U.S. must beat Ghana to advance, salvage future, rep

	Landon Donovan (21) played well against Italy, but the No. 3 all-time U.S. scorer also has gone 17 games without a goal. Michael Steele/Getty Images

FRANKFURT -- What's at stake when the U.S. meets Ghana in Nuremberg on Thursday? Oh, just about everything that matters in the world of the U.S. men's national team. Or, to be more specific, point by point:

• A spot in the second round of the World Cup.

The Americans' main goal entering this World Cup was to advance from group play by finishing first or second in one of the toughest foursomes imaginable. Now they have that chance. What will it take on Thursday? The only plausible scenario is a U.S. win over Ghana combined with an Italian win over the Czech Republic.

Is that possible? Yes. Is it still a longshot? You bet.

I'd put the chances of the U.S. going through at around 20 percent. Ghana is hardly a pushover, having blasted the same team (the Czechs) that blasted the Yanks in their World Cup opener. Yet the Ghanaians are missing their two goal-scorers from Saturday (Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan) due to yellow-card suspensions, and the U.S. is convinced it can win the game, even without suspended defensive stalwarts Eddie Pope and Pablo Mastroeni.

The only way Italy can guarantee that it wins the group (and avoids a likely second-round meeting with Brazil) is by beating the Czechs. I actually think that's slightly more likely than the U.S. beating Ghana. The Czechs are depleted by injuries right now, and star Pavel Nedved sounded like Debbie Downer the other day discussing his team's chances of advancing.

• The sanity of U.S. soccer fans.

The most surreal sports moment I've ever covered took place during the third U.S. game of the 2002 World Cup. The Yanks were getting pasted by Poland 3-1, and suddenly their survival depended on South Korea winning its game against Portugal (which was going on at the same time). Sitting in the media tribune of the U.S. game in Daejeon, I ignored the action in front of me and spent the last half-hour following the 0-0 Korea-Portugal game in Incheon on the TV screen.

Only after Park Ji-sung scored a late goal for the Koreans -- and after Portugal hit the inside of the post in the final seconds -- had the U.S. somehow qualified for the second round. The nerves of American fans probably still haven't recovered.

So here's my point: YOU MUST FIND A WAY TO WATCH BOTH GAMES AT THE SAME TIME ON THURSDAY. Italy-Czech Republic (10 a.m. ET, ESPN2) matters just as much to the U.S.'s chances as U.S.-Ghana (10 a.m. ET, ESPN). Go to your local sports bar. Move the bedroom TV next to the living-room TV. Do whatever you have to do. Soccer fandom is just as much about suffering with your team as it is about reveling in its glories. (In fact, it's more about the suffering, as Nick Hornby will tell you.) You'll never have a better chance to visit both extremes than during a two-hour period on Thursday.