Group E wide open as Ghana leave Czech’s Gobsmacked

Ghana, over the weekend, showed they are no pushovers with a stunning 2-0 victory against the Czech Republic, while Italy were held to a surprise 1-1 draw by the USA.

The Czech Republic were lost without words, after not being able to play their own game, they went down to a young, well-disciplined and extremely hungry Ghana side.

Ghana warranted their victory and should have had six or seven, they took the lead after just 70 seconds as Stephan Appiah played a lovely weighted cross from the left which found Asamoah Gyan, who chested it down and fired it low and hard past Petr Cech, to silence the majority crowd of Czech Republic fans.

The Czech’s lacked shape with players playing out of position and Vratislav Lokvenc, who had to fill the boots of the injured Jan Koller, was left isolated for large periods of the game.

At the interval and 1-0 up, Ghana were the better team and Czech coach Karel Bruckner would have had some stern words to say to his team, who were largely disappointing after they routed the U.S.A. in the first match.

Fourty seconds into the second half Nedved had a goal disallowed for straying into an offside position. The Linesman got the decision spot on to ruin the Czech fans celebrations.

It got worse for the Czech Republic with a striker crisis looming for their final game after Lokvenc, Baros and Koller were all yellow carded. Centre half Thomas Ujfalusi will also miss the final game, red carded by the referee for bring down Matthew Amoah on the hour mark.

Ghana penalty taker Gyan will miss the next game due to a silly yellow card for taking the penalty kick early. When he eventually took it he rammed the woodwork and gave the opposition a slim lifeline.

Gyan linked well with Muntari who unleashed a rocket shot into the top corner, which sealed the three points for the underdogs eight minutes from full time.

Later that evening Italy took on the U.S.A in an almighty ding dong battle where chaos, madness, blood and guts don’t quite describe the game.

The Italians needed victory to secure qualification, but could only draw in a game that saw three red cards, and surely records broken for the amount of times the stretcher came onto the field.

It took just 22 minutes for the Italians to get their noses infront, although it was slightly against the run of play. The U.S defence was caught static as Andrea Pirlo’s inswinging free kick found Alberto Gilardino unmarked with a low diving header to guide the ball past Kasey Keller.

However it took just five minutes for the U.S to equalise when a freak own goal levelled the scores. Bobby Convey’s free kick eluded everybody in the box and Cristian Zaccorado’s wild left boot to clear the ball went horribly wrong and he sliced it into the bottom left hand corner, which left his keeper and team mates staring in disbelief.

Italian midfield maestro Daniele De Rossi was given an early bath for a disgraceful aerial challenge that involved a flying elbow into Brian McBride’s face. With the U.S in control, Italian coach Marcello Lippi sacrificed Francesco Totti for Gennaro Gattuso.

Just before half time American centre back Eddie Pope was harshly booked, while Pablo Mastoeni was sent off for a sliding lunge on Andrea Pirlo. His studs caught the Italian midfielder on the ankle. U.S.A coach, Bruce Arena, was fuming.

Pope was given a second yellow card for his mistimed tackle on Alberto Gilardino two minutes into the second half. Ten versus Nine and it was a battle of courage as space opened up around the field and the game became much more open.

With tactical re-shuffles and both coaches scratching their heads wondering how their team should play Italy adopted a 3-4-2 formation whilst the U.S were more defensive with a 4-3-1 dropping Landon Donovan into the midfield leaving McBride up front on his own.

Both managers soon made changes to their makeshift formations. With 25 minutes to go the Americans did have the ball in the net only to be ruled harshly offside. Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon couldn’t hold onto DaMarcus Beasley’s right footed drive from the left and it found its way into the net.

The celebrations were cut short as McBride was adjudged to be active in play when he never touched the ball. The official’s reason was that he could have obstructed the view of the keeper.

More drama saw the game to be virtually nine versus nine and a half as Bocanegra crashed into Perrota, who required lengthy treatment on the touchline. With all the substitutions used up he had to hobble on and the Italians more often than not played around him.

With ten minutes to go in what can only be described as an argy bargy affair Del Piero again came close but Keller got himself in a good position to parry his shot away. The last few minutes saw the game being played in the U.S half as half chances were thwarted and some last ditch defending saw the Americans hold the European giants to a 1-1 draw in what would be a great advert for an English Sunday League game.

At the end of the second round of matches all four sides can still qualify as the Italians and the Czech’s play each other whilst the U.S already depleted from their two sendings off play a Ghana side inspired but also depleted by yellow card suspensions. Group E has been thrown wide open is what was a very entertaining day of football.

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