Well wasn’t that fun. If you want to know what this means to the US hopes of advancing, scroll down…
The US once again let up an early goal and then doubled the fun by succumbing to the counter attack just before the half.
The US was outplayed in the first half; Slovenia had more ideas, was stringing passes together better, and overall just looked like the better team. The American’s one good chance was agonizingly close but then they got caught napping on the break and all of the sudden they were staring likely elimination in the face.
The second half was a totally different tale. Landon Donovan started things off inside of 3 minutes with a beautiful, composed, and powerful finish. He was aggressive in getting the ball in his own half and combining well with Bradley to help the US get forward. His free kicks have been excellent throughout this tournament and it is only a matter of time before they finish one (although they kind of already have).
The Slovenians proceeded to totally fall apart and despite a few combinations along around the box, they seemed to disappear completely from the middle of the field.
Jozy Altidore was really causing problems for the entire defensive unit. Mimicking his post up of Jamie Carragher on a few occasions and looking kind of like Dwight Howard out there, no one has a prayer of getting around him legally. Won a few free kicks and looked dangerous throughout. Being a striker though, you would love to see him get on the score sheet for his confidence alone.
He also did very well to win the ball in the air which set up Bradley’s finish which tied the game. A finish which deserves al the slurp that is coming, it was absolutely brilliant. To keep that ball down with the bottom of his shoe, going full speed, with the goalie coming out, is truly incredible. Landon Donovan was the official Budweiser “Man of the Match” but in my opinion it was Michael Bradley.
The kid was every where in the middle of the field. He constantly pressured the ball and took back possession. His distribution was very good. As I have stated (this is blog, it is self serving)….his runs from the midfield into the box always seem to cause problems for the defense, and today was an excellent example. He is turning into a great American central midfielder in the mold of a Claudio Reyna, but with the best sense of goal we have seen from that role. He has also matured very well over the past year and has cut down greatly on bad tackles and his hothead attitude.
There should also be credit given to Bob Bradley and Herculez Gomez for that goal; Bradley inserted the extra striker who occupied all the attention of the other CB during Donovan’s cross. He didn’t react quick enough after the layoff from Altidore and it created the space which allowed Bradley to come into the box and finish beautifully.
Bradley’s midfield options weren’t nearly as effective as he was. Jose Torres in the first half seemed to struggle with effective distribution, often giving the ball away and not really connecting with anyone effectively. Maurice Edu was just as sloppy with the ball, but did do better to help win possession back a few times and was better as he got into the game. He was quite unlucky to have that goal called back but more on that later.
Clint Dempsey was never really as threatening as he can be. Not to say he had a bad game but he just never seemed to be really dangerous. Might have done better on a set piece in early in the 2nd half but that is nit-picking and did get a little more active when moved up front to compliment Altidore prior to Herculez’s intro. He just didn’t seek nor receive enough of the ball to make the kind of impact he is capable of.
Benny Feilhaber got his first World Cup appearance off the bench and had a fairly positive impact. He did seem to be lacking in chemistry with his teammates and the knock on him continues to be that he thinks just a little too much on the ball sometimes. He tracked back very well and was not afraid of his defensive duties at all. I think he would have been better off starting in place of Torres, he does have the experience at this level.
Jay Demerit was very disciplined in the back, keeping the play in front of him and just being his standard aggressive self. He also did a very good job on the much taller and clinical Milivoje Novakovic. He did get caught out a bit on the first goal but it could also be said that his partner Oguchi Onyewu didn’t step up fast enough for the trap to work, and they got burned….not the first defensive pairing to make that mistake. Gooch also didn’t close out fast enough on that first goal but other than that he was excellent once the game got flowing. He did play one great long ball to Jozy, which was wasted but the ball in should get some credit.
The first goal though wasn’t all Onyewu’s fault as Tim Howard probably would have screamed and yelled at him if it was. Howard did seem to get caught flat footed on that. Other than that he did well to control the area and made a few big saves late on.
Carlos Bocanegra continues to have issues with any sort of speed coming down the wing but was fairly solid overall. No glaring mistakes which is a good thing for people in his role. On the other side, Steve Cherundolo continues to be excellent. Offensively he wasn’t quite as creative or effective as he was against the Brits but defensively he was a stud.
