USA-Ghana = US a'goner

I was going to post this bit with the rationale last night, but Idecided it was too negativist and "anti-American". Now, that it'sover, I can be journalistic (though I prefer striving for prophetic).

The ESPN hype on this one was that this was to be "the biggest game in the history of American soccer" (sometimes they forgot to includethe modifier before soccer). This was bunk, as actually Ghana hadmore "to play for" than the USA in this one. For Ghana, indeed,this was the biggest day ever in the history of their participationin the sport.

For the USA, these five-and-a-half games in recent history all had a greater opportunity for glory:
1. USA vs. Germany, quarterfinals, 2002 (good effort but 0-1loss)
2. USA vs. Brazil, round of 16, 1994 (lost to a second halfgoal 0-1 while a man up)
3. USA vs. Mexico, round of 16, 2002 (a win!)
4. USA vs. Portugal, first round, 2002 (a win!)
5. (tie) USA vs. Czech, USA vs. Italy, first round, 2006 (onecrushing defeat, one moral victory/draw).

The USA was playing for, at best, a tainted prize: an almost-certainsecond round matchup against Brazil, if they won, if Italy won.Ghana was basically going through with a draw, and actually had achance to win the group. Instead, they will (let's go out on alimb) get Brazil, playing without their best player, Michael Essien,who will miss a game for two yellow cards. A dubious prize, but for fans of The Black Knights of Ghana, they will just be happy to beseeing them (one might notice many boners, or possibly rolls offifty-cent pieces (do such exist?) in Ghanaian pants that day); they will be the only African team going forward, too, unless something bizarre happens for Tunisia.
Bottom line: no surprise here. All along, it looked as though theUSA would need a win against Ghana to go through and the Ghanaianscould be expected to be tough. The USA has a terrible record in thethird game of the opening round, and in any game in the World Cupplayed in Europe (the draw with Italy being their best result ever).Ghana's total surprise win over Czech made sure they would havemotivation at least equal to the USA's.The game itself was pretty good, a doubtful Penalty Kick decidingit, but as indicated, the game didn't determine the USA's fate.That was pretty much decided when they drew the group positionsmonths ago.