Though my natural sympathy for the underdog would normally lead me to favour a backward nation labouring under the burden of historical disadvantage, I’ll be “cheering for Ghana”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4853408.stm this afternoon.
{ 59 comments }
Fadzilah 06.22.06 at 9:16 am
That’s a post worthy of a grin so here goes :D
Go Ghana!
Chris Bertram 06.22.06 at 9:27 am
22 mins: GOAL Ghana 1-0 USA
Haminu Dramani scores to put Ghana in the lead
albert 06.22.06 at 9:32 am
I’m rooting for Ghana out of the hope that after the US is eliminated ESPN commentators stop taking 15 minutes of every break over-analyzing every move the US does and doesn’t make.
Arthur Davidson Ficke 06.22.06 at 9:45 am
I’m rooting for Ghana out of the hope that after the US is eliminated, we don’t have to have soccer stuffed down our throats for another 4 years.
Chris Bertram 06.22.06 at 9:51 am
USA equalized, but not for long …. 2-1
Rob 06.22.06 at 9:58 am
Well apparently the referee is rooting for Ghana as well.
Richard Bellamy 06.22.06 at 10:01 am
I didn’t see any foul there.
Just another example of Worldwide Ghanaian Hegemony influencing the soccer refs.
Richard Bellamy 06.22.06 at 10:03 am
I guess I should start locking my doors and boarding my windows soon. There may be rioting in the streets of Philadelphia when this one wraps up.
Richard Bellamy 06.22.06 at 10:07 am
More likely, though, it’ll be like the Mohammed cartoons, where the riots occur 6-12 months later, after the results finally filter into America.
Alex R 06.22.06 at 10:14 am
I’m an American who tunes in to soccer once every few years, and generally enjoys watching it when I do, but WTF?
The Ghanian diving squad seems to be doing quite nicely, but even if the penalty on which Ghana got its second point was valid, I’m a bit puzzled by a sport which, despite being quite low scoring, awards a “penalty kick” and a near-certain score for near-invisible infractions….
nick s 06.22.06 at 10:21 am
The American media have treated Ghana as if they don’t exist, let alone present a threat. In contrast, the British press appears to believe that the US is heading for a spanking. While it would be nice for the US team to progress, simply because there’s a nice window of interest now that the NBA and NHL finals are done, I’d be happier to see an African team progress. Especially one with this much raw talent.
I’m rooting for Ghana out of the hope that after the US is eliminated ESPN commentators stop taking 15 minutes of every break over-analyzing every move the US does and doesn’t make.
They’ll be doubtless plugging the first US qualifying match for 2010.
nick s 06.22.06 at 10:21 am
Also, the main topic of conversation was whether the Italy-Czech Rep match would be a 0-0 stitch-up. Um, no.
Filter 06.22.06 at 10:37 am
BTW, Italy was the victim of a pretty spectacular stitchup between Denmark and Sweden during 2004 European Cup. It’s interesting how usually well-behaved countries change their habits sometimes.
Rob 06.22.06 at 10:40 am
Why would any team want a stich up here? #2 in the group gets you Brazil.
Cryptic Ned 06.22.06 at 10:42 am
The Ghanian diving squad seems to be doing quite nicely, but even if the penalty on which Ghana got its second point was valid, I’m a bit puzzled by a sport which, despite being quite low scoring, awards a “penalty kick†and a near-certain score for near-invisible infractions….
I guess it’s like the exclusionary rule, where in a particular instance it leads to one party being obviously wronged for no reason at all, but in general it prevents even worse things from happening. Although I played soccer for 11 years, and could never figure out what those worse things would be. Wouldn’t a free kick from 10 yards in front of the goal be punitive enough?
Or why a team has to actually play a man down after a penalty. Isn’t ejecting the player enough.
In the NBA a referee can only decide a game if it’s basically a tie anyway (for example this year, the rule was “tie goes to the Heat”). But in soccer a referee can decide virtually any game.
fyreflye 06.22.06 at 10:46 am
Does Ghana have soccer moms?
David Weigel 06.22.06 at 10:56 am
It’s just as well that the USA is ousted from the World Cup. Having a country do well at a sport they care little about would be as unfair as the Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup.
Dan K 06.22.06 at 11:23 am
Re: the game between Sweden and Denmark 2004. Sorry, no conspiracy there. In fact, as a Swede, I would have been rather satisfied with eliminating the Danes, and I can assure you that most Danes feel the same, only stronger. And the Italians made for peculiar victims, first by being unable to score against Denmark, second by being unable to defend their lead against Sweden. Whatever happened to Italy in 2004, they brought it on themselves.
moriarty 06.22.06 at 11:52 am
Say what you want about the refs, but Team USA can make no excuses. Hell, does Bruce Arena even know what is best line-up is at this point?
