by AJ Howard (Staff writer)
Between Clint Dempsey’s first-minute goal and the final whistle on Monday night, the United States’ opening game of the 2014 World Cup with Ghana managed approximately 1,000 cycles of the five stages of grief.
A physically imposing and skilled–if imprecise–Ghana team largely dominated after the early American goal, but it took until Andre Ayew’s beautiful finish with the outside of his left foot in the 82nd minute for the Black Stars to capitalize. With under ten minutes remaining and missing attacking reference point Jozy Altidore, the U.S. looked more likely to give up the winner than to score themselves.
Because this World Cup is determined to age all viewers by twenty years, though, this meant that the U.S. scored in the 86th minute through substitute center-back John Brooks. Making his competitive debut for the USMNT, the 21-year-old defender headed in Graham Zusi’s corner kick to give the Americans a 2-1 lead and a victory in the vital Group G game.
The obligatory reaction video to the game-winner has already appeared:
It’s not all bar celebrations for the U.S. and its fans, but three points to open up Group G–especially when combined with Portugal’s crushing 4-0 defeat yesterday–sets up the group table about as well as possible for Jurgen Klinsmann’s team.
On the field, though, some concerns remain. Depending on the fitness of Altidore, the U.S. could be without a target striker, forced to either change formation or place in a smaller Aron Johannsson or Chris Wondolowski. Johansson is a fine player, as is Zusi, but a change in formation or new forward drastically changes Klinsmann’s plans.
The U.S. also will be troubled by its lack of possession and lack of success going forward. The team’s defensive effort, though, deserves praise for managing to hold the strong Ghana team to just a single goal while the Black Stars spent more than 80 minutes chasing an equalizer.
As two of Klinsmann’s three substations were caused by injury (Matt Besler departed at halftime with hamstring tightness), we avoided seeing how, exactly, the German would manage his substitutes in a World Cup game, something that would have been interesting with the options he brought to Brazil.
Klinsmann’s team returns to Group G action at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday against Portugal. With Cristiano Ronaldo lurking around the corner, the USMNT won’t have much time to reflect on the draining, must-win opener. They didn’t do it often, or very effectively, on Monday against Ghana, but the Americans have to move forward.
Key stats (via WhoScored.com and Four Four Two)
18— Ghana managed 21 shots in the general direction of Tim Howard’s goal, but 18 were off target for the misfiring Black Stars.
19— After coming on for the injured Altidore, Aron Johannsson had just 19 total touches in about 70 minutes of action at forward. The only Americans with less touches than Johannsson were Altidore and 77th minute substitute Graham Zusi.
171 to 78— Ghana’s 171 attempted passes in the attacking third more than doubled the USMNT’s 78. Much of this could be linked with the Black Stars’ possession dominance (62%), but Ghana will be disappointed in the single goal after having that many passes on the American end of the field.
3/18— Only three of the entire game’s most frequent pass combinations were between American players. DaMarcus Beasley and Jermaine Jones linked up eleven times, but no other U.S. combination had more than seven passes between each other.
