It was Bradley snatching a draw from well inside the stomach of victory. Somehow you understand he's taught the whole team how to choke. Correction: only one goal has to go the wrong way. Ghana go through with a win due to better total goals. Oofah, the US are awful. Trying to hang on for a nervy 1-0 loss in the hopes Ghana won't score. They need to play much more positively, because if it gets to 2-0 the whole thing could be out of reach very quickly. Erm, no. They'd still need only a goal, I think, since the 2-1 score would even the total goals and take it to the third tie breaker, which is head to head, which the US wins. If Ghana don't win by two. Awful corner, but what was really awful was that no one headed towards the goal. They just kept standing around fifteen yards away, apparently having a Kaffeeklatsch. US players can't get out of each other's way, quite literally.
Goalshot! Great soccer kick from Muller guy from outside the 12 yard zone to make it one to zero . He's now equalized Messy and Nightmare in the MVP stakes
My god he's been awful. TBF he was decent last game. "The US look leggy." They look like a team playing negatively, ruled by fear. That's what's making them lack energy, not fatigue. They're not even trying to attack. The next goal looks inevitable. Huge let off--ATM--Portugal score to go ahead. US ashamed to back in to the next round on the basis of this abject performance? Never in a million years! USA!, USA! goes round the stands. Another fine saving tackle from the US, though. They haven't done anything else, but they have done that. New player in! Great chance to cross! 4X farther than it should have gone.
I take back half the nasty things I ever said about the gelled tumbler. Can the US find a way to add drama at this point? You wouldn't think any other team could. Let it go Beasley. The rest of the team have showed good sportsmanship, it's no time to join the whining brigade now. "The US has earned it over three games." That's probably right. This is pretty wretched today, but the two earlier games were enthralling, gutty performances. And the US almost draws, twice. Dempsey over the bar with a very doable header. The US is through!
That has sorted out the GD scenario somewhat. Red button on standby to see CR7 "tears" immediately after FT.
Brazil V Chile Colombia V Uruguay Netherlands V Mexico Belgium?? V USA Decent set of games in the last 16 IMHO.
Well done to the yanks. ....... They haven't had many goal chances but their overall game plan of sitting deep worked. Keep it tight. Klinsmann drilled into them that they can't win the world cup and they have to be realistic, play to their strengths and battle through. All credit to them. Disappointed for Ghana but they had their chances. They should have beat Germany and had Portugal on the back foot and missed their chances but they are naive. Exciting but naive yet the Ghana Germany game for me has been the best so far and overall this was the toughest group and had the most interesting matches.
Yeah, it's too bad about Ghana. They would have been fun to see in the knockout stages. Give them credit for having a Ghanian coach, but someone with more international experience would very likely have been a wiser choice. It's hard on the African nations in general. Less money, less practice time, and much more chance of big distractions, as with Ghana today. I found myself disappointed the Ivory Coast went out as well, even though I kinda like Greece. It's hard not to root for the African countries. Nigeria and possibly Algeria left to carry African hopes. Good draw for both Belgium and the US, I think. Maybe the weakest qualifier against maybe the weakest first place team. Belgium's weakness at FB give the US hope.
Poor showing from the BBC: first they don't show the streaker, then they don't show us Cristiano Ronaldo bawling his eyes out like a toddler Also, I think somebody at the BBC is having a bet to see how many times he can use the letter e, as they had "Schuerrle" replacing "Oezil" during the match.
Yeah, it's too bad about Ghana. They would have been fun to see in the knockout stages. Give them credit for having a Ghanian coach, but someone with more international experience would very likely have been a wiser choice. It's hard on the African nations in general. Less money, less practice time, and much more chance of big distractions, as with Ghana today. I found myself disappointed the Ivory Coast went out as well, even though I kinda like Greece. It's hard not to root for the African countries. Nigeria and possibly Algeria left to carry African hopes. Good draw for both Belgium and the US, I think. Maybe the weakest qualifier against maybe the weakest first place team. Belgium's weakness at FB give the US hope. I'm over my disappointment about a rather tame effort today. The US has done very well with a bunch of Championship level players + Dempsey and Howard. Job well done, Klinsmann. They needed to be better conditioned and better organized than most of the other teams and they were.
Ronaldo should have at least had 2 more, and could've knocked USA out. RWAEB might not have liked it but that Ghana goal was important, I think. Had they not scored then Portugal's second would've got a totally different reaction as suddenly 2 goals in 10 minutes and they're through, and Ronaldo's picking the ball up and running back to half way determined, as it was he didn't even celebrate and just walked away. He's a great player but he's thrown a hump with the team and his attitude stank in all honesty. Congrats to the US though and I'm happy for Klinsmann. It seems like football could be at a real turning point in the USA this World Cup so it's great to see them doing well from a neutral perspective too.
