2006 FIFA World Cup

[sohotrightnow]

Yes!!!!!!!! Goaaaaaalllllll!!!!!!! Dempsey ties it up with a blast after a cross from Beasley.

[cjwilhelmi]

Penalty Kick for Ghana

[cjwilhelmi]

2-1 Ghana

[sohotrightnow]

That was the worst call of the World Cup by far. Please show me the foul that took place. Ridiculous.

[JosueSays]

That was a pretty terrible call... But the US is playing a lot better now so there's still hope as long as they continue pushing the ball on offense and not do what they were doing for the first 20 minutes of the game. Great first goals by both teams and i have to admit that it was a TERRIBLE call... No penalty was warranted!

And about time Damarcus Beasley did something, geeze...


half time

[Brent Burns]

Why did the ref from Germany determine that Ghana should get the penalty kick? What did Gooch do? On the MatchCast, I saw a red whistle which I immediately knew that a penalty kick was coming, Aaaaargh.

US better clamp down on Ghana and score a few more goals knowing that their friends, Italy is up one goal over Czechs.

[Sonny]

online stats show 14 fouls for Ghana and only 7 for the US.

[sohotrightnow]

Gooch and one of Ghana's players went up for a header but the player from Ghana acted as if Gooch pulled him down. However, as replays show, his arms were by his side, thus it was virtually impossible for Gooch to pull him down.

[Brent Burns]

online stats show 14 fouls for Ghana and only 7 for the US.

Yep, Ghana also was given 2 yellow cards and US only got one. I am able to watch TV in the lobby and could see that the Ghana players are a little bit more aggressive than the US. There was one play that I thought the ref should have given either a yellow card or a red card when a Ghana player and one US player jumped for a header, and our guy got elbowed behind the ear. Did anyone see that, too?

[sohotrightnow]

The U.S. simply is not very good at soccer and Bruce Arena is not a very good coach. They need to get a foreign coach to shake things up and teach them how to play aggressively. Landon who? This is the best player we have? We need more players like Clint Dempsey in my opinion. He is a threat to score and creates chances, which is more than I can say for Donovan. Pathetic.

[Brent Burns]

The U.S. simply is not very good at soccer and Bruce Arena is not a very good coach. They need to get a foreign coach to shake things up and teach them how to play aggressively. Landon who? This is the best player we have? We need more players like Clint Dempsey in my opinion. Pathetic.

With Ghana's 32 fouls compared to US's 15 fouls, I could see that their fouling really disrupted the US offensive plays. Our players also CAN NOT FINISH their shots. There were even some needless fouls done on our part. I don't really see a lot of heart coming from our players. That penalty near the end of half time really killed us eventhough most of us disagreed with that call.

[sohotrightnow]

Yes, the penalty kick was heartbreaking, however, they shouldn't simply give up. Did Arena even fire them up at halftime? He seems way too laid back. They did have some chances in the second half, particularly the header off the post by McBride I believe. That being said, how many outside shots did we take this entire World Cup? 0? 1? Every team I have watched has at least attempted a long-range kick, and not surprisingly, a couple of them have gone in.

[JosueSays]

The U.S. simply is not very good at soccer and Bruce Arena is not a very good coach. They need to get a foreign coach to shake things up and teach them how to play aggressively. Landon who? This is the best player we have? We need more players like Clint Dempsey in my opinion. He is a threat to score and creates chances, which is more than I can say for Donovan. Pathetic.

I agree with most of this except for the part about the US not being very good at soccer. They're good but they lack the right direction(Bruce Arenas) and they need to know when to take out your stars. Aragones, el sabio from Spain's team, has RAUL sitting on the bench and if you don't know Raul is one of the world's most famous and respected soccer players! ANy coach from ANY sport has to know that you put in who's playing the best and not thinking about status or past accomplishments. What matters is the game you're playing! Saying that, Landon Donovan should have been on the bench at the start of at least the last two games and Eddie lewis should have been playing in ALL three (he hasgreat vision, good technical skills, good crosses, and the desire to win... Something that Donovan wasn't portraying AT ALL)

The one player i feel quite badly for is Mcbride who didn't get as much action as he should have (i think he performed great) which is partially because of Bruce Arenas not pushing up another forward!! IF your best player, who is also playing the best, is not in the game as much because he's not getting enough help... MAKE SURE HE GETS THE HELP!! He should have thrown that 4-5-1 into the freakin' garbage because it didn't do anything to help out the US! 4-4-2 would have greatly helped the US side as their midfield was way too cluttered anyway and they weren't using the 4-5-1 to it's advantage (spreading out the whole field). Overall, I think the US, under a better Coach, could have easily gone into the next round and played a good game against Brazil. As much as I respect and like Ghana, their defense will not stand a chance against Brazil. I'm not expecting much from them in that game...

How frustrating!

[StrykerFSU]

I second, "Landon who?" I guess it was true that he came back to MLS because he couldn't hack it in Europe. What a punk.

[bste_lax]

Dempsey was the only player I was really impressed with for the US this world cup.