The 44th minute penalty awarded Ghana against USA Thursday became a major concern of the media at the post match press conference here at Nuremberg. Ghana coach Ratomir Dujkovic simply gave a "no comment" answer to such questions.

Ghana's Razaq Pimpong was up for a pass and was challenged by Standard Liege's Onyewu Oguchi, the American of Nigerian parents. Pimpong freed himself to the ground in a fall that the referee Merk Markus from Germany took for a foul and pointed to the box. The Americans protested but the referee had taken his decision.

Many replays of that action on the tv monitors of the journalists covering the match showed clearly that the referee's decision might have been harsh to the American team. And that was probably why it was made an issue during the media briefing. The USA coach Bruce Arena was repeatedly asked questions that would attract serious condemnation of the officiating. He tried to avoid that but they kept rephrasing the questions. He now settled the matter this way.

"The man (referee) has done good matches in the past. Referees, like coaches and players, have their good and bad days. Even if the penalty was unfair, there were other things we didn't get right that should have made us win.

Our free kicks were poorly taken. But I thought that we played well and I knew that the match was going to be a one goal difference match. So, to an extent you may find the judgement unfair but I thought that Ghana played well too and a one-goal difference match can go either way."

On Michael Essien, the American coach said something Ghanaians would like to hear. "I have watched the footage and I think that it was another unfair judgement. That tackle was fair and should not have attracted a yellow card. Ghana need Essien in the next game and I thought that the tackle was fair."