A Final Day of Chasing the Fifa 2010 World Cup Ends Team USA's Run in South Africa (253 hits)
A Final Day of Chasing Ends the U.S. Run
RUSTENBURG, South Africa — Of course, the United States could not keep playing like this and hope to survive in the World Cup, using stress as its inspiration, anxiety as its caffeine.
The Americans could not keep playing from behind like a distance runner, or a thoroughbred, waiting until those terrible, pressured moments before making a frantic rush for the finish.
On Saturday night, there was no rescuing sprint as the United States lost to Ghana (again), 2-1, in the Round of 16, continuing its maddening habit of giving up early goals — in the fifth minute of regulation, then again in the third minute of overtime.
In 390 minutes of play in the tournament, the United States led for only three. That is not the way to succeed, always chasing the game, expending huge amounts of physical and emotional energy to catch up, risking that there will not be enough vigor for the stretch run.
“Once again, we gave up an early goal,” Coach Bob Bradley said. “We put a lot into it to get back to 1-1. I felt at that point, we had a chance to finish the game. When you go down early in overtime, it’s a case where you’ve put yourself in that spot one too many times.”
The West African nation is the only one of six from the continent remaining in the World Cup. Ghana will face Uruguay next, becoming the third African team to reach the quarterfinals, joining Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002.
