Because I’m a huge nerd, I went back and re-watched the first half on the ESPN tactical cam. It basically shows you the whole pitch from way up behind one of the goals. Very interesting way to experience the game. Lets you see a lot of stuff that gets missed with the standard approach. Some more thoughts, after seeing things a second time around:
- I’m not sure what formation this was, but it would be really stretching things to call it a diamond. Certainly after Altidore went off, it pretty much just looked like a 4-4-2 with four central midfielders and minimal support from the fullbacks. Which definitely explain why things weren’t going very well.
- The back line was doing a very good job of playing the Ghanaian attackers offside in the opening 20 minutes or so.
- Beasley wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered. He was pressured, certainly, but wasn’t getting torn apart.
- Howard was excellent. Few shots to stop, but he commanded the area very well. There were a couple dangerous-looking crosses that he took nicely. There was a very dangerous throughball that he came out to stop which took him outside the box. I think a lot of keepers would have stayed back and potentially been burned. His distribution was okay. They were playing from the back much more than late in the game.
- Ghana basically got nothing down the left. Every time they tried, Johnson and/or Bedoya were a brick wall, and they had to shift things back to the right.
- Bradley was perfectly fine for 15 minutes or so, but then started giving away presents like it was Ghana’s birthday. For the final third of the half, I’m not sure he contributed positively in any way at all. Very strange.
- As far as I could tell, from about the 6th to the 16th minute Dempsey touched the ball precisely once (and he was offside). But then just a few minutes later he had a lovely touch that linked up the play in the move that built up to Altidore’s blocked shot. He rescued a 50/50 ball, had a quick one-two with Bradley, and then got the ball to Bedoya, who sent it racing down the wing to Johnson coming forward, who then whipped it into the box. That play was really excellent and was a couple of feet away from putting the US up 2-0. If Bradley had been two steps further forward he could have buried the ball in the net. And when it came to Jozy it was just a bit too far behind him so he had to collect and then couldn’t get any power on the shot, which gave the defenders time to get in the way.
- I would definitely say that up until Altidore went off, the US were pretty clearly the better team. The tide had already started to turn a little bit at that point, and the US players were starting to send a lot more pointless long balls. But the big shift was definitely right at this moment. After he went off, they looked very lost. I almost feel like there has to have been a psychological element. It often seems like the 20 minute mark is kind of a natural lull, when a team with the advantage starts to cool off anyways. Add in the stress of losing Altidore and the necessity altering the game plan, and i can definitely see it causing them to start pressing. I don’t think they tried a single attack down the wings for ages after it. They just were playing sideways passes in their own half and then hoofing it up the center of the pitch.
- For all that Ghana was firmly in control of the game for the last 25-30 minutes of the half, they really couldn’t find much of a way through. And I don’t think that’s just down to them being poor or spurning chances. Their chances were mostly pretty terrible because they were exclusively working from the wing and weren’t being given any angles. But it definitely helps to explain why the eventual addition of Prince-Boateng was so huge
- The quality of play for the last 20 minutes was not good [em]at all[/em]. By either team. It looked a lot like Iran-Nigeria. Ghana was definitely better, in the sense that they successfully completed some of their passes. But honestly they weren’t that much better. Lots of dumb and pointless giveaways by both sides.
In real time, I thought the US were pretty poor in the first half. On the rewatch, I’m a little bit less critical. Ghana was probably a bit better over the half, but they didn’t create any opportunities as good as Dempsey’s goal. Or as good as the move I mentioned from the US that ended with Altidore’s blocked shot.
In the grand scheme of things, I think I’d rather have a few good chances than more mediocre ones.