Today at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa The group C winners will face the group D runner ups in the Round of 16. As the knockout phase of the tournament begins the US finds itself in unfamiliar territory as winners of their group in the last 16 of the tournament. They will face Ghana, who have played solid defense but showed little offense as they scored only two goals (on penalties) during group play.
The starting lineups for each team can be found here.
Once again Oguchi Onyewu finds himself out of the starting XI and Ricardo Clark finds himself back in it. Robbie Findley assumes his starting spot after missing the Algeria game serving his suspension due to yellow card accumulation. Still no room for Edson Buddle which still baffles me and this is t one of the few times where I agree with the Ginger (Alexi Lalas).
Key Player for the US: Landon Donovan. He might not be the official captain but he's shown that he is the heart and soul of this team and the team follows his lead. If he disappears in this game it will be another repeat of the thrashing Ghana gave the US in the group stage in Germany 20006. But if he can avenge that poor display of four years ago and lead his team, the US will find themselves in the next round...the Elite Eight to put it in American terms.
Key player for Ghana: Asamoah Gyan. The scariest scoring threat I see in Ghana. Watch out for him having a breakthrough game and keep the hopes of the lone Africa nation still standing alive.
Prediction: I can see this going to penalties, and it is a toss up from there. However I will pick the US as winners in regulation 1-0.
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