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I was on "The People's Game" podcast Friday night looking back at today's stunning games and ahead to Saturday's matches.

The boys from South Africa: The U.S. trains at Mogwase Stadium Friday ahead of the round of 16 game against Ghana (AP Photos).

The heat hype is on. Yes, it is the biggest game for the U.S. in modern American history. Again. Damn cool, huh?

I dissect the game here on KPFK.org

If you still don't know where to watch the game with your fellow fanaticos, click at top right. The San Pedro Brewing Co., will also host a viewing party (it's not listed on the map) and ABC will be airing from there live I'm told. The most spectacularly dressed U.S. fan wins some sort of unspecified prize.

I'll be watching here at an LA Riot Squad viewing party (with my U.S. shirt this time). Doors open at 10 a.m. The breakfast burrito is excellent. The IPA even better.

The Associated Press' Ronald Blum filed this preview of the game:

RUSTENBURG, South Africa (AP) -- For other countries, a second-round World Cup match is a big step. For the United States, Saturday's game against Ghana is so much more.

The television audience back home could top the U.S. national team record of 13.7 million, set during the 1994 World Cup loss to Brazil.

With a victory, the Americans would advance to a quarterfinal match-up versus Uruguay or South Korea on July 2 and match the farthest the U.S. team has advanced since the first World Cup in 1930. Confidence is soaring.

"If we continue to build on the successes so far, we can go to the end," coach Bob Bradley said Friday.

Father and son: Coach Bob Bradley and starting midfielder Michael Bradley on the practice field Friday.

The U.S. team made the 2-hour trip Friday northwest from Irene and checked into the Bakubung Bush Lodge, where the bus was blocked by an elephant ahead of the opener against England on June 12.

Players have been stoked since Landon Donovan's injury-time goal beat Algeria on Wednesday and lifted them into the knockout phase.

"The way we've been playing, feeling like we've gone undefeated and we've gotten stronger, I think that gives us hope," goalkeeper Tim Howard said.

American sports fans have been focusing on soccer at an unprecedented level. Former President Clinton attended Wednesday's game in Pretoria and chugged a post-game beer with captain Carlos Bocanegra.

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush joined the party. Clinton changed his schedule to stick around for the Ghana game.

"People were coming out of the woodwork to celebrate," Bocanegra said. Even the Kansas City Royals are setting up televisions around Kauffman Stadium so fans can watch while attending the baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Strikers Clint Dempsey, right, and Herculez Gomez work out Friday.

"You want to have a team that the people who care about ... and follow that team and root for that team and can feel part of," coach Bob Bradley said Friday. "A team that people believe in and a team that people are proud of. And so, that's part of our responsibility, and we're excited in the moment that there's that kind of feeling."

Saturday's game, nationally televised by ABC starting at 11:30 a.m., will be the third for the Americans at Royal Bafokeng Stadium. They had a 3-0 win over Egypt in last year's Confederations Cup and the 1-1 draw with the English in this tournament.

The U.S. is coming off a 2-2 tie against Slovenia, when the Americans rallied from a two-goal deficit and saw an 85th-minute goal controversially disallowed, and the thrilling 1-0 victory over the Algerians.

It would appear the U.S. has a favorable path to the semifinals, a round it reached for the only time 80 years ago. The Americans are ranked 14th, well ahead of Ghana (32nd) and South Korea (47th) and slightly in front of Uruguay (18th).

While the U.S. finished atop its first-round group for the first time since 1930, it hasn't won consecutive World Cup games in 80 years. And in Ghana, it plays the only one of six African teams to have survived past the group phase. All African fans figure to be supporting the Black Stars.

"Ghana is the African hope now," defender Samuel Inkoom said. "We aren't going to disappoint them."

Four years ago, the Americans played Ghana in their final first-round game and needed a victory to advance. Ghana went ahead early only for Clint Dempsey to tie it. But the Black Stars won the game on Stephen Appiah's penalty kick after a foul called by German referee Markus Merk against Oguchi Onyewu.

"An injustice," Onyewu said. "I still to this day don't know where the foul came from."

Ghana had just two goals in the group phase, penalty kicks by Asamoah Gyan against Serbia and Australia. Gyan, a teammate of Bocanegra's on Rennes, also scored against the Czech Republic in the 2006 World Cup after 68 seconds, the fastest goal of that tournament.

"He's got a great leap. He's really good in the air. He's powerful and fast," Bocanegra said. "He spearheads their attack."

Right back John Pantsil is a teammate of Dempsey on Fulham, but Ghana is missing its top player, midfielder Michael Essien, out since January with a knee injury. A four-time African champion, the Black Stars lost 1-0 to Egypt in this year's African Cup of Nations final.

Coach Milovan Rajevac is familiar with American soccer, having spent several seasons playing with an indoor team in New York.

"America has grown into a football superpower," he said.

Rajevac said central defenders John Mensah and Jonathan Mensah will play despite getting banged up against Germany on Wednesday, but Isaac Vorsah, another central defender, still is sidelined by a strained knee ligament.

