artie_fufkin wrote:

alz wrote:

I know looking at the rankings calling a win over Portugal seems seriously optimistic, even homer-ish.

Ghana has to be a win. Then it's up to the result of Portual or Germany, and .... I think we have a much better chance of beating Portugal....

 
The U.S. will definitely be underdogs against Portugal, but remember Portugal didn't win its qualifying group and needed two goals in the last 15 minutes against Sweden in their playoff to make it to the WC finals. Their entire offense revolves around Rinaldo and if he's hurt or he pouts or he gets a red card for kicking someone in shins, they're a beatable side.
I've already written off the Germany game, even though the U.S. beat a version of them this year. At full strength, they're solid at every position. A draw would be almost miraculous.

 

I'd certainly agree with that. I'd take a draw against Germany in the group stage any day of the week. That would leave us with a decent possibility of taking first in the group stage and at least drawing a second place advancement in the elimination stage.

However for the immediate future, quite a few months in fact. Nothing matters outside of Ghana. Beating them may not get us through the group stage, but losing to them will almost certainly end our world cup hopes.