Life on the World Cup edge came to an exhausting and crushing end for the U.S. team. With a cushy road into the semifinals theirs for the taking, the U.S. players showed they’re still, at best, a second-tier team. With Ghana’s passing superb in the opening stages, the Americans played as if they were still in the group phases, as if there would be one more chance on another day.

U.S. team will go home while Ghana remained the only African team to advance past the first round and will face Uruguay in their next World Cup 2010 match. Boateng put Ghana ahead when he stripped the ball from Ricardo Clark who didn’t react fast enough and he beat Howard from 16 yards in the fifth minute. The fact the Americans gave away a goal so quickly, it was going to be hard to get back.

The United States team had the better of the second half when they overcame the early deficit. Dempsey won a penalty and Donovan equalized in the 62nd minute. Unfortunately the American team went down again early in the extra-time, after they consumed a lot of energy trying to get back to 1-1. Gyan’s powerful strike for Ghana, just three minutes into overtime, proved decisive in the game.

“A stinging, tough defeat because we were right there, but we’re going home”, captain Carlos Bocanegra said. Ricardo Clark admitted responsibility after this match and he apologized for the first goal but many voices said that it was the entire team necessity to learn that they can not sleepwalk through opportunities like this.

They fought back from a 2-0 deficit to draw with Slovenia after they came from behind against England to draw, but they were unable to replicate such heroics Saturday against Ghana.
The only one who played with passion and intent was Donovan. His penalty was the striker’s fifth World Cup goal in total, making him his country’s leading all-time scorer in the competition.

Ghana will play Uruguay in the quarterfinals and they joined Senegal (2002) and Cameroon (1990) as the only African teams to fight for a berth in the semifinals. The World Cup 2010 matches brought many surprises but Ghana deserves this performance. United States fought for a country but they fought for a continent.

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