<p>great world cup so far…</p>
<p>hat tip to the referee in the Switzerland game that played ‘advantage’ instead of calling the obvious foul. This bit of quality referring allowed the winning goal.</p>
<p>Unlike many U.S. sports, in soccer the referee can award the foul, or play ‘advantage’ and let the play continue.</p>
<p>Argentina will need to play better on defense but they look sharp and Messi is amazing.</p>
<p>Humm, Argentina did not look sharp at all. Until his stroke of genius and precision, Messi played like he did at the end of the season with Barca, and that is way below his standard. Tonight was a very poor game for Messi with many missed passes, losses of possessions, and a low work rate. He is amazing, but he still played poorly tonight … on par with Argentina. </p>
<p>Bosnia is a strong team. Just amazing to think how strong the broken-up former Yugoslavia could be. Think Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia, which was in same group as Scotland, Croatia and Belgium, and did not qualify for the WC. </p>
<p>The first days of this WC have been great with only one poor game. </p>
<p>BIH has many players taller than Argentina players.</p>
<p>CNN has all bad reports about flight MH370 and now they want to predict today’s USA-Ghana result.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/16/sport/football/world-cup-usa-ghana-preview/index.html?hpt=hp_c2[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/16/sport/football/world-cup-usa-ghana-preview/index.html?hpt=hp_c2</a></p>
<p>Only the first paragraph is correct.</p>
<p>I say it will be 2-0.</p>
<p>CNN is just speculating and also hoping against hope. The US has spirit and heart, but not much else. </p>
<p>Pepe drew a red card so he is out for the game against the US. Portugal looks beatable based on the first half of play.</p>
<p>How could something so right go so wrong with Portugal. I was hoping 1-1.</p>
<p>Portugal has a history to screwing up. Pepe did not help their cause, but they play Germany. I hope to be wrong as I would love the US to play the winner of the last group. </p>
<p>Coentrao out with what appears a bad groin injury. A nightmare in the making for Portugal. This is indeed the group of death. </p>
<p>what a horrible world cup for Portugal. </p>
<p>Wow! USA wins! Analysis?</p>
<p>Analysis: ****, yeah. 'Murica. </p>
<p>Ghana’s keeper is terrible. </p>
<p>I don’t think Germany has anything to worry about. </p>
<p>Yh I can say this loud…USA is just lucky today…the whole time we just had to fall back and defend…the Ghanians did good , just for their goalkeeper who is damn too terrible…</p>
<p>A win or tie against Portugal basically guarantees us a spot in the knock off round assuming Germany beats Ghana. That goal differential is really helping us now.</p>
<p>Good job Harrisson Ford!</p>
<p>USA strategy: hold the ball for 4 minutes, score twice. If they hold the ball for 2 minutes, maybe they’ll score 4 times. If they hold the ball for 0 minutes, they may score infinitely many. </p>
<p>Seriously though, it looked like a college team chasing around professionals. Every time the US got the ball, they passed it stupidly or badly. It was bad ball after bad ball. Ghana’s strategy was simple: use speed to get on the US players and take away their space. The standard way to counter that is to increase your spacing and to pass the ball quickly to the most open man so the defenders have to chase. The US instead held the ball, letting the Ghanians get on them, and then they’d dribble into defenders and make short passes that didn’t spread defenders at all. They couldn’t possess the ball because they didn’t space themselves for ball movement but instead either tried silly long passes and silly backwards touches or flips - low percentage tries at best - and formed tight triangles or other dense formations that let the Ghanians cover quickly. If you’re going to keep tight spacing, you had best be prepared for rapid ball movement … but they held it and dribbled. </p>
<p>Ghana had a ton of chances. Great US goalkeeping and some good defense in tight. Ghana hurt itself a lot by trying way too many long shots and really hard touches, like trying to convert a deflected, spinning ball into a shot on goal without settling the ball first. These are really difficult plays in practice when there’s no pressure. </p>
<p>BTW, it continues to amaze me that players drive the ball with the toe under the ball’s center. That pushes the ball up and curves it away in a slice. That usually pushes the ball over the net or wide and over. They know how to come over the ball so it rises and dips, so it has that topspin which makes it hard to grab and which causes rebounds and bounces around the net. That’s bad playing by guys who want to shoot no matter what.</p>
<p>^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^</p>
<p>You are absolutely right that Ghana had a ton of chances. Both teams made mistakes and heat may have been a factor. I have to salute the US defensivemen for bending but never breaking. A lot of US players had outstanding games. The Portugal match should be a close game.</p>
<p>Lergnom, it is very difficult to shoot low and hard… that’s why so many balls go high. It’s just the reality of the sport. The U.S. tried those long passes because we do not have the same talent that Ghana has. It is easy to say “just spread out and pass it around” but it is harder to do in practice. Also understand that increasing your spacing leaves you vulnerable on defense.</p>
<p>wow…</p>
<p>Bad:
<p>Good:
<p>Basically… this game was all the U.S. could’ve hoped for, except losing Altidore probably for the rest of the tournament.</p>