Bitter Sweet

Yesterday started off with a sad, but not totally unexpected, morning. The United States is out of the World Cup, falling to Ghana 2:1. After their horrible show against the Czech Republic and their mediocre performance against the Italians, I don't think anyone was terribly surprised that the US didn't make it to the second round. After Ghana beat the Czechs 2:0 last week, the writing was pretty much on the wall. At least the US didn't go home scoreless. The point the gained during the match with Italy in which they tied 1:1, was scored for them by an Italian player. So the match against Ghana was the first, and only, goal scored by an American during the tournement. However, that proved to be insufficient because the Ghanaians went on to score two goals during the course of the game.

To the US's credit the foul called against Onyewu in the box that resulted in a penalty kick for Ghana, at which time they scored their second goal, was a bad call. There was clearly no foul. But it really wouldn't have mattered either way. The US needed to win this game to make it to the second round. If it weren't for that penalty kick, they would have only tied. So either way, the Americans would've been sent home.

The title of this post is Bitter Sweet because although I'm disappointed that the US didn't make it out of the group, I'm very excited that Ghana did. They're the only African team to make it out of the group stage. I was rooting first and foremost for the Americans coming into the tournement, but secondly, I've been rooting for the four sub-saharan African teams to suceed. Ghana is the only one to do so. Unfortunately, however, their first match out of the group stage is against reigning champs Brazil, but you never know. I don't think many people expected Ghana to make it this far. Maybe they have one more upset still in them.