I sympathized with the Ghanaians. I could imagine that happening to me, because the idea that someone would score in 30 seconds and with their first attempt is obviously just silly. I would need that initial attack to shake me awake.
But not one Ghana player even bothered to stick a leg out. It was like they couldn’t believe what was happening and froze.
Dempsey’s goal didn’t impress as it was basically done against no defenders and a less than stellar keeper. I’m sure he himself was shocked about how easy it was.
Ghana’s keeper seemed to be pretty good at shot-stopping. It was coming out/jumping for contested crosses that he had problems with.
Phil Neville has been criticised in the UK for his boring commentary. Some wise lad has done an impression of him commentating on a fight from Season 1 of Game of Thrones:
There was no one there to “stick a leg out”. There was one defender who had a play on Dempsey. Dempsey crossed him up with an awesome bit of footwork, leaving just the goalkeeper to beat. The other defenders towards the middle were not close enough to make a play.
Yes +100
Can’t do it. There are no roads connecting Panama to Colombia.
All that rope-a-dope after the surprise goal was really bothersome. That’s just too long to try to play keep-away, especially when you’re not keeping them away.
Dempsey beat a defender on the dribble and then was too close in for support to collapse on him before the shot. Absolutely nothing suspicious about it.
Bradley had one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him play. He’s going to have to tighten up and not give away possession so easily from here on out if the US is going to advance. I’m only really concerned about the Altidore injury, although with Bedoya being lame Donovan sure looks like a nice option, doesn’t he?
Is Donovan really the “out on an island up front” sort? He seems a bit small for that role.
Yeah, I’ve never seen such a bad job of keeping possession. It reminded me of my schoolboy teams playing with a lead in the last minutes; we’d just boot the ball as far as we could and hope it landed behind the defenders and in front of the keeper.
No, not remotely. He’s more of a wide midfielder.
Penalty for Algeria! BEL 0-1 ALG. Algeria have their first goal in the World Cup since the 1980s!
Finally, a penalty I could look at and agree with. It looked like it would get a flag for pass interference. Could he have been any more obvious pulling the attacker down?
Not in the Altidore sense of just being a strong tree you can’t get around, but he can make a run back, receive the ball and control it, lay it off, then turn and burn into a dangerous area. At least that’s how he would normally play it. Not so sure how that would work now at this level and at his current fitness. I would still rather see him at RM than Bedoya, who I thought looked out of his depth yesterday.
Other thoughts: Beasley getting caught forward a couple of times and Fabian at least once, too. No one tracked back into their place and it left the defense open to dangerous counterattacks. Now that Altidore’s out and Dempsey has a broken nose (and he hasn’t been a super-active player lately even before that), our attack seems pretty blunted. Lots of other injury and tactical issues to consider. Ugh. I hope JK and the coaching staff can figure it all out by Sunday.
Fabian looked dangerous for a moment in the second half. I don’t know if he’s normally that type of player but I got the idea they should be feeding him the ball in the last third based off one dribble in the second half yesterday. Instead he hardly had a touch.
Fellaini sweeps the ball into the net with his mop. 1-1
Big goal from Fellaini. Belgium finding their confidence?
Looks like it!
Mertens scores; Belgium in control now.
That was a really nice second.
It sure was, a superb counter and fantastic finish from Mertens.