

You can only shoot yourself in the foot so many times before you can't walk anymore. I thought Dempsey played exterely well today.

 

"THE REVENGE MATCH"

I blame Franek for pissing on the soccer gods' shoes.

Seriously, after 06 I never expected much. We didnt build on our strengths.. kept Arena around too long. What I mean there is we went back to 03 in concept and form..

We cant lay it ALL on BB.. but REALLY do not understand Clark, after what Edu had showed us.

 

Disappointing to be sure, but only in the sense that we could have beaten them. I was scratching my head as well with the selection of Clark, but that alone wasn't the deciding factor.

After the Confed Cup, I figured the team should get out of the group and win the round of 16 game. After losing Davies and Gooch, I figured getting out of the group was about all we could expect. The team exceeded that by winning the group while bouncing back from adversity and taking Ghana to the wire before going down.

Big picture, it was a good World Cup for the US and definitely something to build on.

 

Big picture: We've been at this for 20 years after taking a 40 year hiatus!

I agree, Ag, a solid WC for the US. We finished first in our group. Had the better game in the Rof16 but were unable to come away with the goals required. Some younger players gained experience. If that midfield can remain together - Don, Demps, Brad, & Edu (please, no more Clark)- I think they could be dangerous in '14! Altidore should improve. Davies, IF he fully recovers should be better. Howard will still be dominant.

Here's hoping the defense improves.

 

Sucks, but totally fair.

We should all thank Bradley for his service to this nation these past three years. I could pinpoint all the things he did wrong, and right, this tourney but there's little point now. Now, hopefully the USSF goes in a different direction.

I had a gut feeling that the game would not end in a win for us at about the 70th minute when the USA resorted to Lawrie Sanchez's Route 1 Special. When they scored in ET I knew it was lost.

Sigh....

 

unreal. how you continue to put yourself in the position of going down early time and time again is beyond me. what a fucking joke. we couldve went on an amazing run and instead fall to a team thats definitley not as good as us because we have to pull a goal back which drained all our energy.


bradley is also at fault. Edu has done a good job this tournament and he pulls out one of the stupidest decisions ive seen a US manager make* in starting clark. not only did he give up a goal, but he got an early yellow which meant we had to use a sub early. stupid decision for the 2nd time this tournament, the first being starting Torres against Slovenia.


this cup was exciting, but thats only because we put ourselves in shit positions. excitement doesnt equal great tournament and this was certainly disappointing.


* im sure those that were here during the Sampson years could name a million decisions worse.

 

Edu has done a good job when he got to play - I assumed we were done with starting Clark or Torres, but oh well. I would like to know Bradley's reasoning on that one. Didnt like the Gomez substitution either. He is an opportunistic striker and not what we needed at a time when the boys were getting exhausted. I would have brought on Holden, the Beas, or Buddle (if Josy was too tired). It was great while it lasted and at least Ghana beat us fair and square. I'm happy just knowing that was the case and not because of some disallowed goal or bad-reffing.

 

It was pointed out elsewhere that our real worry going forward is our defense. I have to say that Bradley handled it -in real time - perfectly. dolo is going out on a high and I dont think there's anyone will posit someone else should have been at RB.
Moving Boca to CB with Demerit was perfect move. Bornstein stepped up and I cant fault him.

BUT... NONE of those guys should nor probably will be suitable for 2014. Probably Gooch has had his last chance, as well... unless he really gets his shit together and goes to a club that will play him.
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Now.. to the sadder side of the story.

It's every player's dream to feature on the world stage in the biggest games of all. And the culmination of the dream is that way you feel when it happens and one expects to be able to show your kids and grandkids the clippings and videos to show you were there.

Imagine Ricardo Clark's clip box.

A dream turned to a nightmare of reality.

 

Agree. It'd be a thousand times worse if we'd lost on a poor call. Still, this was probably our best chance in recent history to make a semifinal. Just think how well we'd have done if we didn't give up the early goals? Frustrating. Overall, I thought Bob Bradley did a decent job but some decisions were questionable, especially starting Clark. Still, the team played with great heart. I'm very proud of the lads. They made another big step for soccer in the US. Let's build on this and get to at least a quarterfinal next time.

And hey, we did better than France or Italy!

 

sigh

 

Last US Forward to score in World Cup:

Brian McBride June 17 2002

 

Not a total failure, but 1 win, 2 ties, and 1 loss hardly sounds impressive, especially in what some considered one of the weaker groups and round of 16 matchups. Quarterfinals had to be achieved to be considered a success. But, we are learning not to be as intimidated.

All the best to Ghana. Semis are in their sites, but Nederland or Brasil will stop them there.

Deutschland, Deutschland, uber alles!