2014 FIFA World Cup: Group G (GER/POR/GHA/USA)

[57special]

Howard saved US butt today. What was with Bradley... I thought he was terrible today. He has got to get better for them to have a chance against Portugal.

[craig01]

Fortunate outcome for the US.

We'll take it however it comes.

[BUCKnation]

Honestly, other than a few little mistakes, Brooks was pretty solid (even before the goal). I thought people were a little harsh, especially considering Bradley was garbage.

[irie]

Oh, please, let it go with this ridiculous ethnic purity. We get it, you're mad that Switzerland has all the good Turkish players.

Learn before you say something. Except inler, there is no turkish origin player in that team.


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No one cares about their origin, they were born in Switzerland, brought up in Switzerland, they are "real" Swiss.

The guy who got the US' winning goal was born in Germany, raised in Germany, and has played his entire professional career in Germany. He even played for the German U20 international club. But he holds dual citizenship so he can play for the US as well.

I don't have an issue with international players going to weaker teams to be able to play (the US is weaker than Germany - so who cares that Brooks plays for the US and not Germany? He holds dual citizenship as do most European and African players). But I dislike it when a top player from a weak nation goes and plays for a strong one. I think there is an inherent difference there. You don't have to be a nationalist (or patriot, or whatever you want to call it). That's fine. But if you leave your nation weaker by leaving it that's just classless in my opinion.

Edit: Not that I'm disagreeing with you. I just dislike seeing players from nations that could take that next step (get out of the group stage) if their player wasn't playing for Spain, Germany, etc.

[Nemesis21]

USA!

[LittleOzzy]

Edit: Not that I'm disagreeing with you. I just dislike seeing players from nations that could take that next step (get out of the group stage) if their player wasn't playing for Spain, Germany, etc.

It's even worse for countries sitting just outside of the World Cup because their countrymen decide to play for other nations.

[shadester76]

Wacha Ghana Do!!!

[RIPskaterdude]

[magik9113]

Jones was great today for the U.S.

Bradley was sub par. BROOKS FTW

[AlexDelta]

You gotta love swiss though. There is like 2 players who are real swiss in that "national" team.


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Swiss isn't even an ethnic group, they're a combination of Italians, German, and French people.

Don't forget about the Romansh, probably the only "true" swiss people.

[UGA Hayes]

Can't believe we won. We couldn't complete two passes in a row in the second half. Ghana let us off the hook a couple of times. Bradley was shockingly ineffective.

[Geddy]

US were dominated for much of the match in terms of possession. If they play as sloppy as they did today then Portugal and Germany are going to have an easy time.

[Bernman]

US were dominated for much of the match in terms of possession. If they play as sloppy as they did today then Portugal and Germany are going to have an easy time.

I'd imagine against Germany and Portugal they wouldn't have 4 significant injuries, 3 of which lead to players getting subbed off. That's a pretty crazy injury problem that doesn't project to happen again.

An injury doesn't excuse Bradley playing the way he did, but that doesn't project to happen again either.

So the U.S. should play MUCH, MUCH better in their next two games. But that doesn't mean that will translate to wins or even draws either considering the level of competition and how poorly the U.S. played in today's game while still getting a win. I think anybody who is looking at the big picture and being fair would say the U.S. was both fortunate and unfortunate today. So this U.S. team is somewhat of a mystery going into the next matches.

The only thing that isn't a mystery is that the U.S. got 3 points they badly wanted, and a great result in the other group game of the match day as well, so they don't need to do much else to advance. They in all likelihood will already have effectively advanced into the next round with a draw against Portugal. And that seems very doable with the average U.S. performance in recent years. U.S. has now got to be around 50/50 to advance between the chance for a draw/win vs. Portugal and win vs. Germany. That's better than their odds going in.

[DiscoLives4ever]

Well apparently (as two mods and a few other posters have pointed out), I'm terrible at not crossing the line from harmless trash talk to offensiveness - at lest in regards to soccer/football. My bad, that will teach me to try and get into a new sport. I'll just take my jingoism and go back to lurking for a bit.

