I’m just pointing out factors that help the American chances. Is Portugal still a good team? Yes. Does Portugal still have an advantage in talent? Yes. Is Ronaldo playing against the US and capable of creating goals almost single handedly? Yes!
US still has a hell of a climb in order to get out of the group stage. But the mountain is now more of a hill now. Sure it’s an easier path to the top, but the sides are still steep and the hill is still tall.
I saw some signs they could come out dispirited against the US. But Portugal could just as easily come out pissed off and angry and take their frustration out on the US. I could be reading too much into their play. There’s also lots of time to regain their mental balance and refocus between now and Sunday.
Still there’s no denying that a -4 GD for Portugal and them being down some players does nothing but improve the Yank’s chances. Let’s see how the game against Ghana goes. If US draws or worse loses OR if they look shaky in a win vs Ghana, then my optimism will drop below where it was prior to the Germany-Portugal game.
US may not be the most talented team in the world, let alone the group. But US has been headed in the right direction under Jurgen. USA’s beaten Mexico (@ Mexico), beaten Italy, and beaten Germany in recent years. Being ranked in the top 15 in the world is not exactly something to sneeze at.
It’s the World Cup, strange things happen. Shoot, who saw Costa Rica beating Uruguay 3-1? Netherlands 5-1 over Spain? Or France and Italy bowing out in the group stage in 2010?
With that huge goal differential against Portugal at the moment the US has a shot at 1-1-1 especially if Germany doesn’t bother killing us. Lots of football yet to be played. US has to take care of business tonight any way you cut it. It is their best shot at three points.
The only thing that made Italy’s exit bearable was that France went out too.
Was the only time in my memory(was 5 in 74), that Italy failed to get out of the group stage.
It is something I never want repeated.
First goalless 45 mins.
Typical that I get to sit and watch a whole game in peace. And it is shit.
With that huge goal differential against Portugal at the moment the US has a shot at 1-1-1 especially if Germany doesn’t bother killing us. Lots of football yet to be played. US has to take care of business tonight any way you cut it. It is their best shot at three points.
The thing is US has lost two times in a row to Ghana. I guess that is why, I not as optimistic as all of you seem to be.
I guess, tonight, will tell us a lot.
With that huge goal differential against Portugal at the moment the US has a shot at 1-1-1 especially if Germany doesn’t bother killing us. Lots of football yet to be played. US has to take care of business tonight any way you cut it. It is their best shot at three points.
The thing is US has lost two times in a row to Ghana. I guess that is why, I not as optimistic as all of you seem to be.
I guess, tonight, will tell us a lot.
Please don’t start looking at past history and success . . . US doesn’t have a lot of that! :lol:
In all seriousness, yes Ghana’s a tough team. But just because they’ve eliminated us twice doesn’t mean a 3rd time will follow.
@wittmann:
The only thing that made Italy’s exit bearable was that France went out too.
Was the only time in my memory(was 5 in 74), that Italy failed to get out of the group stage.
It is something I never want repeated.
I really wish US was there in soccer. Ha, usually we have group exits. Still US has been improving in the past 20-30 years. Been in every WC since 1990, granted we usually don’t do much once we get there. :|
That was quick!
Whooo! GOAL!
USA! USA! USA! USA!
With that huge goal differential against Portugal at the moment the US has a shot at 1-1-1 especially if Germany doesn’t bother killing us. Lots of football yet to be played. US has to take care of business tonight any way you cut it. It is their best shot at three points.
The thing is US has lost two times in a row to Ghana. I guess that is why, I not as optimistic as all of you seem to be.
I guess, tonight, will tell us a lot.
Please don’t start looking at past history and success . . . US doesn’t have a lot of that! :lol:
In all seriousness, yes Ghana’s a tough team. But just because they’ve eliminated us twice doesn’t mean a 3rd time will follow.
@wittmann:
The only thing that made Italy’s exit bearable was that France went out too.
Was the only time in my memory(was 5 in 74), that Italy failed to get out of the group stage.
It is something I never want repeated.I really wish US was there in soccer. Ha, usually we have group exits. Still US has been improving in the past 20-30 years. Been in every WC since 1990, granted we usually don’t do much once we get there. :|
I know US is improving, but it is slower than I would like.
I mean, I played in the late 70’s and early 80’s as a kid, when the US was not even thought of in the World Cup, and I know it is going to take time, but I hope I’m alive to see them go to the finals, at least once in my life, LOL. :-D
You played football? I am surprised. Happy, but surprised.
I have never been good at sports. Hated PE at school.
Spent my last years at school dreaming about AD&D and planning castle building.
Losing Altidore could really hurt the US in this game and moving forward. I’m really hoping he’s good for Portugal! We don’t have a lot of experienced depth at forward outside of Dempsey.
It wasn’t always pretty, but US comes away with 3 very important points. They showed some resiliency in responding to the equalizer late in the game.
