A piece of cake?

Who for, Ghana! LOL

Don't underestimate them...US need to win and need to cross fingers and toes that Italy come good against the Czechs - no mean feat, considering how they fared against the US!

Hmm - someone's counting their chickens......

It'll be close - British bookies have the Ghanians as slight favourites.

Ghana apparently has a very strong team and has been doing very well so far. It's not going to be an easy match for the US.

Ghana's performance has been quite impressive and didn't they get some kind of honor for having the most "ethical" team or something along that line? AKA, the World Cup's "Miss Congeniality" award.
I will root for the U.S. but I suspect Ghana will win by one goal. And if Ghana does win, then I'll root for them the rest of the tournament.

Kate (sigh!) I don't know why I'm moved, once again, to point this out, BUT I must:

When collective nouns are regarded as a unit, they take the SINGULAR form of the verb; hence, it's US NEEDS to win, Italy COMES, British Airways FLIES, the family IS, the court HAS, etc.

I'm sure you also say England ARE winning, but simply because through some sort of peculiar cultural idiosyncracy that is not shared by ANY OTHER LANGUAGE and THEIR collective nouns, it has sprung up in the UK, (England acutely, less so in Scotland) that you do indeed mangle the English language in this way.

And I also know, some 26 years after first realizing this was occuring, that it is not taught this way in your grammar books, nor do we see England ARE winning said on the BBC. If you don't believe me, there is a BBC site on noun/verb agreement that uses the following examples:

the UN / New Labour / the BBC

Corporate bodies like those above also fall into the above category:

The UN says it HAS no plans to move a further detachment of troops to the war-torn area. But in effect they are in disagreement on this issue.

New Labour IS holding its annual conference in Brighton this week. They plan to discuss international issues as well as local concerns.

The BBC HAS appointed Mark Damazer as its controller of Radio 4. Many staff were surprised by the appointment.

So you see, it's not just me saying this.

Talk about long fingernails scraping slowly down a chalkboard...

Heh Heh Kate – Told off for your English by an American!

Spygirls this is one of those colour/color things. We say a team are winning, but and individual is winning – eg Spurs are beating Arsenal, Henman is beating Hewitt.

Spurs are a collective – ie a team so are considered a plural.

Ghana has amazing team speed which the US may have difficulty with. The US can win (& should) if they play their best. Italy should also win, which means we would get the honor of facing Brazil in the next round. Really looking forward to that... England should be more concerned w/their own match-ups once they get to the 'knock-out' round. Ecuador they should be able to handle, but after that...

Bloody hell Spygirl, slap my hand!

Anyway, it's my language and I'll use it however the hell I like. You said "I'm sure you also say England ARE winning, but simply because through some sort of peculiar cultural idiosyncracy that is not shared by ANY OTHER LANGUAGE and THEIR collective nouns, it has sprung up in the UK". I can't see how you can have the nerve to criticise how the English change the use the English language. Language is not held in a time capsule.

And you're still going to get knocked out of the World Cup.

Kate - as will you, it is just a matter of when...

"England should be more concerned w/their own match-ups once they get to the 'knock-out' round."

Oh believe me, we are SanParis. But does you're comment imply that we aren't allowed to debate the strengths and weaknesses of other teams? But that's the whole fun of the World Cup!!

OK, to get back on subject here....
Normally I would root for Ghana since they are the underdogs making good, but in the end I have to cheer for my own country first. But if Ghana beats the US, I'll root for them from that point forward. Ghana won't be a piece of cake for the US, and remember, we don't have Mr. Zaccaro (I think that is his name) to help us this time, either.

22nd minute:

Ghana- 1
USA- 0

I would guess the expectations of the English are much higher than those of the US. I don't see England winning the thing based on their matches to date + the loss of Owens.

GO GO TEAM USA!

A question for the Americans….

How good do you think the USA team actually is? I know that FIFA rank the USA at 5 in the world (this is because of how the ranking co-efficient works), but where do you think. But [yes spygirl you can start a sentence with a preposition], where do you think your real standing is?

As good as say Mexico? England? Scotland? Andorra?

I’d be interested to know.

PS You're a goal down and Reyna looks donald ducked...

SanParis, we don't see us winning the thing either, but you can't begrudge us living in desperate hope.

Dave: As an American, I have no idea. I'm definitely no expert! Judging by the way things have played out so far, I think a good argument could be made that, yes, the US was ranked too high. This isn't just because of inconsistent playing by the US but also the play of several other teams - Ghana, for one.

BTW, I will pull for the UK teams, too.

I would have viewed it as a successful trip to get to the knock-out round. Our group couldn't have been worse for us, in my opinion. As far as the ranking goes, that holds about as much water as the BCS crap that was discussed on another thread.

I love English grammar discussions! They are just as exciting as soccer/football games.

For a good English grammar book, check out Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. That's my English grammar bible.