World Cup: Group G discussion

Can anyone explain why Ghana didn't play their best players? The *bleep* was their coach thinking? Worst decision was probably playing a God like Asamoah at left back

Gil wrote:Can anyone explain why Ghana didn't play their best players? The *bleep* was their coach thinking? Worst decision was probably playing a God like Asamoah at left back

Yesterday everyone of chat tired of my repeated inquiries of how Michael Essien and Kevin Prince Boateng were benched.

Essien may be past it yet his role for Ghana in leadership and presence continues to be important to this day, let alone performing for them.

Prince is their best player and a big performer for them.

Asamoah? Likely the influence of that asshole Conte who has had many forget that Asamoah is first and foremost a CM, and quite a good one at that.

Essien I do not know yet I suspect Prince was unfit. Yet I'd play Essien with half a leg than Sulley Ali *bleep* Muntari.

Asamoah is very good in the middle and could have changed the game from there

At Juve we can't play him at CM because we have Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba and Marchisio

Wtf is Ghanas excuse?

Arquitescu wrote:

Gil wrote:Can anyone explain why Ghana didn't play their best players? The *bleep* was their coach thinking? Worst decision was probably playing a God like Asamoah at left back

Yesterday everyone of chat tired of my repeated inquiries of how Michael Essien and Kevin Prince Boateng were benched.

Essien may be past it yet his role for Ghana in leadership and presence continues to be important to this day, let alone performing for them.

Prince is their best player and a big performer for them.

Asamoah? Likely the influence of that asshole Conte who has had many forget that Asamoah is first and foremost a CM, and quite a good one at that.

Essien I do not know yet I suspect Prince was unfit. Yet I'd play Essien with half a leg than Sulley Ali *bleep* Muntari.

100% agree with you. Asamoah should be playing as a trequartista everytime. Excellent dribbler, great vision & has the required intelligence for that role. Ghana could have played through the middle instead of relying on crosses all game.

Prince sucks as a playmaker but he's pretty good as a right midfielder in a free role & always performs in big games. Would have played him on the right and Ayew on the left. Atsu on as a late sub against to run at tired defenders.

Essien has lost all his mobility but paired with someone like Acquah, it would be less exposed. His distribution, patience and experience would have been vital against USA's deep block.

Ghanian's must be frustrated. With Germany battering Portugal they had an excellent chance to qualify and blew it.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm a newbie and a bit fuzzy on the rules . . .

Due to the red card on last game, will Portugal have to play their next match with only 10 men?

BartFargo wrote:Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm a newbie and a bit fuzzy on the rules . . .

Due to the red card on last game, will Portugal have to play their next match with only 10 men?

No. Only Pepe will be suspended.

M99 wrote:

No. Only Pepe will be suspended.

Is he suspended for the entire cup or just the next match?  Is this at the discretion of the ref?

ETA: Sorry, I found out. Just the next match.

BartFargo wrote:

M99 wrote:

No. Only Pepe will be suspended.

Is he suspended for the entire cup or just the next match?  Is this at the discretion of the ref?

Just the next match.

Sorry about these dumb newbie questions. I should probably ask them in some other part of the forum?

BartFargo wrote:Sorry about these dumb newbie questions. I should probably ask them in some other part of the forum?

You're fine. We all learn sometime

Coentrao apparently ruled out of the World Cup with a thigh injury.

11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

That's shockingly low

3% of population

Natalie Portman wrote:

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

That's shockingly low

3% of population

More than 50% of the world population don't own a tv.

Natalie Portman wrote:

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

That's shockingly low

3% of population

It's a good figure considering how other sports are more popular in USA

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

According to...?

RedOranje wrote:

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

According to...?

http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/17/usa-ghana-tv-ratings-11-million-viewers-espn

The context makes that number much more significant and meaningful.  

