German referee Markus Merk’s awarding of a penalty kick to Ghana in stoppage time during the first half of the United States’ 2-1 loss to Ghana on Thursday was an absolute joke.

If every referee called a penalty kick on the infraction Merk spotted at the expense of U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu, who was battling for position in the penalty area with Ghana’s Razak Pimpong, soccer games would wind up 7-6 or 6-5 instead of 1-0.

But the bottom line is the U.S. didn’t deserve to advance to the next round.

Even if Merk hadn’t given Stephen Appiah an opportunity to score from the penalty spot to give Ghana a 2-1 lead just a few minutes after Clint Dempsey had equalized for the United States, the Americans still had to score in the second half to win and advance.

And they didn’t.

In fact, only four of the 21 shots they attempted in their three World Cup games went on goal.

They scored just once and Italy scored on own goal for them.

The inspiring 1-1 tie with Italy, in which the U.S. played with nine men to Italy’s 10 over the final 43 minutes, was the one bright spot.

An embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Czechs in their opener put the U.S. in a big hole because goal differential is used to break ties.

U.S. coach Bruce Arena didn’t do his team any favors by playing a conservative, defense-minded 4-5-1 formation with Brian McBride being his only striker.

That’s like switching from a man-to-man to a zone defense in basketball. Players become passive in a zone and don’t rebound nearly as well as they do in a man-to-man.

I think Arena was concerned with the offensive capabilities of the teams in his difficult Group E and didn’t feel his team could afford to attack with numbers. He didn’t want to fall victim to a counter attack.

So he took a defensive mindset and hoped to produce a goal on a counter or set piece. But our set pieces stunk.

The strategy simply didn’t work and the players we relied upon to produce goals were disappointments.

Landon Donovan has gone 18 games without a goal and was too content to make crosses from the perimeter instead of taking on defenders.

His free kicks, crosses and corners weren’t high-quality.

DaMarcus Beasley wasn’t as dangerous as should have been with his speed.

Claudio Reyna, the U.S. captain, violated the cardinal rule of Defending 101: do not try to dribble out of the back.

He was stripped of the ball and it wound up in the back of the net for a 1-0 Ghana lead.

Teams scoring first in the World Cup are 31-6-6 so far.

The U.S. never led in their three games.

McBride couldn’t use his air presence because he often found himself alone, surrounded by three or four defenders.

Arena has done a terrific job elevating the U.S. to a position of soccer respectability but he was too conservative and too loyal to his veterans in this World Cup.

But you can’t put all of the blame on Arena.

The Americans, with the exception of the second half against Italy, rarely played with a sense of urgency or purpose. They weren’t creative. They never generated a high tempo. They never flooded the attacking third with numbers.

They seemed content to lob long balls into a penalty area chock full of opposing defenders.

In goal, Kasey Keller couldn’t be faulted on any of the goals. But he didn’t come up with the spectacular saves you expect of him.

And we didn’t play smart.

Defender Pablo Mastroeni’s red card for a sloppy tackle against Italy was stupid. The Italians were playing one man down so he had to know any bad foul would probably earn a red card to even things up.

And then Eddie Pope picked up his second yellow with a foul from behind to give Italy a 10-on-9 advantage with 43 minutes left. Mastroeni and Pope, our best two defenders, had to sit out the Ghana game.

Despite our 0-2-1 performance, I maintain we are closing the gap.

We looked more like a respectable team that underachieved than a poor team that shouldn’t have been in the World Cup.

We have more players than ever in the top leagues in the world and there are some promising youngsters who could take us to the next level.

It may be time for a new coach but, by the same token, I wouldn’t have a problem if Arena stayed on.

Everybody makes mistakes and, hopefully, he learned from his.