<p>Bradley was terrible. It wasn’t that he was MIA but that he seemed so intent on maintaining his positioning that he’d turn his back on plays or give up on balls where the US needed pressure. We could argue about strategy but the US made no effort to reverse the ball across the field and the essence of tight spaced ball control is ball movement. But then they were passing so poorly, ball movement wasn’t likely no matter.</p>
<p>I can’t evaluate some things because going up in 30 seconds meant going into a shell made sense. It made sense to keep Ghana out of the middle and they limited Ghana to a few plays in the box - and Ghana played into that, as teams so often do. I also can understand not challenging as much on the wings deep because the US seemed intent on avoiding giving up corners. And I could sort of understand the relative unwillingness to challenge balls hard outside the box to avoid free kicks. All because we went up on that one play. </p>
<p>If I were Ghana, I’d have forced the ball into the middle on crosses more. Force corners at the least. Hope for something bouncing around.</p>
<p>We thought the US was lucky as well. I agree that it all depends on whether Portugal gets its act together. But even if the US gets out, I don’t think it’s going too far–the differences in quality of play are apparent.</p>
<p>Tough room. US did enough things correctly, including great play by Howard and Jones. Ghana had poor crosses. If Bradley can get it together, I’m feeling good about Portugal despite Altidore’s loss.</p>
<p>This game was a lot like countless others in various sports…the underdog gets ahead and the inevitable onslaught begins. The other team has chance after chance and everybody expects a score to tie it up at any moment. They finally score and it changes things dramatically. What often happens next is the scoring team grabs the momentum and scores again and again. </p>
<p>But not this time. </p>
<p>Now Portugal has to face a German-coached team right after playing a German team. How will we stop Ronaldo and who will be our offensive threats?</p>
<p>I just read that Brooks could not believe it when he scored because two nights ago he dreamed he would score the winning goal off a corner kick in the 80th minute. </p>
<p>One surprise thus far is how poorly the African teams are playing. The conditions should favor them as they are usually superior athletes. Yet,they have not dominated physically and play without much intelligence against lesser teams. Even the winning Ivorians looked lost during the games. Those teams usually play a lot better against stronger teams. </p>
<p>For the US, the game against Portugal will be key. Totally unpredictable. </p>
<p>I agree with YDS. Lost forward, lost CB, still got the win. I don’t think we’ll ever see Michael Bradley have another game that bad, win or not in the future.</p>
<p>Except for Jones, the US players gassed badly during the second half. Too strenuous the past few days? I thought Johansson, the replacement for Altidore, was just about useless, and having him really hurts their chances of scoring again in this tournament. Even during a poor game Bradley is still the best US player.</p>
<p>Let’s not forget, Ghana was ranked 37 in the world, Portugal 4 and Germany 2. These next two games should be ugly losses but I will still be rooting hard for our guys.</p>
<p>Would have preferred having Landon sub in for Altidore rather than listen to his commenting. Maybe he was just petrified, but he was really awful. </p>
<p>I’m with YDS too, jeez people, we WON! Lighten up a little. </p>
<p>S2 had several friends from his HS soccer team over to watch the game. Fun to listen to them watching the game!</p>
<p>Tough game for Belgium with a very defensive Algeria. Nice to hear the commentaries on ESPN. Martinez and Ruud are very good and know the game. Belgium is a team that feasts on the counter and needs space to showcase its talent. They do not look good when having to stick to a slow developing game. They do not like to shoot long crosses in the box, except on free kicks. They might have tried it more often in the first half. But it is easy to call the game from the couch! </p>
<p>After work, ds2 went to a wings place to watch with soccer teammates from HS. He said the place was packed and went nuts when we scored the winning goal.</p>
<p>Brazil and Mexico looked like they had settled down toward the end of the half. The beginning was frenetic.</p>
<p>This is the funniest game. I love seeing the Mexican player riding on the Brazilian player like riding on a camel.
And many other funny situations. Everyone laughed.</p>
<p>Or when the two Mexican players were tangling with a Brazilian causing him to fall out of bounds. The Mexican closest to the ball slyly tapped it off the Brazilian player’s feet to get the throw in.</p>
<p>I was blown away by how badly Brazil’s defense played at times. That’s becoming a real weakness. Lots of great scoring chances for both teams. </p>
<p>If Germany beats Ghana, they’re through and that focuses it all on US-Portugal because Ghana can only muster 3 points total if they beat Portugal. To my eyes, if the US can tie Portugal and keep it close versus Germany, they’ll be through even if Portugal beats Ghana because Portugal was so awful versus Germany. </p>
<p>Brazil has not looked impressive at all so far.</p>
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<p>The U.S. roster lacks almost any strong players in their mid-late 20s, what should be the prime of their world cup careers, in their 2nd or 3rd world cups. Instead we have people like Bradley, Besler, Cameron, Gonzalez, Zusi, and Bedoya. What should be the “heart” of our team has first time world cup players primarily from MLS. Bradley is the exception, but even he moved back to MLS and is apparently not willing to challenge himself.</p>
<p>Our older players that are supposed to provide the leadership and experience of “been there done that”… Howard (yes), Beasley (outmatched badly at this level), Jones (yes), Davis (no), Beckerman (no), Wondolowski (no), Dempsey (if he can play better than he did in the first game).</p>
<p>The fact is we are just not very good, but hopefully we can be a team that plays better than it should on paper.</p>