Post-Game Reaction: USA 2, Ghana 1

Right Out the Gates

If you turned away to settle into your chair, you might have missed it. It was the start the United States needed against a Ghana team built to counter attack. Half a minute into the start of the game midfielder Jermaine Jones played a great ball to a cutting Clint Dempsey who maneuvered around his defender and struck a left footed shot just far enough away from the outstretched foot of the Ghanaian goalkeeper to hit the back post and then the back of the net. Just like that, the United States were on top and could allow themselves to play it a little safer in order to stop a fast moving Ghana team from countering. For a United States team playing by far its easiest match it will face as a member of the Group of Death, the often offensively inept American squad was injected with a much needed boost of confidence by captain Clint Dempsey, who now has more career World Cup goals (3) than Argentina’s Lionel Messi (2) and England’s Wayne Rooney (0) combined.