While Portugal taking on Germany is Group G’s undoubted marquee game, the USA’s match against Ghana at the 2014 World Cup tonight is what the US coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, has called “a final of sortsâ€.
You can see his point. This is a game that both teams need to take something out of to have a realistic chance of progressing, given what follows for both. Klinsmann may like to point to World Cup history and note that “nobody will panic†if the USA do not get a win against Ghana, since they have already beaten Portugal in a World Cup finals in 2002, but there’s a flipside to that sort of logic. If we are looking at World Cup history, Ghana have been the USA’s nemesis in the last two tournaments.
In 2006, Ghana were “just†the latest first-time qualifiers out of Africa when they came up against a USA team quietly confident of building on their quarter-final run in 2002. Instead the US were bundled out with defeat to the Ghanaians, and when given the chance of revenge in the second round four years later they were bundled out again, by an Asamoah Gyan goal in extra time.
And bundled is the operative word. Both the standout goals from those defeats saw US players muscled off the ball in the physical counter-attacking style Ghana have perfected. As the 2010 USA coach, Bob Bradley, has noted, this is a team who dare you to attack them then pounce in numbers on any individual errors to counter. Bradley should know — he was also coach of the Egypt team pummelled 6-1 by Ghana in the first leg of their playoff game for these finals.
It is a slightly different looking Ghana team than the 4-1-4-1 that lined up in support of the lone frontman Gyan in 2010. He is still around but under the coach Kwesi Appiah they have tended to play a 4-4-2, with Majeed Waris playing alongside Gyan. But with Waris a doubt, it is possible that they will play a 4-2-3-1 with Kevin-Prince Boateng playing behind Gyan and tasked with not just supporting the attack, but shoring up the centre where Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari may have problems late on.
Boateng too is a little bit of a doubt, sitting out part of the final training sessions. Should Ghana not risk him, Jordan Ayew will be the likely secondary attacking player, though he is still likely to play deeper rather than alongside Gyan.
Gyan himself will be enough of a handful to give the likely US starting defensive pair of Geoff Cameron and Matt Besler a problem. With Fabian Johnson getting forward from full-back on the side Gyan likes to power down, these two will be crucial. That said, so will their occasionally erratic counterparts on the Ghana team.
With Jozy Altidore demonstrating he can still be a danger with his second goal in the friendly against Nigeria last week, Jonathan Mensah and John Boye will have to demonstrate a discipline that is not always a strong suit.
The game will likely be determined in midfield though. Against Nigeria, Klinsmann adjusted the midfield diamond he has been experimenting with in recent games to accommodate three players – Kyle Beckerman, Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley – who at various points in qualifying had rotated into the two deep-lying slots in a 4-2-3-1. With Bradley now pushed forward as the fulcrum of the team on both sides of the ball, and Jones given more of a roving brief, the balance of the USA side has shifted up the field a little, allowing/necessitating Beckerman as the more defensive midfielder.
How the USA integrate these players and their duties, with the pinched-in wide men of Alejandro Bedoya and Clint Dempsey, not to mention the scoring-just-in-time Altidore, will determine their attacking success. If they can combine that with defensive compactness to thwart the supply to Gyan, and keep the defensive discipline to stop the Ghana counter-attackers from pouncing, they may yet change recent history. The latter may be a big if, especially with forecast heavy rain making errors likely, but Klinsmann at least feels he has the moving parts in place now. Now it is down to how they move.