Who looked best for this US this tournament: Dempsey? Cherundolo? Not golden boy Donovan.
Shelby 06.22.06 at 11:59 am
The penalty-kick call was a travesty. But. It turned a 1-1 game into a 2-1 game; the US needed to win, not tie, to advance. From the US perspective the call may underscore an apparent anti-US bias in the refereeing (and I’m with those who think the ejections in the Italy match were a joke) — but the US still didn’t do what it needed to against Ghana.
Also, what was Reyna thinking, to loft the ball deep in his own end, in overage time? Tip it out of bounds and play defense! The call may have been terrible, but wouldn’t have occurred but for that boneheaded move.
nick s 06.22.06 at 12:12 pm
If anything, it’ll be a sign of how the game has evolved to read stories on how Arena should get the boot. He made Svennis look like a tactical wizard.
Now it’s the Aussie Croatians against the Croatian Aussies. I bet there are a few divided homes in Sydney and Melbourne today.
nick s 06.22.06 at 12:26 pm
Why the criticism of the coach?
Because he left good players at home in favour of crocks; because the system he forced his players into sucked; because he didn’t make the substitutions and tactical changes that the situations required.
The betting markets had them favored to not advance past the first round.
Nor Côte D’Ivoire. But I bet they’re feeling a lot better about their performance. It’s one thing to go out trying.
Richard Bellamy 06.22.06 at 12:36 pm
We’re surprised they even made it to Germany. The betting markets had them favored to not advance past the first round. Everything went as expected.
No, the United States was ranked relatively highly this year. The U.S. got placed into a relatively difficult Bracket of 4 teams. There were several other possibilities where the U.S. would have been a favorite to advance. The betting markets had them favored not to advance, but a betting market that was taking bets, say, last month (before they got stuck with Ghana, Czech, and Italy), would have had the U.S. advancing to the Round of 16.
JakeBCool 06.22.06 at 12:42 pm
I agree that that penalty shot infraction was, well, maybe not an infraction, but as someone else pointed out, who cares? The US needed to win to advance no matter how the other game turned out.
And the Ghanians weren’t the only ones diving out there, even if the last few minutes of the game made me feel much less friendly towards them. In any case, they still have a lot to learn from Italy, Argentina, and Portugual wrt the thespian aspect of football.
moriarty 06.22.06 at 12:46 pm
In defense of Arena, some of the personnel issues the US face are due to the fact that they have no star players, no obvious picks. And it’s hard to get everyone on the same page when half the guys play in MLS and half in Europe (the seasons don’t coincide).
Also: I believe Freddy Adu hasn’t been capped yet and thus can choose to play for Ghana instead of the US. Let’s hope he wasn’t influenced by today’s match!
Sam 06.22.06 at 12:50 pm
As an American and a deeply, deeply devoted fan of soccer/football in all its permutations, I’m heart-broken to hear the derision directed at the USA team. They are a talented group of players victimized by a marginally competent coach and an almost entirely oblivious nation of non-fans. For the sake of the players, who are not America, merely a handful of Americans, I ask that in your delight at their loss, you muster up a little gratitude to them for playing as well as they knew how. Come on Les Bleus!
Ginger Yellow 06.22.06 at 12:51 pm
“Or why a team has to actually play a man down after a penalty. Isn’t ejecting the player enough.”
It only happens (or rather it’s only supposed to happen) when the foul leading to the penalty prevents a clear goal scoring opportunity. If there were no further punishment beyond the penalty, there would be no disincentive for fouling to prevent a goal. In fact, a rational player would always, for instance, handball rather than allowing a ball to cross the line.
P O'Neill 06.22.06 at 1:04 pm
Now it’s the Aussie Croatians against the Croatian Aussies
Which is bit like how the German Poles got the better of the Polish ones.
Slocum 06.22.06 at 1:43 pm
It’s just as well that the USA is ousted from the World Cup. Having a country do well at a sport they care little about would be as unfair as the Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup.
Which reminds me, the TdF starts soon…
Brian 06.22.06 at 1:46 pm
The situation with Germany and Poland isn’t quite analogous. All the Croatian-descent players on the Australian team were born in Australia, whereas I believe both German strikers were born in Poland. And of course a few players on the Croatian team were born in Australia.
Anyway, go green-and-gold Aussies!
Thlayli 06.22.06 at 3:30 pm
Who looked best for this US this tournament: Dempsey? Cherundolo? Not golden boy Donovan.
Either Clint Dempsey or Oguchi Onyewu.
Also: I believe Freddy Adu hasn’t been capped yet and thus can choose to play for Ghana instead of the US.
Nope, that was taken care of in a friendly earlier this year. Adu is committed now.
