Ghana is Africa’s only representative in the round of 16 and is set to play their first match against the US on Saturday in Johannesburg at the Royal Bafokeng Statidum.
The US made it into the knockout round with an epic win over Algeria on Wednesday, accomplishing their World Cup goal of advancing past the group play and coming out undefeated and the highest ranked squad in their quarter of the tournament.
Now they face the task ahead, pushing aside the urge to rest on their laurels so they can focus on mentally and physically preparing themselves for Saturday’s match after giving it their all against the Desert Foxes.
“It's not a failure if we don't win Saturday” Landon Donovan said at an open press conference Thursday, “but there's such a massive opportunity to do something so much more special, and I really want to emphasize that to everybody and to make sure we understand that”. Four years ago the Black Stars beat the US 2-1 in Nuremburg Germany and knocked them out of the tournament. This year, the Stars and Stripes have the talent, spirit and motivation to defeat Ghana if they put enough hard work into it.
The Black Stars are a physically powerful team whose successes are due to their defences, which has only conceded two goals this tournament. Central defender John Mensah has kept the back line strong while Kevin-Prince Boateng and Anthony Annan have all but put up a brick wall in front of the back four.
Ghana could benefit from improving their offensive tactics, a serious area of weakness that almost cost them their spot in the final 16. Andre Ayew and Price Tagoe had an impressive approach, though stiker Asamoah Gyan is yet to touch his potential and has been unable to take advantage of Ayew and Tagoe’s set ups. Overall the team's composure in front of the goal needs work, specifically in front of the penalty spot where both goals came from.
Gyan and USA defender Carlos Bocanegra play together at French side Rennes, who says the Ghana striker is “an athletic player. He’s got a great leap, and he’s really good in the air. He’s powerful and fast, he spearheads their attack for them.” Gyan can step up his game for the next game as Bocanegra has an advantage knowing how he moves on the pitch.
Ghana has been given a second chance at scoring some goals; maybe having the entire continent behind them will be the encouragement and motivation they need to start getting. Bocanegra is not letting this get to the USA team, stating that “You never count a team out, even when they're not able to score goals." Teammate Donovan is skeptical and worries that the Black Stars match on Saturday could present problems “Their athleticism will be difficult to deal with. My guess is that they’ll have a lot of support . . . like a lot of African nations, they are fairly unpredictable at times, which can be a plus or minus”
The US will try and impose itself on Ghana on the midfield where they have equal strength in Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu. Bradley has proven to be very exciting to watch, his ability to join in on the attack while still feeding balls to Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan have been fruitful for the US team. The US have an answer to Ghana’s 19 year old center back Jonathan Mesah in their own center back Jozy Altidore, who is best known for charging the opponents defense and could prove to be problematic for Ghana. Mesah has been mistake-prone this tournament despite his heightened potential before coming into the World Cup.
The US team has been known for conceding early goals in their matches, a weakness that didn’t prevent them from advancing to the final 16. If the team can get a goal in first however they have a chance to disorganize Ghana and potentially score again.
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