Now that the United States has moved on to the knockout round, I have one thing to say, GO GHANA!
You might call me any number of things for thinking such a horrid thought, but I have my reasons. Let's investigate, shall we?
First, African teams have always done poorly on the World Cup stage and I want this to be the year that a team can actually make a real go at it. Do I think Ghana will win the World Cup? No, probably not, but they need to start their run somewhere and here it just happens to be against the United States.
Second, we're playing on African turf. Let's hear it for the home team! It makes me sad that (unless a couple miracles happen allowing Ivory Coast to make it through) there will only be one African team that makes it out of the group round. This is the first year ever the host country's team didn't make it out of group play.
Third, we as Americans, could hardly care less about soccer. The only time US soccer matters to anyone in the US is when we're winning. Losing is a part of the game too (and so is a tie if we want to talk about how the US got into the round of sixteen). If the majority of people cared about the game, they would be able to follow its players and story lines without just looking at the letters on the scoreboard to know what matters. If they would watch a match or two more than once every four years, they could see the beauty in the game rather than just looking for another chance to chant, "USA! USA!" We insist that the game is called "soccer" despite the entire globe calling it "football;" it's ignorance on top of apathy. Let a more passionate nation taste victory.
This will be one voice cheering for the Black Stars. GO GHANA!
--from Eric