Doug T 06.22.06 at 4:07 pm
“I agree that that penalty shot infraction was, well, maybe not an infraction, but as someone else pointed out, who cares? The US needed to win to advance no matter how the other game turned out.”
But that’s ignoring the tactics of the game. YEs, the US needed a win, but the 1 goal lead allowed Ghana to hang back and play very defensively in the second half. Since Italy was winning their game, Ghana knew they only needed the single point to advance, and so had an effective 2 goal edge which meant packing it in was low risk.
If it’s a tie game, then a single US goal sends Ghana home, which means a defensive strategy is a lot riskier, and they probably play a bit more openly in the second half, and maybe give the US more opportunities.
I don’t know if it would have happened, given the inept US offense, but you can’t just assume that the penalty kick gave Ghana a goal without changing anything else about how the 2nd half would have played out.
So two highly questionable calls in 2 straight games sends the US packing. It was going to be an uphill fight anyway in such a tough group. But I wish the team could have at least gotten a fair shot in their games.
Michael Sullivan 06.22.06 at 4:07 pm
22 — The problem is that the US was really outclassed, and that wasn’t supposed to happen. If the US had beaten Ghana (as expected) and still not advanced from losing a tiebreaker, that would be one thing. If they had put up a better fight against the Czech’s, if their only goal vs. Italy had not been an opposing players own-goal…
The US played better than this in the 2002 cup, and had an excellent record in friendlies and qualifiers. The FIFA top-5 rating was a big overstatement, because the points system doesn’t sufficiently reward schedule strength and we won a lot of games vs. teams not strong enough to make the WC finals. But it was an indicator that the team was better than it ever has been. There was good reason to expect the US to have a shot against anybody in the draw. They were favorites to go home only because their group was the consensus choice as toughest in the draw: 2 other FIFA top-10 teams, and a pretty good Ghana team (most groups have at least one team with no chance vs. contenders). The US underperformed because in in at least one game, we looked like that “has no chance team”, and we didn’t play all that well in the others either. That’s better than 1998 where were really *were* the weak sister, but not by much.
radek 06.22.06 at 4:30 pm
Speaking of Croatians and Aussies, that was easily the worst refereed match so far, which makes all the talk of Ghanian penalty kicks, Italian dives and etc. seem like nothing. I mean, not showing a red after a yellow because you FORGOT you gave him another yellow previously? Where do they find these guys? England, apparantly.
Tom Scudder 06.22.06 at 4:42 pm
I’d say, at least in retrospect, the cote d’ivoire, argentina, netherlands, serbia group was tougher than the US’s group, but not by a lot.
Cryptic Ned 06.22.06 at 4:47 pm
Hey, the US group didn’t have a team with 0 points and a 2-10 goal differential.
epoh 06.22.06 at 4:56 pm
I’ll be rooting for Ecuador over England.
Screw England. Go underdog.
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:00 pm
I’ll be rooting for Ecuador over England.
F*ck England. Go underdog.
Cryptic Ned 06.22.06 at 5:02 pm
I have the feeling that epoh is leading up to something…
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:03 pm
The US had 1 point, not 0 points. A pathetically small difference, but relevant nonetheless.
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:03 pm
I’ll be rooting for Ecuador over England.
Give it a rest underdog, I’m having a smoke.
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:06 pm
Hey, did I mention that the ESPN coverage SUCKED?
I didn’t mention it?
Well, gee.
(ahem)
The ESPN coverage sucked big, fat Dutch dicks.
harry b 06.22.06 at 5:24 pm
epoh’s final point raises the following question: how can Americans learn to love a game which is covered by ninnies? For all I know Baseball, Football, etc, are also covered by half-wits who don’t know the game as well as I do, but I’d be very surprised if so. I know nothing about those games and slightly more than nothing about soccer, yet more, it seemd to me, than the espn commentators I heard (only in 2 games, I couldn’t stand it, and went for Univision — those guys really seemed to know what they were talking about, I just couldn’t understand them).
Cryptic Ned 06.22.06 at 5:28 pm
Soccer coverage in America is not as good as sumo coverage; at least the sumo announcer (Jack Edwards who was also a World Cup announcer 4 years ago) gets to prepare his remarks in advance.
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:32 pm
There are a couple of decent commentators on FSC. There’s a Scottish laird I’ve seen a few times, on chat shows and doing actual commentary during a game. Some of them have more than a passing knowledge.
But there’s no excuse for ESPN and ABC to have such complete morons covering the game. The main guy doing play-by-play this morning could barely speak, nevermind not understand the game beyond a basic level.
Here’s a trick: go to the UK, find a couple of decent commentators, and pay them a pot of money to move to The States and cover soccer full-time.
There, I solved it.
Kieran Healy 06.22.06 at 5:41 pm
Speaking of ninnies, how about the English referee in the Australia vs Croatia game?
