They did it once, they did it twice, even three times for awhile, but the US National Team failed to come from behind as they fell to Ghana 2-1 in overtime Saturday.
For the third time in this tournament, the US fell behind from an early goal, having to chase that game-tying goal just to stay alive in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In the fifth minute of action, former Houston Dynamo Ricardo Clark gave up the ball carelessly in the middle of the field. The rest of the US defense was slow to react to the ball, and Ghanaian striker Boateng put his shot past the outstretched arms of Tim Howard.
The US couldn’t get any offense going in the fist half, as Ghana dominated possession early and often. But the second half was a change of fortunes for the Americans, as they began to push the tempo of the game and control the possession.
The Americans received a break in the 62nd minute when they were
rewarded a penalty from a poor defense tackle on Clint Dempsey. Landon
Donovan came up to take the shot, as he’s done successfully over the
years for the US, and nailed it just off the right post.
The US had
leveled the game at 1-1 and had momentum on their side.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the go-ahead goal in regulation and
the teams had to go to overtime. In the third minute of overtime, poor
defending once again helped Ghana take the lead. On a fluke aerial pass,
Asamoah Gyan bounced off US captain Carlos Bocanegra and shot a rifling
ball over Howard to make it 2-1 Ghana.
The US tried to comeback yet again, but failed to knock in the
equalizer. Hell, they couldn’t even get control of the ball.
When the
final whistle blew, many of the American players stayed on the field,
knowing that they blew a chance to make the semifinals for the first
time since the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
Key questions now face the US squad going into the next four years.
First, there’s the question of Bob Bradley’s job; did he do a good
enough job in this his four years as coach? Most people would argue that
he didn’t, that he never had a real style of play for this team.
But
it’s kind of hard to argue with results. Under Bradley, the US made it
to the finals of Confederations Cup in 2009, and made it to the knockout
stage of World Cup.
But I would argue that US can still do better. The
time is right for the US to go out and find a coach that can lead this
team to loftier expectations. The US Soccer Federation needs to go out
and find a European coach than can install a good offensive style of
play with this team; they need to stay away from hiring another
MLS-based coach.
Then there’s the question of age. Donovan and Dempsey will be in their
30s for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, so will most of the core group on
defense and so too will Howard. There are some promising youngsters like
Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Stuart Holden, Benny Feilhaber, Michael
Bradley, and Jonathan Spector; and don’t count out Freddy Adu just yet.
Will the right coach bring in a young group of players to the national
team in the coming four years, or will he rely on this aging group and
fail miserably in 2014, like France and Italy did this year?
Although the dream is over for the US, Ghana will look to become the
first African team to reach the semifinals when they face Uruguay on
Friday.
Hmm, makes you wonder just how bad an opportunity the US just
squandered to make the semifinals.
What could have been.
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.