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Live Blog

Ghana v Uruguay: Liveblog/Open Thread

July 2, 2010 — by Sean — 52

We’re all over the place today what with the holiday weekend upon us, so let’s just get straight to the point:

Uruguay: Muslera, Maxi Pereira, Lugano, Victorino, Fucile, Alvaro Fernandez, Perez, Arevalo Rios, Cavani, Suarez, Forlan
Ghana: Kingson, Pantsil, Vorsah, John Mensah, Sarpei, Annan, Inkoom, Asamoah, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Muntari, Gyan

Danger up front for Uruguay, who can turn to a brutal, hacking style of defense if Ghana start to turn the screw. The Black Stars have power and speed in abundance, but will they hold their shape?

The comment thread is open after the bump!

News

Quarterfinalists News Roundup: Elano, van Persie, Forlan

July 1, 2010 — by Suman — 2

Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng: "Let's set those records!"

As we eagerly await the resumption of play with tomorrow’s two quarterfinal matches (Brazil vs. Holland in the early game, Uruguay vs Ghana in the late game), here are a few links with the some news on each side:

Brazil’s Elano will miss tomorrow’s game due to an ankle injury–and may be done for the tournament;

Robin van Persie’s petulance causes yet more rumblings of strife within the Dutch camp;

Off the Post blog posts a handful of clips from Diego Forlan’s WC video diary;

and from GhanaWeb.com, “Top Five Records Ghana Will Set If They Beat Uruguay.”

ScheduleUnited States

WC Round of 16: Weekend in Review

June 28, 2010 — by Suman

Ghana over USA

It was a great weekend of WC football, as the Round of 16 got underway with 2 matches on Saturday and 2 matches on Sunday.  We’re halfway to the quarterfinals being set, with 2 more matches today.

On Saturday, Uruguay defeated South Korea 2-1 to move into the quarterfinals for the first time since 1970, and the USA crashed out against Ghana in extra time, also by a score of 2-1. The CultFootball team liveblogged both games, here and here.

Sunday offered two highly anticipated matchups.  England and Germany added another memorable installment to their long and heated rivalry, with Germany destroying the English 4-1, in a game that will be remembered for the stunning German counterattack, and for a clear “Wembley goal” for England that the referees completely missed.

In the afternoon game, Argentina pulled away from Mexico 3-1, although this game too was marred by an officiating error, with goalscorer Carlos Tevez clearly offside on Argentina’s first goal.   The extended CultFootball team commented extensively on both games in entertaining open threads here and here.

That sets up a huge quarterfinal matchup between Argentina and Germany, to be played Saturday (10am ET).  The other quarterfinal matchup that’s set is Uruguay vs. Ghana, Friday 2:30pm ET.

We’ve got two more Round of 16 games today: the Netherlands kickoff against Slovakia in just over 30 minutes, followed by Brazil against Chile later in the day (potentially setting up yet another tremendous quarterfinal match!).

We’ll cover both of today’s games via liveblogs/open threads..join us for the action!

CommentaryUnited States

US Crash Out

June 26, 2010 — by Sean — 6

A rough day for the USA where nothing ever materialized in their offense third, while Ghana exploited a less-than-convincing centerback pairing that’s been shaky throughout the Cup. The boys simply looked tired on two-days rest, and with the customary goal given up within the first ten minutes of play, the struggle proved to be too much.

Who knows what the game might’ve been like if they hadn’t given up that early goal? Ghana was instantly content to sit back and block off routes into their half, and we’ve seen even the best attacking teams struggle to unlock stubborn, compact defenses during this tournament. The confidence and sharp movement we saw against Algeria was nonexistent, with poor touches and lofted balls bypassing the midfield the order of the day.

Surely it didn’t help that the entire support of Africa was behind Ghana. In fact, if it were any other team playing Ghana, we all would’ve supported them too. Now the Black Stars move on and the US is left adrift for another four years.

“The finality of it is brutal,” said Landon Donovan, who spent several long minutes alone on the US bench after the final whistle. “When you realize how much you put into it, not only for the last four years, but for your whole life. There’s no guarantee there’s another opportunity at that. It’s disappointing.”

The tournament continues, with some great matches yet to come. Tonight we lick our wounds, tomorrow we’re back!

Live BlogUnited 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..

CommentaryUnited 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.

Group SummariesVideo

Group D – Match Summaries/Video Highlights – Germany/Ghana/Serbia/Australia

June 23, 2010 — by Suman

Scenario Analysis:

Here’s who advances in each of the 9 possible outcomes of this afternoon’s 2 matches:


 GER win/GHA loss GER/GHA draw GER loss/GHA win
SRB win/AUS loss GER & SRB SRB & ? GHA & SRB
SRB/AUS draw GER & ? GHA & ? GHA & SRB
SRB loss/AUS win GER & GHA GER & GHA GHA & ?

Lots of ? marks, indicating cases where two teams finish with the same number of points, in which case it goes to the tiebreaker based on total goals (scored?).

Group D fixtures & results:

  • Sun June 13 (Day 3): Ghana 1, Serbia 0
  • Sun June 13 (Day 3): Germany 4, Australia 0
  • Fri June 18 (Day 8): Serbia 1, Germany 0
  • Sat June 19 (Day 9): Ghana ?, Serbia ?
  • Wed June 23 (Day 13): Ghana v Germany
  • Wed June 23 (Day 13): Serbia v Australia

Standings:

Team MP W D L GF GA Points
GhanaGhana 2 1 1 0 2 1 4
GermanyGermany 2 1 0 1 4 1 3
SerbiaSerbia 2 1 0 1 1 1 3
AustraliaAustralia 2 0 1 1 1 5 1

Video highlights and match summaries below.

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