Czech Republic v Ghana

My cable was screwed up, so I missed the first half, and I have no idea how Ghana took a lead. I tuned in just in time for the Nedved header with two Czech players offside. Nedved was borderline, but Lokvenc gets offside and stays there, and Nedved is a yard away, so it would be hard to ignore the borderline call and also call Lokvenc's offside passive. Some seriously questionable moves by the Czech central defenders trying to handle Ghana's strikers, who did still hold a fair bit to the unfortunate trend of the premier African teams in this tournament to try to break down opposing defenses by themselves. The Czechs seem to have spent half the game offside as well.

What looked like a turning point was Amoah being tripped from behind in the box, which was an awfully stupid play. The Czech defender would have been a lot better off if he'd covered the far post and picked up anybody making a run, rather than pulling a move that could only get him kicked out of the game. It was a tackle from behind on a guy with a clear path to the goal, and that's I assume why Ujfalusi got a red card, something that ESPN couldn't quite figure out, announcing he'd been given a red card for arguing with the referee. Amoah put the penalty in the back of the net, but the ref was too busy dicking around with Ufjalusi and the red card to notice, so it had to be retaken, and Cech saved the retake. It was quite a day for referees.

Later in the game, Ghana started to show some better passing in the last third, and created some better opportunities. That really stands out as the next big hurdle for the higher rated African teams, who have gotten much better organized at the back and developed some incredible talent up front, but can't get their attackers to pass to each other. It's tempting to speculate on how the less selfish appearing Angolan and Togolese teams pulled off shock upsets in qualifying. Endless dribbling and quick shots from distance really led to a lot of poor chances for Ghana. In any case, in the 82nd minute better passing paid off as Muntari iced the game with a second goal.

Also critical, the game ended with a Czech free kick that led to a brilliant save by Richard Kingston, and another nice save on the resulting corner, which ended the game. Preserving that 2-0 lead may be critical to Ghana in trying to make the second round. Hear that, America? Playing to the whistle against the Czechs is a good idea.

Ghana 2-0 Czech Republic
'2 Gyan
'82 Muntari

Red Card: #21 ('65)