The U.S. national team’s thrilling 2-1 victory over Ghana on Monday drew 11,093,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed men’s soccer match ever to air on ESPN or ESPN2. The telecast also averaged a 6.3 household rating, which was also the best-ever mark for a soccer event on ESPN's platforms. It was ESPN's most-viewed telecast since the January 6 BCS National Championship (which drew 25,572,000 viewers) and the company said an additional 1.4 million people viewed the game on its WatchESPN product.

http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/17/usa-ghana-tv-ratings-11-million-viewers-espn

In a thrilling debut in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, team USA pulled off a victory against Ghana on Monday, and with it, ESPN hit television ratings gold. The 2-1 victory for the U.S. Monday drew an overnight 7.0 ratings average, according to the Nielsen Company. ESPN said that it was the highest overnight rating ever for a men’s World Cup match on ESPN or ESPN2. A single national ratings point represents one percent of the total number, or 1,156,000 households for the 2013–14 season

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2014/06/17/usa-vs-ghana-world-cup-match-is-a-tv-ratings-hit-for-espn/





For some comparisons, the top 10 in the Nielsen Ratings for the week of June 2 was:
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/top10s.html

NBA Finals had ratings of 9.0 but no other program achieved a number higher than 6.6.

Should have been on ABC, not everybody has cable, maybe the ratings would have been even higher

Yeh, heard the match beat every NBA game other than the Finals and every baseball game other than the world series

Considering everyone west of Chicago who's in a traditional job and didn't take time off would've missed at least a portion (and those same people on the west coast would miss the entirety) I think it was a pretty decent rating. Also as Red mentioned, the game was on ESPN not network TV

I expect Sunday's game to be significantly higher than yesterdays, even though it's still on ESPN

A 9PM EST game on network TV would absolutely smash the ratings that the Ghana game got


Edit: almost forgot the game was on Univision as well, total rating averaged 15.9 million

RealGunner wrote:11m watched the USA vs Ghana game in USA.

26.36 mio watched Germany vs Portugal in Germany (81.8% market share)

Even Nigeria vs Iran was watched by 9.48 mio viewers (33.6% market share)

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/tv/wm-einschaltquote-26-36-millionen-zuschauer-bei-deutschland-portugal-a-975612.html

The Ghana - USA match was awesome. Sadly Ghana lost.

RealGunner wrote:Fantastic game really. USA showed what they didn't in the last tournament. They have a legit chance to go to R16 if they defend like this.

Great call by Klinsmann to get Brooks on for DMB.

Klinsmann is one of the most unfairly vilified people in football. When he became coach of Germany many criticized the appointment. Later Bayern gave him a hard time over the Kahn Lehmann dispute. Still he built the foundations of the slick German team of today and he did so by playing open attacking football with players much less technically gifted than the current German crop. He even took Germany to the WC 2006 semi final where they lost in the last minute to an Italy team superior technically and on paper to them and then there was Germany's Italy hodoo of course. Then he was appointed at Bayern for a year where he may not have done well but that is perhaps his coaching career's only failure. His USA appointment was again greeted with scepticism. He took the team on a good run of results but the only thing that mattered to the media was the dropping of Donovan for which he was once again berated. Yet now the situation is such that this supposedly crap USA team is better placed to qualify from the group than Ghana and perhaps even Portugal. High time people accepted that this man is much better than they have given him credit for all this while.

Portugal's doctor: "If Cristiano Ronaldo plays in this World Cup, the injury, could potentially end his career."

that's the thing with Ronaldo, he doesn't accept reality.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems he's been carrying this injury since  a couple of months, right?
I thought the statement he gave before the return leg against us was very alarming, when he said that "certain people dont' want him to play" and he meant the *bleep* team doctors..
You know, like it was a conspiracy of haters trying to keep him down.

I read something that at Real players have outsourced or individual medical support too, and the actual Real doctors wanted him to not play, but his own medical team gave the go or something? (someone with more knowledge please step in, elaborate or correct, please)

So if he had waived the semi, he might've been fully fit for the final, but no way Ronaldo will do without featuring in such an important game, so he played.
Had he then waived the final, he might've been fit for the WC, but not way Ronaldo...
Now he's playing like shit in the WC, and it hurts just watching.
Just can't accept the reality of having to miss a game when injured.

Ghana to beat Germany tonight, heard it here first