The Ghanaian Template

Ghana established the game template that the US needed to use in order to beat the Czech Republic:

1. Focus your defenders on defending rather than attacking.
2. Rely on the creativity and indefatigability of your forwards for offensive production.

With this simple two-step process, Ghana managed to beat the Czech Republic today, 2-0. This victory shows how tough our group is and opens the door for the US should we beat Italy today.

In honesty, it was an early goal that made this template viable. As Bruce Arena said after our loss to the Czechs, conceding an early goal can really stifle a team's game plan while allowing the opposition more options (and more confidence) in the execution of their game plan. Scoring 1:10 into the game allowed Ghana to put more people behind the ball on defense (Step One of the template) and forced the Czechs to open up in the back to mount attacks, thus providing more space for Ghana for Step Two.

Ghana also benefited from a late penalty that replays seemed to show to be bogus. The Ghanaian striker seemed to trip over the turf. Ghana missed the resulting kick, but faced only 10 men the remainder of the game.

The missed kick was appropriate, for as well as Ghana defended (which surprised me) and built up the attack, they often looked inept in front of the goal. Had it not been for woeful finishing, Ghana could have led 4-nil.

This quibble aside, hats off to Ghana. They played fearlessly and deserved the win. Now the US needs to learn how to be fearless.

As an aside: is Ghana's goalkeeper named Kingston or Kingson? The announcers and all of the graphics say the former, but his jersey (and FIFA) says the latter. ABC/ESPN: a little fact-checking, please?