Over the weekend, the United States was eliminated by Ghana from the World Cup.  It is always sad to lose, but when we look back on this experience later, I think most of us will appreciate how well the United States did.  They won their group despite some suspect officiating.  They scored a gift of a goal against England in the opener for a fortunate tie.  They should have won the second game against Slovenia if not for a disallowed goal that eventually saw the referee’s dismissal from further World Cup action.  Then they overcame another disallowed goal in beating Algeria to take the group over England.  It showed a lot of heart.  Finally, the United States was not able to beat Ghana on Saturday.  The United States survived another early goal to tie it up and take it into extra time, but the journey ended there.

It was a great showing, but there were definitely some questionable decisions by coach Bob Bradley in the deciding match.  The man who almost single-handedly gave up the early goal, Ricardo Clark, was a controversial choice as starter.  Clark then compounded matters by getting a yellow card and was subsequently replaced at a very early 30 minute mark in the first half.  That used up one of the United States three allowed substitutions with a whole lot of time left on the clock.  Seeing as how the match went into extra time, it was even more.  Now, I can’t blame the loss on the coach.  At the same time, it left many wondering what the future of Bob Bradley should be with the next World Cup heading to Brazil in 2014. [Read more...]