In closing…
it was a fascinating game but truly a tale of two halves. The habit of not really getting into the game until they give up a goal is scary, especially now that they must beat Algeria. It is better to go down early rather than play 0-0 and concede in the 75th minute, at least it gives their adjustments time to make an impact.
Despite what the press might say, Slovenia/Algeria are not bad teams. This sport means the world to them and that is how they can turn populations that pale in comparison to the US into competitive soccer teams. The American’s must not just talk about taking these teams seriously but actually come out flying from the beginning. This is especially important next Wednesday when a win is absolutely necessary.
Referees
As far as the refereeing goes, it ranks right up there with the ball as things I don’t like to discuss. There are rash examples, ie Byron Moreno from Italy v S Korea in 2002, but this isn’t one of them. All sports are impacted by human error; the referee or a flubbed chance or a dropped pass in the end zone or letting the ball bounce through your legs.
When it is a refereeing error, it is amplified because it is much easier to rip into him than it is to blast a specific player, especially if he is your teammate. You would love to let these kind of games unfold with out having to worry about 3rd party influence, but we are human and we can’t govern ourselves so these are evils we must live with.
Maybe I am sympathetic b/c I have some experiencing refereeing 10 year old girls, but I think Koman Coulibaly was out there with the goal of enforcing the laws of the game as accurately as possible. He probably made an error but this is the game, sometimes they will go in your favor and other times they will not.
USA World Cup Scenarios
Now that Algeria has made things wildly interesting by tying England, we can look at what this means to the US.
Most importantly, they now control their own destiny. Win and in. Simple.
If England beats Slovenia, the US must beat Algeria. The winner of the group will be determined by who’s margin of victory next is great next Wednesday.
If England and Slovenia tie, the US can tie Algeria and advance in 2nd place instead of England as long as England doesn’t outscore the US by 2 goals total on Wednesday. If they outscore the US by exactly 2 goals, it seems that advancement is by coin flip…although that sounds absurd.
If England and Slovenia tie, the US wins the group if they beat Algeria by 2 or more goals.
If Slovenia beats England, the US can advance with a tie.
Algeria can also still advance as well if they beat the US and other things go their way…not really getting into that. Just means they will also be looking for a victory.
Others
Since things are so neat and tidy when you can put a number next to them….
Alexi Lalas is fucking pissed
If this is your thing; A full rant from FoxSoccer.com on the refereeing
Day 9 aka Tomorrow
Another reason I am stoked the US tied it….I don’t think I could have gotten excited about this weekend of games if the US had lost and been essentially eliminated. Fine, not eliminated but too reliant on other results to really be positive.
The 2nd and last weekend of 6 games starts tomorrow, make sure you enjoy it as it will be another 4 years until we see this quantity on a weekend again.
Saturday kicks off with the Netherlands v Japan. An interesting matchup as both teams won their opening round games; one expectedly, the other unexpectedly. The Netherlands have the attacking prowess to make a deep run while Japan would be happy to get out of the group.
Ghana has an excellent opportunity to take control of Group D after Germany’s loss from earlier today. Australia didn’t look great against Germany but they will surely come out ready to play, especially after today’s result threw that group into disarray. Ghana remains the only African team to win and will surely be looking to really generate some momentum and turn into the “home team.”
In a sign of Germany’s WC consistency, that was their first group stage loss since 1986. They did have a lot more trouble today than they did against Australia last weekend; maybe their new beautiful style was more a result of Australia’s poor performance than their own emergence. Or the danger with a young team like this, they just got a serious wake up call that this game isn’t as easy as it sometimes looks.
Specifically, Mesut Ozil got all sorts of love after the first game but just never seemed to get into it today, didn’t have much time on the ball and didn’t seem entirely interested in being there. One good ball did set up one of Lukas Podolski’s 10 chances but he pushed the ball wide.
The final game is a final chance for these two teams to keep their hopes of advancing alive. Cameroon took some flak after last week’s loss, even drawing rumors of “being on the take.” Denmark on the other hand was very successful in qualifying but was clearly outclassed against the Dutch. However, a win tomorrow will make them keepers of their own destiny going into the final game vs Japan.
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