3 thoughts about | 2 USA - Ghana 1 |

The USA played their first 2014 Fifa World Cup match today against their historical rival Ghana. After Ghana knocked us out of the last two world cups, coach Jürgen Klinsmann remarked that we could see a third time lucky. He got his wish (as did I), and the USA walked away with three points.

The USA started the game in stunning fashion, with Captain Clint Dempsey scoring 29 seconds into the game. For much of the rest of the game, though, the USA played rope-a-dope, and was fortunate to walk away with the win.

Three thoughts about the performance:

·         Graham Zusi showed that he can be the kind of substitution that turns a game around. The US suffered much of the first and second half without meaningful possession of the ball. Watchers at the bar I was at groaned at the USA’s inability to keep possession and get a simple pass off. The offense was productive, but the midfield struggled to feed them the ball. That changed with Zusi subbed in for Bedoya. Though Ghana scored shortly thereafter, the US started seeing more possession, including possession in Ghana’s back third. Zusi’s golden foot was also behind the corner kick that John Brooks headed in for the win.

·         The US still looks uncomfortable in the diamond midfield. The diamond midfield is a new layout Klinsmann has been trying to adopt, in which the four midfielders are aligned in a diamond, in this case with Michael Bradley at the top and Kyle Beckerman at the rear, with Jermaine Jones on the left and Alejandro Bedoya on the right. The diamond, when operating properly, should feed Bradley the ball, for him to feed the strikers. In much of today’s game, the midfield couldn’t maintain possession, especially through the middle where the diamond often finds itself centered. Ghana did well to shut it down. Additional, in defensive posture, the US switched to a 4-4-2, with the 4 midfielders staying in line together instead of in a diamond. It’s natural to adopt different layouts for offense and defense, but overall suggests that the diamond isn’t quite working for USA yet.

·         The loss of Jozy Altidore will hurt the USA going forward. US Soccer tweeted that Altidore suffered a “sprained left hamstring” and did not mention how long he would be out. This viewer doubts Altidore will be healthy before the knockout stages, if then. Strikers aside from Dempsey will need to step up their game if the US hopes to have a shot against Portugal on Sunday 6/22 and Germany on Thursday 6/26.