Ghana's Stephen Appiah has showcased his powerful leg throughout the World Cup. Alex Livesey/Getty Images

SI.com: How has Ghana looked in this World Cup compared to what you had seen before this tournament?

Onalfo: In the African Nations Cup they didn't have their full team. Muntari, Essien and Gyan weren't even at the tournament. And you could see it. Ghana, in my opinion, when they have their starting 11, their top 11 are pretty darn good. But once they have to get into their bench, all of a sudden there's a drop-off. That's the case for a lot of teams. We feel that they've lost two players, we've lost two players. I tend to believe our roster is overall, one through 23, better than the Ghanaian roster. So they're going to be really hurt by those two guys who are suspended.

Having said all that, they've played a pretty darn good tournament. They got punished pretty harshly against Italy. The second goal was a back-pass that [Sammy] Kuffour basically blew against the run of play. And their first goal was off a set piece. So it was kind of a heartbreaking loss for them, but that's international soccer.

Then they caught the Czech Republic on a really bad day. The Czechs walked on the field thinking they were going to win the game. They had a terrible approach, gave up an early goal, and then Ghana was all over them the entire game. It could have been 5-0. So they're flying high right now, and I think that goes into our favor. If they're going to attack with numbers and shoot at us, that plays right into our hands. We're a good team that can defend and counter well. I believe it's a team we match up well against, and if we can do things correctly and play a decent game, there's no reason we can't win.

SI.com: Bruce Arena says his biggest concern about Ghana is its speed. How does the U.S. respond to that in this game?

Onalfo: You go into every game and look at a team's strengths and weaknesses, and certainly we feel they have excellent team speed. We also have excellent team speed too. So all you do tactically is try not to get yourself in situations where you're always in footraces and there's enormous amounts of space behind you. We're not changing our whole gameplan because of it, but it's something the players are aware of and our team is ready to combat.

SI.com: I'm told there's a fun story about how you got Ghana game tapes to help your scouting from a Ghanaian businessman in Washington D.C.?

Onalfo: It's funny. My wife just brought over two more from him. This guy was so helpful in getting games for us. It's a contact through D.C. United, a mentor or friend of Nana (Kuffour) from Ghana, who played for D.C. United. This guy runs a distribution center for African foods out of D.C., and [United technical director] Dave Kaspar gave me his number. It was one of those things where I was like, Should I even bother to call this guy? Thank god I did, because 24 hours later I had a whole bunch of DVDs on Ghana. I got all their World Cup qualifying games, got their friendly games. Not all from him, but he provided six or seven games for us. It's all helpful, because it's not easy to get those games. They're played in some remote places like Congo and everywhere else.

SI.com: Anything else good to know heading into the game?

Onalfo: We're just thinking positively. We're going to worry about what we can worry about, which is playing a smart game against Ghana and getting three points. And hopefully Italy will do the same and we can move on.

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