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:43 pm
I missed the Ozzies v Croats, but I heard the ref was a right prat.
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:46 pm
I will be rooting for the Brits on Sunday. (My daughter’s nanny is from Ecuador, but I didn’t like her smug smile after she saw that the US was down 2-1 this morning.)
Oh, before I forget, Crouch is waste of cleats. Let Joe Cole, Lampard, and Wolcott carry St. George into the back of the net.
vice 06.22.06 at 5:50 pm
why was ben olsen in the game? why were donovan and beasley so awful? reyna’s giveaway was sunday league stuff… sorry, but i needed to let that go and, in closing, agree that the american TV coverage has been pretty bad – i’d like to punch out marcelo balboa -…
epoh 06.22.06 at 5:52 pm
One last comment.
I can’t help but think that the near-unanimous hatred of America around the world affected the refereeing of the US squad. The two red cards against the US in the Italy game were obvious crap calls. And the call leading to the PK for Ghana was also a crap call. Sure, other games and other countries have tasted the arbitrariness of the refs. But I can’t help but blame the whole thing on the idiot currently occupying the White House.
‘Nuff said.
Dell Adams 06.22.06 at 6:14 pm
Well, in 2002 the USA was unusually lucky with the referees’ calls, particularly in the Mexico and Italy games. That we got to the quarterfinals was a total fluke. Not everyone remembers that, I guess, which would explain the ludicrous media buildup this year’s team had.
Ginger Yellow 06.22.06 at 6:32 pm
“Here’s a trick: go to the UK, find a couple of decent commentators, and pay them a pot of money to move to The States and cover soccer full-time.”
Oi. Half our main commentators are already crap, so we can’t afford to lose the few decent ones we have.
“The two red cards against the US in the Italy game were obvious crap calls. And the call leading to the PK for Ghana was also a crap call.”
I didn’t see the Ghana game so I’m more than willing to accept that was a crap call, but all three red cards in the Italy match were perfectly justified., and pretty much inevitable following the guidance FIFA gave to referees about studs up tackles.
djw 06.22.06 at 7:49 pm
For all I know Baseball, Football, etc, are also covered by half-wits who don’t know the game as well as I do, but I’d be very surprised if so.
Harry, meet Peter Gammons…
mykej 06.23.06 at 1:56 am
ESPN did have an Irish(?) guy covering a few games. He was decent.
As for the American red cards in the Italy match, even Bruce Arena said they were justified. Of course, he’s a moron, so it’s still an open question.
dale 06.23.06 at 3:07 am
radek: “Where do they find these guys? England, apparantly.”
they grow them in england – it’s called the premiership. if you really, REALLY want to tear your eyes out of head and throw them at the screen, watch a season of english football.
epoh: “I can’t help but think that the near-unanimous hatred of America around the world affected the refereeing of the US squad.”
that’s right. it’s because they hate american freedoms.
morairty 06.23.06 at 10:14 am
As another commenter mentions, the US was fairly lucky in 2002 to get through with four points and then to meet Mexico in the round of 16 (they know how to play against Mexico).
Also, IIRC, in 1994 they made it through as the third place team in their initial group of four. The setup was different then.
Team USA wasn’t as good as their results in 94 or 02, and perhaps not as bad as they played in 98 or 06.
JakeBCool 06.23.06 at 11:31 am
doug1- okay, you may be right; peace.
harry- I’ve just been watching Univision, as you noted. I only understand about one word in a hundred, but the chatter makes a pleasing backdrop to the game. It seems to me that who-can-say-the-most-stupid-things competitions are common at least in US sports television–I remember egregious examples in both the NHL and NBA finals from last week.
I’m American but was not sorry to see the US go down to defeat because of 1) a compulsion to cheer the underdog, and 2) the mortifying behavior that US athletes show in international arenas. I know it isn’t fair to assume our soccer team will get up to the same kind of idiocy, but my fear makes me weak.
peter 06.23.06 at 1:59 pm
harry b,
Competent coverage is not a pre-req in America. Watch game 7 of the Edmonton-Carolina NHL playoff final series. There was a botched call at the end of the 1st period, and the announcers failed to sort out the issues involved in any sort of clear, competent way.
The botched call went against the Canes (Edmonton got away with a serious infraction). But that’s OK: instant karma was subsequently served.
nick s 06.23.06 at 7:56 pm
how can Americans learn to love a game which is covered by ninnies?
I do think this is a problem when trying to establish a sport on television. Heck, even ESPN’s interminable poker coverage has identifiable voices, but the most famous footie commentator in the US is Andres Cantor, who doesn’t even broadcast in English. Perhaps Dave O’Brien is placing an early bet on becoming the American Motty, but learning on the job isn’t ideal.
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