Ghana 2 United States 1 (aet)
2010 World Cup Round of 16
Saturday 26 June 2010 | Royal Bafokeng Stadium | Rustenburg, South Africa
The United States ran out of late-stage heroics Saturday in Rustenburg. They gave a performance high on effort but low on quality when it counted.
The first half saw the Americans give up an early goal when in only the fifth minute, US midfielder Ricardo Clark lost possession to Ghana's Kwadwo Asamoah at the midfield line, who passed to Kevin-Prince Boateng, who then sprinted up the left channel and left-footed the ball from just beyond the penalty area, beating keeper Tim Howard at the near post. The US spent the rest of the half playing the long-ball game, continually giving away possession, especially in the midfield flooded by committed Ghanains. Clark was shown the bench early, substituted after only 30 minutes.
The opening of the second half saw a change in tactics. The USA went to a shorter passing, ball-control, tempo-oriented game that gave them full control of the midfield and had Ghana back on their heels. When the Black Stars' Jonathan Mensah brought down Clint Dempsey in the penalty box at the 62nd minute mark, Landon Donovan converted on the penalty kick, perfectly hitting the right post, to even up the score at 1-1. It looked like the Americans were going to wear down Ghana and get the eventual winner.
But after Donovan's equalizer, the USA inexplicably went right back to first-half tactics, showing a grand measure of impatience - trying to overpower with brute force rather than putting the Ghanains on the slow boil with possession followed by scoring chances. The long ball was back.
Power and pace instead of tempo and technique.
Perhaps coach Bob Bradley and company thought that after the equalizer, Ghana was ripe for a takedown by blitzkreig air raids. But the country that has produced the Under-20 World Cup champions and the runners-up in the Africa Cup of Nations within the last year was able to deflect what the Americans threw at them and get themselves to the 30-minute overtime sequence.
As after the match's opening whistle, Ghana struck early in overtime. In only the third minute of the 30-minute overtime, The Black Stars' tremendous keeper Richard Kingson delivered a goal kick nearly the length of the pitch. The American defender Carlos Bocanegra tried to head the ball away, but the Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan controlled it off his chest, and with the grace and sheer strength of a world class striker, Gyan left-footed the ball over Howard for the go-ahead and eventual match winner.
The Ghanians resorted to much gamesmanship in the second half of the 30-minute overtime with delay tactics that left the Americans with an extra measure of a bile taste in their mouths.
But in the end, the Americans really only controlled the match for about 20 of the 120 minutes, and were defeated by a combination of Ghana's speed, strength, and a measure of real quality as well as the goalkeeping of Kingson who made decisions with commitment, catching and punching away crosses and corners.
And it was done. The "finality of it (was) brutal" as Landon Donovan said after the match. The Americans joined South Korea as the countries shown the door on the first day of the Round of 16. Even though the USA bested the performance of world footballing powers such as Italy and France who were disgracefully eliminated after the Group Stage, and beat out supposed power England to win Group C, the Americans were exposed for their reliance on power and pace rather than tempo and technique.
Is American soccer on the world stage improving? Probably. They put forth a team that is mostly well organized, committed, and full of heart and soul, with some players that have sufficient quality to participate, and make significant contributions, in the world's best domestic leagues.
But when it comes to "taking the next step" in developing the American international game, how is that going to happen unless real footballing skills of tempo control and technique as consistently exhibited by most of the countries in the Round of 16 are the norm of American play as opposed to flickering, intermittent hints of potential?
Landon Donovan called USA's play against Ghana "naive"; "at this level you can't do that" he added. I am left only to think that Donovan was referring to USA coach Bob Bradley and his support staff. It was no doubt disappointing to waste an opportunity that perhaps will not be seen in some time for a USA team to make the World Cup semi-finals: Ghana and Uruguay arguably are much easier opponents that the other three-fourths of the final 16 of this World Cup.
But the real answer lies in the culture of American soccer and the type of player and style of play that that culture ultimately produces.
That subject is worth a Ph.D. dissertation.
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