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Live Blog United States

Liveblog/open thread: #USA v #GHA

June 26, 2010 — by Suman — 17

[Final score: Ghana 2, USA 1 Ghana advances to the quarterfinals, where they will face Uruguay. An African team continues on in this the first African World Cup.] The one we've all been waiting for (well, for all of the last 3 days, since The Goal). Again, we won't be doing min-by-min, play-by-play commentary (for that, we recommend the Guardian or NYT's Goal blog). We're about 20m from kickoff. Starting lineups below, live entries coming up after the jump. We're going to make a run around the corner to our local Brooklyn bodega for some refreshments, and to look in on the local soccer scene (Scopello, Mullanes, Der Schwarzer Kolner). We should be back on by kickoff.. Starting lineups: Unitd States: 1-Tim Howard; 6-Steve Cherundolo, 15-Jay DeMerit, 12-Jonathan Bornstein, 3-Carlos Bocanegra; 10-Landon Donovan, 4-Michael Bradley, 13-Ricardo Clark, 8-Clint Dempsey; 17-Jozy Altidore, 20-Robbie Findley. Ghana: 22-Richard Kingson; 4-John Pantsil, 8-Jonathan Mensah,

Liveblog (or open thread?): Uruguay (#uru) v South Korea (#kor)!

June 26, 2010 — by Suman — 7

And here we go..doesn't it feel like a whole new tournament is starting today? The past 2 weeks were prologue; the most important time in history is now, the present(*). All eyes here in the US are looking forward to the 2nd match of the day, USA v Ghana (kickoff 2:30pm ET). But we here at CultFootball HQ are nearly as excited about Uruguay v South Korea. Why? Well, the Korean branch of the CultFootball fam is both numerous and uncompromising in its support of the Reds. And on the other hand, this CultFootballer is, among all the South American teams, partial to Uruguay, for reasons both personal and historical. We are about 15minutes from kickoff.

Photo of the day: Spanish eyes on the World Cup (via guardian.co.uk aka @gdnworldcup)

June 26, 2010 — by Suman

Fans watch the World Cup Group H match between Spain and Chile on a large screen outside the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid

Tactics

Uruguay v South Korea preview – by @Zonal_Marking

June 26, 2010 — by Suman

Lifted from Zonal Marking's very readable, must-read second round preview: Uruguay v South Korea Uruguay have been one of the most impressive teams so far – playing for and achieving a draw against France, destroying South Africa and recording a solid 1-0 victory over Mexico. They started the competition with a 3-5-2 shape, which became more like a 5-3-2 when the wing-backs had to contain France’s wingers. They’ve since switched to a 4-3-1-2 with Diego Forlan playing behind the main two forwards, and they’ll surely play the same formation after their two wins. South Korea’s first XI is fairly predictable. The only changes they’ve made so far have been at right-back, bringing in Oh Bum-Suk against Argentina – but he was the worst player on the pitch, so Cha Du-Ri has regained his place. The formation will probably be 4-2-3-1. Playing Park Ji-Sung on the left-hand side might be useful

Tuhon 2010 – Be the Reds! #KOR

June 26, 2010 — by Suman — 2

via YouTube - Nike Tuhon 2010, where the description reads: This is the movie Nike Korea produced for their Korea National Soccer Team. It's about Korean traditional fighting spirit, Tuhon. Below, I put the English translation what you see in the movie. Quite a piece, I think. Forget Your Name. Tear out your name on your back. Just remember TUHON on your heart. People would tremble by the name of KOREA . People would fear at the RED jersey that you wear. Feel the 23 TUHONs linked to your heart. Rule every moment with TUHON. WRITE THE FUTURE

Commentary United States

Extremely Brief USA v Ghana Preview Suited To Our Era Of Distraction

June 26, 2010 — by Adam — 2

This weekend, the American team continues its fabulous march to destiny with a match against Ghana, the sole remaining Africans, in a meeting with uncomfortable hegemonic overtones, not that American fans give a shit. Here is a reductively short perversion of what both teams need to do to win the match. Ghana Has To Do Two Things: 1. Find A Goal Ghana have only scored two times. Both were penalties by forward Asamoah Gyan. Gyan runs the channels well, links up play and helps his teammates, but he does not really look for goals. Ghana are formidable defensively because they don’t throw players forward, ever, but the Americans are weak at tracking back up the middle. Make the likes of Maurice Edu, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber and Jose Torres defend their area and you can hurt the USA. Let them attack all day and you will lose. In their final

World Cup Video Highlights: Uruguay #URU

June 26, 2010 — by Suman

The triumphant Uruguayan side after their 4-2 defeat of Argentina in the 1930 Final

Video highlights (courtesy of @footytube) from all of Uruguay’s 2010 World Cup matches collected below. Tues June 22 (Day 12): Uruguay 1, Mexico 0 Day 6, Wed June 16: Uruguay 3, South Africa 0 Fri June 11 (Day 1): France 0, Uruguay 0: Neither team was able to score off the few good chances they created. France should have taken the lead early: in the 7th minute Franck Ribéry took a ball down the left side, beat the Uruguayan defender and played a low driven cross in front of the goal and right onto the foot of Sidney Govou ("a French footballer of Beninese descent, who plays for Lyon and French national team"), who deflected the ball wide instead of into the goal. Uruguay's most prominent player is Diego Forlan, who has

A Continuing Obsession With Spain

June 26, 2010 — by Adam

It’s not often that a single strategic decision decides a football match, but that’s what happened yesterday, when Chile played Spain. The high defensive line played by Chile let Spain off the hook. Chile play a very unusual system, in which they attack without cease for every minute of the match, and play what looks like six wingers. Sometimes, personalities or luck or athleticism decide which team wins a match, but because the Chileans are so novel, they almost always win or lose based on tactics. One risky aspect of Chile’s game is the high defensive line they play. Chile shrink the field so they can make the short, angled passes that spring their wingers into space,, but to do this, their defenders need to stand very close to their attackers, so they can start their passing game with accuracy. Long passes are notoriously hard to complete and give defenders

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