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(1′) — Clint Dempsey, 1-0 USA
The play starts on the left sideline, as DeMarcus Beasley knocks a pass to Jermaine Jones. Moments prior, Clint Dempsey — the eventual goalscorer — had played the ball from the middle of the field to Beasley on the sideline. Immidately after passing to Beasley, Dempsey begins his run towards the corner of the penalty box. His defender on the play commits a critical error when, instead of following Dempsey, he watches the ball travel towards Beasley. When the ball arrives at Jones’ feet, Dempsey has a couple of steps on his defender and is directly in line with Jones, who locates him and plays a square pass to Dempsey.
Dempsey’s first touch on the ball is perfect. It’s far enough away from him that it allows him to maintain his forward-moving momentum, and it’s close enough to him that the charging defender can’t get to the ball first. When the defender takes a couple of steps towards Dempsey, he is caught off-balance as Dempsey quickly changes direction with a sharp outside of the foot cut to the middle of the field. From there, Dempsey places the ball on his left foot and clangs in a shot off the post.
The Ghana defender who was initially guarding Dempsey never fully recovers, as he, once again, is caught watching the play unfold when Dempsey slides past the second defender. If he had been running full speed and not at a brisk jog, he might have been able to knock the ball away from behind after Dempsey made his cut.
Now, after Dempsey frees himself of the second defender with the cut to the inside, there are two Ghana defenders in the box and two U.S. attackers, in addition to Dempsey. Instead of stepping up on Dempsey, both defenders stay with their men, leaving Ghana’s goalie hanging out to dry. The nearest defender should have left his man and forced Dempsey to pass the ball. While it still might have resulted in a goal, it would’ve added one more step to the process which might have resulted in a mistake at some point.
’86 — John Brooks, 2-1 USA
Before I start, kudos to Fabian Johnson for chasing down an overshot through ball and forcing a corner kick. If Johnson doesn’t run down that ball, Ghana is clearing the zone with a goal kick.
Now, the game-winner, which is bit easier to breakdown than Dempsey’s goal. Graham Zusi takes the corner and places it in the sweet spot: just outside the six-yard box, which means its too far for the goalie to come out and either catch or punch it away. Additionally, Zusi also drives it with just the perfect amount of pace. If the ball hangs in the air too long, it gives defenders more time to clear the ball and it makes it more difficult for attacking heads to redirect the ball with pace. When the ball is moving at a rapid-pace, all it takes is a simple redirect, which is exactly what Brooks does.
The key to Brooks’ header is that he makes sure to hit the ball down instead of up. The ball skips off the ground and into the back of the net, giving the U.S. a lead it would not relinquish and three-points that Ghana probably deserved.
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