[trwi7]

Jon Brooks is so useless.

Zusi?

Really?

Schwabby should no longer be able to give his opinions on soccer imo.

[Det the Threat]

Edit: Not that I'm disagreeing with you. I just dislike seeing players from nations that could take that next step (get out of the group stage) if their player wasn't playing for Spain, Germany, etc.

Which German players are you talking about?

Özil? --> born and raised in Germany
Boateng? --> born and raised in Germany, he's even related to Helmut Rahn, the guy scoring the third goal in our 3-2 win over hungary in the 1954 WC final
Khedira? --> born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany
Mustafi? --> born and raised in Germany
Podolski + Kloose? --> both came to Germany at a very young age

I think what you're seeing is just a normal reflection of Germany, cause we're a diverse mix of people, well even a melting pot of it's own, if you want.
And the German FA shows that everyone of them is welcome and happily excepted if they want to play for our NT.

Also, we're done with training players for other countries. You just have to look at those turkish teams of the past that had about half of their team born and raised in Germany, while also learning their trade in German clubs.

BTW: Nice win for the US. Though, they looked gassed pretty early on and got lucky in the end. It felt like the pace was just way too high for them and they didn't seem to be able to go at that speed for the full 90 minutes.

Beasley looked really overwhelmed and Bradley couldn't get a pass to a teammate even if his life depended on it.

Still, got the win and now they can play a Portugal team that needs to win and must play a more offensive style as they usually do.

It's over for Ghana.

They have Germany next....

I would calm down a bit.
It was a good win for us but things went our way and we scored the goals at the right moment.

We also won our first game during the last world cup, beating Australia 4-0 just to lose the next one 0-1 to Serbia.
And we also just barely beat Ghana 1-0 during the group stages four years ago.

It will be a different game and a difficult one cause Ghana's in need for points and it won't be an easy game for us.

[AKFO]

Rough loss as a Ghana fan. Felt as though we controlled the entire game and were constantly on the attack. 21 shots to 8, and 60% possession. Unfortunately, the ball could just not find the back of the net. I'm happy with how the guys played, but not getting a point against the U.S. is extremely frustrating and costly. Have to hope for an off game from Germany on Saturday.

[mjba]

shows how much i know. great job guys.

[Geddy]

Ghana needed to be more patient with their attack instead of going for goal from far distances away from the net. They had a lot of opportunities where one extra pass would have got them an easy chance for a goal but instead someone would decide to blast a shot from somewhere outside the box.

[and1GS]

US were dominated for much of the match in terms of possession. If they play as sloppy as they did today then Portugal and Germany are going to have an easy time.

I'd imagine against Germany and Portugal they wouldn't have 4 significant injuries, 3 of which lead to players getting subbed off. That's a pretty crazy injury problem that doesn't project to happen again.

An injury doesn't excuse Bradley playing the way he did, but that doesn't project to happen again either.

So the U.S. should play MUCH, MUCH better in their next two games. But that doesn't mean that will translate to wins or even draws either considering the level of competition and how poorly the U.S. played in today's game while still getting a win. I think anybody who is looking at the big picture and being fair would say the U.S. was both fortunate and unfortunate today. So this U.S. team is somewhat of a mystery going into the next matches.

The only thing that isn't a mystery is that the U.S. got 3 points they badly wanted, and a great result in the other group game of the match day as well, so they don't need to do much else to advance. They in all likelihood will already have effectively advanced into the next round with a draw against Portugal. And that seems very doable with the average U.S. performance in recent years. U.S. has now got to be around 50/50 to advance between the chance for a draw/win vs. Portugal and win vs. Germany. That's better than their odds going in.

Ghana played dirty and got away with it this match. Having Dempsey with a broken nose, no Altidore, no Besler and really no shot at changing the flow via subs due to those injury-forced switches and STILL getting this result? That's huge.

Wake up sheeple. USA USA USA



As for Portugal...ya, we sucked. IDK why people were acting like we deserved to be here. We limped in through qualifying and often look like Ronaldo and the 10 stooges out there.