For the U.S., forward Robbie Findley is eligible after serving a one-game suspension for accumulation of yellow cards. Bradley must decide whether to start Onyewu, who sat against Algeria because of the fast-paced play as he regains fitness following knee surgery last October.

Rajevac said it will be difficult for his team to turn around after just two off days between games. The U.S. team, which spent hours last month running wind sprints during training in Princeton, N.J., has no such concerns.

Potentially, the game could go 120 minutes -- and to penalty kicks, something the U.S. last experienced in the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal, a victory over Panama. But never have they been in a shootout in the World Cup.

"We're confident. It's pressure, but it's easier to play the Ghana game," Howard said. "We can take it into extra time. We can go to penalties. There's so many formulas that can happen."

NOTES: The referee is Victor Kassai of Hungary, who worked Brazil's 2-1 win over North Korea and Uruguay's 1-0 victory over Mexico. He also refereed the United States' 2-1 loss to Spain at last year's under-17 World Cup.

Updated

FIFA preview.

I'll be reviewing the heart-stopping U.S. win against Algeria, its implications for American World Cup hopes and its significance for soccer in this country.

Full details of the show here.

Ten-year-old Tylo Kenneth wears a colored mohawk wig while walking through the spectator zone on the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town (AP Photo).

*"The People's Game" latest podcast from KPFK that includes me talking about the U.S.-England game the morning after the night before is here.

*Univision said today about four million viewers - double the 2006 figures despite the time similarity - watched the opening game of the World Cup Friday. Almost 5.4 million watched the Mexico-South Africa opener on Univision, making it the No. 1 program of the day, while about 2.6 million watched on ESPN.

*ESPN, BTW, said today the U.S.-England game was the most-watched World Cup game since 1994 and the fifth highest all-time. Through the first five games, ESPN and ABC ratings are up 95% and 108% respectively. ESPN's most-watched game: Argentina-Nigeria.

*The Ventura County Fusion plays at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday against the Arizona Sahuaros in the U.S. Open Cup first round at Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road. The Fusion beat Fresno 2-1 Thursday in PDL play.

*After playing 90 scoreless minutes the San Jose Earthquakes won 6-5 in a penalty-kick shootout win over Chivas USA Saturday in the ultra-prestigious and inaugural Sacramento Cup. Chivas USA managed all of one shot on goal during the 90 minutes. No word yet if Chivas USA will play in the upcoming Jersey Jockstrap.

Chivas USA lineup: Zach Thornton (Dan Kennedy 46), Mariano Trujillo (Jorge Flores 46), Michael Umaña, Darío Delgado, Carlos Borja, Michael Lahoud (Marcelo Saragosa 46), Osael Romero (Jose Macotelo 46), Blair Gaven (Ben Zemanski 46), Jesús Padilla (Gerson Mayén 46), Justin Braun (Maicon Santos 46), Maykel Galindo (Chukwudi Chijindu 46).

"The People's Game," a new radio show and podcast on KPFK that will run for the duration of the World Cup premieres at 8:30 tonight on the radio station and is also available as a daily podcast.

Your faithful blogger will contribute to the program that "focuses on equal measure on the game on the field, as well as the political, social, cultural and economic subtexts of humanity's largest cultural event."

Full details of the show here.

The folks at the Major League Soccer talk blog decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel this week and interviewed yours truly for inclusion on their season preview podcast.

Meanwhile, reporter Phil Collin wisely kept his mouth shut and his laptop open for today's Galaxy preview.

Here's more on the special guest the Galaxy had visit them at training Wednesday.

Finally, Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena appears on an on-line chat at 12:30 p.m. on ESPNLosAngeles.com

I'll be back a little later today with more on tonight's Chivas USA season opener.

I was a guest on the Canadian show Wednesday night talking about the Galaxy.

Listen here.

"It's Called Football" is a Canadian podcast out of Toronto.

I've been on the show three times and despite the feeling I get more incomprehensible every time they keep asking me back.

This is their MLS mid-season show and I'm on babbling about Alecko Eskandarian, the Galaxy and David Beckham. And in that order, too.

Here's the link.

Before I forget here's the Barcelona roster for their three-game U.S. tour including Saturday's game against the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl (BTW, I don't think any of their practices are open to the public and the media are being asked not to reveal the locations anyway):

GOALKEEPERS - Albert Jorquera, Jose Manuel Pinto, Victor Valdés

DEFENDERS - Eric Abidal (FRA), Maxwell Andrade (BRA), Henrique Adriano (BRA), Daniel Alves (BRA), Rafael Márquez (MEX), Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Víctor Sanchez, Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontás

MIDFIELDERS - Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andres Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez, Victor Sanchez, Seydou Keita (MLI), Toure Yaya (CIV), Jonathan Dos Santos (MEX)

FORWARDS - Eidur Gudjohnsen (ICE), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (SWE), Thierry Henry (FRA), Bojan Krkic, Lionel Messi (ARG), Jeffrén Suárez.

(Nationalities of players are Spanish unless otherwise).

Barcelona has arrived in Los Angeles.

It's Called Football.

I'm the first guest on this podcast. I'll have more MLS season previews in my column Tuesday in the (Los Angeles) Daily News, (Torrance) Daily Breeze and other L.A. papers.