After a lame 1st half of fumbled dribbles, bad passes, terrible footwork and generally being dominated by Uruguay, the only thing which spared Korea in the first half was the ref..
Korea surprised us all by rallying hard in the second half to dominate over Uruguay , the complete opposite of their playing in the 1st half. They can leave with their heads held high, they never gave up for a minute and Uruguay had to earn their advancing to the next round with a hard, fast, aggressive match. Good game Korea, but Uruguay went on as we all expect...
my God, the US match!
Ghana proudly hails up the Ites Gold and Green in the Third Round for only the second time ever!! (making it a step farther than they did in the last World Cup and only the sixth time Africa has made it to the second round)
(cameroon 1990 1/4 finals 3rd round) (Nigeria 1994 1/8 finals 2nd round) (Nigeria 1998 1/8 Finals 2nd round) (Senegal 2002 1/4 Finals 3rd round) (Ghana 2006 1/8 Finals)
Great match!
Ghana had footwork, heart, speed and Kingson (with at least 11 crucial blocks!!)
USA had DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE..
US key players were predictably Donovan, Dempsey, Bornstein, and Jozy
(in fact, a major mistake was to replace Jozy with Gomez in the last 10 minutes, and as already pointed out by !@#$%! and demonrail Jozy was a key in the US defense and blocking out Ghana for so long)
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
when altidore was gone the usa line offense indeed lost its creativity, as there was nobody to hold the ball. gomez was nowhere (as he was in the previous game).
ghana's defense was very good and the counterattack was deadly.
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Originally Posted by demonrail666
but I thought things started to drift away from them once he was replaced by Gomez. Either way, from a neutral's perspective it was a great game.
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Originally Posted by demonrail666
. You're probably right about Altidore carrying a knock. It's a shame. He added a real physical threat up front.
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. I was particularly glad to see the US take a not from the Netherlands and Argentina and stopped wildly lobbing the ball down pitch at each possession and instead opted to take it slowly, patiently down pitch to maintain more possession and ball control.
the first half the US was slow and lacked coordination with poor dribbling and passing, but the second half they were on fire, speed, shots, passing, ball control.. it was a great match.
Ghana siezed every opportunity, US had a very strong defense to keep them in well into the final minutes, very similar to the Korea match in this regard.
Ghana controlled the infield, US controlled the goal zone, but in a 130 minute match youth was the primary advantage, and Ghana came through in the clutch when it mattered most for all of Africa watching...
US can leave with a good match, and an undefeated record in the opening round, some great goals, it was fun to root for them, and I danced and cheered at all their goals, but who couldn't want it for Ghana? They even have a decent chance against Uruguay to be the first African team to advance to the semi-finals!!