[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by JerseyJ

I would disagree with you about Ghana being an inferior team. Ghana is very good, people just don't know much about them because they are so young and most of their top talent save for Essien, Gyan, Muntari, Appiah, and Kingson are all from their 2009 U20 World Cup Winning team. Ghana didn't really need to push forward once Boateng put the early marker on the board especially with Rajovic's tactical tendencies. If Ghana had not put the early goal on the board, you likely would have seen a different plan of attack. I mean, Ghana was missing their leader and best player Michael Essien for the entire Cup, as well as bringing established Top Level veterans like Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah off the bench this year, for younger players. Ghana will be a thorn in many team's sides for the next couple of years and it wouldn't suprise me in the least if they are one of the 2014 World Cup favorites with the talent on that squad.

Personally, regarding the game, I thought they lost to a better team today. It was pretty simple, Ghana was better with the ball, better tactically, better in the back, disciplined, and physical with pace. The US Soccer team is good, but Ghana outplayed them today and absolutely deserved to move on. Now, if Edu is in from the start, yeah, decent chance they don't give up the first one, but then, chances are, they don't play the same style coming out of the halftime break if it's 0-0 compared to 1-0, especially against a good defensive side in Ghana with Kingson, who has been outstanding at the World Cup.

The US will always be competitive with most of the world, but you will always have your top teams like Brazil, Argentina, etc., that the US will struggle to beat on a consistent basis. It's not like this was any lock that the US would win today.

I understand that Ghana is far from chopped liver, but I really do think that the US is the better team. I just find it amazing how they constantly come out on their heels each and every game and end up having to play from behind. Even with Ghana playing back a bit with the lead, the US still had a boatload of opportunities that they just couldn't capitialize on. That's the difference between being a good team and being an elite team. You would think Argentina or Brazil would have finished on a few of those chances. I think Bigs said it and he was right. That even if they would have won today, the next game would have been probably the end of the road. It was a good showing, but they aren't in the class of some of the teams that they would being looking at in the coming rounds.

Originally Posted by Bigsmc

I think Howard being one of the best in the world is a figment of the US media's imagination. They are the only one's repeating this ad nauseum. He's nowhere near top five and would struggle make the top ten.

Howard is a very average keeper on a very average team.

That's a fair point and I'm not saying it's wrong. Maybe I bought into the hype and it's just my perception that he's a top goaltender. But deep down I do believe that he's in the top 5, then again I'm not sure I could name another 4 to fill out the list.