GO USA!!!
Posted on 06/26/2010 12:21:22 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
RUSTENBURG, South Africa — For other countries, a second-round World Cup match is a big step. For the United States, Saturday's game against Ghana is so much more.
The television audience back home could top the U.S. national team record of 13.7 million, set during the 1994 World Cup loss to Brazil.
With a victory, the Americans would advance to a quarterfinal matchup versus Uruguay or South Korea on July 2 and match the farthest the U.S. team has advanced since the first World Cup in 1930. Confidence is soaring.
"If we continue to build on the successes so far, we can go to the end," coach Bob Bradley said Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
GO USA!!!
Criswell predicts ... a 0-0 tie at 90 minutes.
I suppose some people enjoy soccer.
Expert from Germany’s biggest soccer magazine called “Kicker” just predicted USA 3 Ghana 1 on the German morning television.
Fond hope.
Lessee now. What else does this year have in common with 1994? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?
If the US loses this game, does that mean I won’t have to read about soccer again for another four years? Or will they get another chance?
Somehow I doubt USA losing will cure your ills.
Could we say the same about American ‘football’ ?
Unfortunately Ghana are a better team than the US. Ghana will win with a few to spare.
Ghana-U.S. game rates as even
By Nate Silver
Special to ESPN.com
We've been rather happy with the performance of the Soccer Power Index thus far; it predicted, for instance, the ascendency of the South American teams that we saw in the group stages, as well as the fact that both France and Italy were vulnerable.
Now that we're in the knockout stages, the football should speak for itself, and I don't think anybody should be particularly concerned about what a computer program says. With that said, here is how SPI views the probability of each team advancing into the quarterfinals.
Ghana (51 percent) versus United States (49 percent). I've written about this matchup in more detail at my blog, but for those of you who are wondering why SPI sees this game as a toss-up even though the USA ranks considerably higher in SPI overall, there are two reasons.
First, we're still giving Ghana a bonus for playing on its home continent. If you removed that bonus, the United States would be about a 60-40 favorite. Since the African teams have been underwhelming in this tournament, I can empathize with the point of view that this bonus is undeserved. That said, there was pretty clear evidence of the home-continent effect in past tournaments -- certainly in both 2002 and 2006 -- and if it were going to have an impact, you'd think it might be here, with Ghana being the lone remaining representative of Africa.
Secondly, SPI's match predictions are based not strictly on a team's overall score, but instead on the two component rankings that we generate, for offense/attack and defense. This is a very skilled and entertaining United States team, but also a very attack-oriented one that sometimes can be too liberal about providing opponents with scoring opportunities, especially early in the game. While the USA rates eighth in the world in goal scoring, according to SPI, it is just 38th in goal prevention. The reason this matters is that we found in developing SPI that the defense rating tends to be somewhat more accentuated in games against other strong teams, especially under knockout conditions where the game could go to penalties. It's not a huge deal by any means -- and I certainly do not think the United States should change its approach to the game -- but there are definitely scenarios in which the U.S. plays great football but loses 2-1 by giving Ghana (whose attack has been somewhat disoriented) a chance or two it doesn't deserve.
In relative terms, this is obviously a pretty favorable draw for the United States -- avoiding the major world powers, particularly Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Holland, until at least the semifinals. But that doesn't mean, in absolute terms, that it's going to be easy; nothing is easy in the knockout stages of the World Cup. If the back four play as well as they did against Algeria, the U.S. should be in good shape, but if the team takes the match for granted, it could be in trouble.
AND here is England versus Germany, which backs the German claim that Germany is the underdog:
England (55 percent) versus Germany (45 percent). Germany has the right to curse its luck a little, having played fairly solid soccer in the group stages but drawing England and then potentially Argentina in the quarterfinal. Nevertheless, it's England that SPI sees as the very slight favorite to advance. If there's a concern for England, it shouldn't be about the goal Robert Green let in against the United States (especially since he's been replaced by David James) but rather that player fitness has been a bit questionable, which could be problematic if the game goes to extra time (never exactly an English specialty). This game should live up to its billing, and someone will go home very unhappy.
“First, we’re still giving Ghana a bonus for playing on its home continent.”
Because of this there is a high chance that USA will get a poorly offciated game (again). - IMO.
Yes. It means that instead of being forced to read about soccer on a site ironically named Free Republic, you’ll be forced to read threads about other topics.
I suppose some people enjoy watching padded Rugby. What's your point?
Go USA!
“a very attack-oriented one that sometimes can be too liberal about providing opponents with scoring opportunities, especially early in the game.”
Nah, I don’t think so. The best thing that happened to us last game was the shot off the crossbar because it woke up our defense. Defense in these big games is more a mental thing, i.e not burning out by worrying about making a mistake balanced against being motivated to play at ones best.
I think our defense will be up for the game and against the author’s point, I don’t think our midfielders will go into the attack too early. We’ll be happy to have just the two forwards and any of the one midfielders carrying the ball forward.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.