Spirits and hopes were high; it was a knock out round and losing was not an option. Ghana had eliminated the U.S. out of the last World Cup in 2006, and in this game the U.S. team sought revenge.

Being the last surviving African team in the 2010 World Cup, Ghana was feeling the tension. But Ghana wasn’t the only team under this kind of pressure.

If the U.S. had won this game it would’ve been the first time a U.S. soccer team advanced to the Quarter-finals. But, their hard work missed the mark and Ghana beat the U.S. 2 to 1 on June 25.

Just five minutes into the match after Ghana player Kevin-Prince Boateng had scored, and U.S. fans started to lose hope.

“I think that in the first half, we did not come out strong, and our touches were sloppy,” sophomore Rachel Brdicka said. “Ghana was owning us due to silly errors in our fundamentals.”

After half time, the U.S. was back on their game as player Landon Donovan balanced the board by scoring a penalty kick in the 62nd minute of the match. The score was tied, and the match had to go in overtime for 30 minutes.

Within three minutes of overtime, Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan sent the ball past U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard. For the remaining time, the U.S. failed to score, ending the match in defeat.

Sophomore Areeba Zahir was sad but proud of the U.S. team.

“I could really tell they had tried their hardest and I wish they would’ve won,” Zahir said.

Zahir thought that even though the US team couldn’t make it to the Quarter-finals they still worked extremely hard and performed well. Brdicka agreed.

“The US came out of it with their heads held high,” Brdicka said. “It was a strong finish, just not the victory they’d hoped for.”