News

Great News USMNT Fans, Ghana Draws Nigeria In World Cup Qualifying And Will Likely Miss 2022 Tournament

Ghana and the United States men’s national team have a rich history of meeting at the World Cup. The African nation knocked out the USMNT of the world’s biggest tournament in 2010 and 2006 and the Americans got revenge in 2014. Both teams failed to make the 2018 edition and now the question of will Ghana make the World Cup looms after the latest World Cup qualifying draw.

Each confederation has a different qualifying format. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has three rounds of qualifying with the final round featuring five home-and-away ties with the best remaining teams.

The draw for the final round took place in Cameroon on Saturday and holy bleep are there some intense match ups.

Sadio Mané’s Senegal vs. Mohamed Salah’s Egypt?? Algeria vs. Cameroon! Nigeria vs. Ghana! Get your popcorn ready.

These qualifying games will be played from March 23-29.

Will Ghana Make The World Cup?

The Black Stars are in a heap of trouble after Saturday’s draw. Ghana had the possibility of drawing Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria or Nigeria. If AFCON is any bit of a form measure the Black Stars’ best bet would have been to get Algeria or Tunisia.

The USMNT’s foes had the worst possible AFCON. Ghana finished bottom of a group consisting of Morocco (28), Gabon (89) and Comoros (132). Their doom was certified on the final day of the group stage when AFCON newcomers Comoros pulled off an incredible 3-2 victory.

On the same day as the World Cup qualifying draw Ghana fired its manager.

Ghana was lucky to make the third round of CAF World Cup qualifying after some seriously questionable refereeing gave the Black Stars a victory against South Africa in the second round. The result eliminated South Africa from qualifying for the World Cup even after FIFA declined South Africa’s request to look into the incident.

Nigeria has been red hot in the AFCON group stage winning all three of its games including a relatively comfortable victory against Egypt. The Super Eagles have qualified for six of the last seven World Cups.

Obviously, Gregg Berhalter and the USMNT will pay little attention to the news as they need to finish their job first.

When John Brooks scored that winning header against Ghana in 2014 the majority of the current USMNT weren’t even teenagers yet. 

USMNT fans know the history of Ghana and will keep a firm eye on the final round of CAF qualifiers on March 23-29.

Videos you might like