Injuries to Bessler and Altidore are some big question marks moving forward. I think US will miss Altidore more as I saw a big difference to the US attack once he went out. I’m also worried about how many unforced errors US had throughout the game. Bad passes and some bad decisions really cut down on possession time and didn’t really give the defense and midfield much time to reset after Ghanian possession.
The US squad doesn’t have a ton of WC experience, so I’m hoping those jitters settle down moving forward. We’ll have a tough time beating or drawing Germany and Portugal if we give them that much possession and that many chances.
I think I’m just starting to breathe again . … but my heart is still racing. Oh geez, I was so worked up throughout that game. Especially the last 20 minutes or so . . . be still my heart.
@wittmann:
You played football? I am surprised. Happy, but surprised.
I have never been good at sports. Hated PE at school.
Spent my last years at school dreaming about AD&D and planning castle building.
I played from 3rd Grade through 8th Grade. which is junior high, and on my senior year in high school, I played in a city league.
The first team I was on was called the Blue Angels. We were horrible and didn’t know anything about football, but quickly learned. Of course, here in the States, we called it soccer.
This was only one of two losing seasons I was to have.
The next season, I joined a team called the Blazers. Our first two seasons we got second place in our city league.
The next 4 seasons, were remarkable.
We won 4 championships in a row.
For the first seven seasons I played a defense. We were feared for our tenacity at defense, especially the four years we won, but as a defensemen, we never got the praise the forwards got, but without a defense we couldn’t of won that many championships in row.
I got tired of not getting any respect, so I changed teams.
You know as a kid, you always want to be a goal scorer, but I didn’t get that opportunity till my 8th season, then I joined a new called the Stompers.
I finally got my break as a forward. I played on both winged positions on either side. I was called the, “setup man,” and was very good at it. I would set people up to score, but because I was a forward, I finally was in position to scores, as well, for the team.
I played for 4 seasons with this team, and we went to the championship every year against the same team and they beat us three times in a row, until the fourth year and we finally beat them.
I was finishing 8th grade when I won my fifth championship and was not eligible to play again. This was 1984.
I was so sad because football(soccer) wasn’t available in high school, in Paris, at the time. Only the big cities, in Texas, had high school soccer, at the time, then something special happened my senior year.
A city league opened up in Paris, Texas for high schoolers. I was barely eligible to play, because 18 years old was the maximum age, you could play.
We were used as test subjects for possible high school soccer teams. We had to play well enough against big city teams, like Dallas and Houston, Texas, in order to be granted a high school soccer program.
That last year I played, our record was 5-6-1, not quite at .500 wins, but we managed to defeat some Dallas teams, enough to earn a soccer program for Paris High School and to this day, because of how well we played, they have a soccer program, still to this day. A few years after that, my high school, North Lamar, got a program a well.
Even though, I never got to play soccer in high school, my team was instrumental, in 1988, for getting my town soccer programs that have survived even till this day.
That is something, I’m real proud of. :-D
Well guys, I heard we won, but we had some hurt players. At least we avenged against Ghana.
I wish I could have seen it, but I’m busy all this week. :-)
Glad you won guys.
Thank you very much John Brown for the answer. You are right to be proud too.
I hope you get to see more of the US’ games.
That was a heck of game for the US. I scared the crap out of my cats cheering after that header to retake the lead. I certainly agree on US needing to keep possession more going forward. Lots of sloppy passing and just couldn’t keep the ball. But the strategy might be just to play D and look for opportunities in transition because they don’t have the skills forward. I really hope Altidore can come back.
Ghana is a good team. If Portugal and Germany are as good as billed I certainly see why that group was labeled “Group of Death.”
Germany sure looked as good as advertised against Portugal. :-D
For most of the game it seemed the best Ghana defense was USA’s attack. We looked pretty good attacking to start the game. I wonder how much the injury of Altidore and then Dempsey getting kicked in the face played into it. Maybe the team didn’t have much confidence in their forwards after those events? And maybe the team relaxed with the goal lead and figured they did their job and now they just had to hold on? Course that early goal was akin to kicking the hornet’s nest. Once Ghana got over the shock, they turned it on.
I scared my cats as well on that late goal! I ran around my place screaming my head off.
@wittmann:
Glad you won guys.
Thank you very much John Brown for the answer. You are right to be proud too.
I hope you get to see more of the US’ games.
Glad you like the story. After this week, I should be able to watch more games. Hopefully US can survive Portugal, and I hope we get our guys healthy again, in time for Germany. They look very strong in the highlight reels on the sports news.
They do look the best so far.
Mueller over exaggerating his injury and getting Pepe sent off, has really angered people in Italy. My dad is over there at the moment and that is all he went on about!
Can only hope something like that comes back to bite them on the arse.
I hate cheating and it is rife in football. (Like corruption from the top down.)
