Incredibly, despite falling behind by two goals in the first half against Slovenia on Friday afternoon, the Americans were one lousy call away from a stunning victory thanks to another stirring comeback. Instead, it will have to settle for a 2-2 draw that, at least, maintains its hopes of advancing to the second round until next week's first round finale.
US Reactions to Refs Blown Call | USA vs. Slovenia World Cup 2010 Live Blog
Video: Michael Bradley's Equalizer | Koman Coulibaly's Wikipedia Page Defaced
Video: Michael Bradley's Equalizer | Koman Coulibaly's Wikipedia Page Defaced
The Key Plays: Slovenia simply was better at the basics of soccer than the U.S., especially in the first half. Their passes were more accurate, their trapping was more sound and they were far smarter with their movement off the ball. That difference in quality resulted in two goals.
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The first was a 25-yard blast from midfielder Valter Birsa, who found loads of space behind the U.S. midfield and in front of the defense in just the 13th minute. The second came in the 42nd, when some quick passing freed Zlatan Ljubijankic down the left. He slid a smart shot past a charging Tim Howard.
U.S. coach Bob Bradley replaced the struggling Jose Torres and forward Robbie Findley for the start of the second half, inserting Benny Feilhaber in midfield and pushing Clint Dempsey up front. Maurice Edu filled in in central midfield. Within minutes, the motivated Americans resurrected their hopes and pulled to within one. Steve Cherundolo hit a long ball down the right that Landon Donovan collected in the corner. Rather than cut the ball back, he charged toward the near post and lifted a perfect blast into the roof of the net.
The Americans continued their onslaught, and drew level in the 82nd minute on a beautiful play finished by Michael Bradley. A long pass from Donovan was headed down against the defense's shift by Jozy Altidore. Bradley stormed through and poked it over the goalkeeper, running toward the corner flag in a mad celebration that was joined by the entire U.S. team, including those on the bench.
Watch the goal that should have given the U.S. a 3-2 win, and three points in Group C. FanHouse has the video.
The controversy: The Americans scored a third goal as well, but it was inexplicably ruled out by Malian referee Koman Coulibaly. He'd had a decent game until the 86th minute (a few missed calls, but maintained the flow and let the players play), when Donovan's curling free kick from the right was slammed home by Edu. Bradley was ruled offside on the play. Not only was he on, according to TV replays, but a Slovenian defender had him in a bear hug. Certainly the U.S. has no one to blame but themselves for the way they opened the game, but this call will linger if they come a point short of advancing to the second round.
"I'm a little gutted to be honest," Donovan said. "I don't know how they stole that last goal from us. I'm not sure what the call was. He (the referee) wouldn't tell us what the call was."
What it means: The U.S. remains in the hunt at 0-0-2, with two points in Group C. Slovenia has four at 1-0-1, with England and Algeria playing tonight. Should England win, as expected, it'll have four points and Algeria zero. Slovenia and England play each other next week, and unless they tie, a U.S. win over Algeria will put the Americans through.
Men of the Match: Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan. Bradley was a beast in the second half, covering enormous amounts of ground and scoring the tying goal. He also did an enormous amount of work in the first compensating for the overmatched Torres, and took several shots from long range that forced saves from Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. Donovan brought the U.S. back off life support with his brilliant goal, then launched the pass that set Bradley free for the equalizer.
Comments (Page 1 of 22)
Seems like the US team has the mentality of doing good enough when they can actually do a lot better. I trully believe that they will make it through.
It takes finess and intelligence to win the cup, and America has neither! They can't even spell the word socker!
It shouldn't come down to a blown call! USA was outplayed today by a much weaker team or is USA even that good at all.
Oh, how funny the world is.
As in all sports across the globe, the officials who often determine the outcome of an event have no accountablity for their actions. Until a method for this is determined, we will continue to see the type of calls the offical made in the US soccer game today.
Soccer is a ***** sport!!! Everyone knows it!!! Bigger things going on in the USA then that sport!!! Thats why Americans dont give a crap about Foreign Sports!!! Never have and never will!!!
Honestly, not many people care about americans not being into football - soccer as you call it. There are enough countries or nations that love this sport. You don't like it? So what! Besides, Slovenija was better!
I don't know where you are from Dvd, but I'm sure it's a Country in which chickens run in the streets. Soccer is a ball and 2 tin cans. It takes absolutely no sophistication or intelligence. Try watching a real sport like baseball or football. We will spell the word soccer however we want. This is America; we do what we want.
Football in Europe #1 to American Socker. Europe F1 Motor sport #1 make America racing look like riding donkeys. American Baseballers wil never understand dis.
I read all these comments concerning the Americans lack of ability and vile type about the Americans. I assume all of you speaking like this have forgotten that America saved you asses not once but twice in two wars. If not for the Americans Englans would be a vacation resort for the Nazis and France would be a third world country...oh I forget it is... The rest of Europe would be a hole in the ground. How quickly we forget what America has done for the rest of the world. I know you don't like hearing the truth so I expect some nice replys.
Jealousy is a terrible trait you people have.
THE REF. CHANGED THE OUTCOME OF THE GAME, USA TEAM PLAYED TERRIBLY 1ST HALF BUT CAME OUT TO WIN IT IN THE 2ND! THEY JUST MAY MAKE US PROUD AND JOIN ENGLAND AS THE TWO TO MAKE IT OUT OF GROUP!
shwati2..you're a dumbass...how in the world is baseball a sophisticated sport? and soccer, from experience, well it's probably the most demanding out of them all...you go and sprint 5-6+ miles for 90 minutes...until you do, shut your ****ing mouth.
Dvdfrnzwbr.... YOU are a losser...
We had that game in the bag except for a bad call. Sooner or later we will stop being the underdog in world cup plan and be victorious. Our fans are second to none expecially in Seattle.
The ref is/was a jerk. Huge rip-off! I enjoyed watching the stoneface Slovenian coach who started crying big-time in the 2nd half.
Dvdfrnzwbr, you sound like a moron. I can care less about soccer. Its a wimp sport. The USA got screwed plain and simple. Have fun watching your soccer cupcakes.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! and all you others that have something Negative about us Americans.
@cplagenza you obviously do not understand baseball to call it an unsophisticated sport. So much more goes into the game of baseball on so many levels. Soccer is demanding, but baseball is actually an interesting sport.
Just lucky that this STUPID CALL BY THIS REF was made in AFRICA and not HONDURAS / GUATEMALA or most latin AMERICAN COUNTRIES this REF. would have been STRUNG UP by the END OF THE GAME AND TANKS WOULD HAVE ROLLED .
The Goal he disallowed was a ligit but then this SIMBA was to BLIND AND STUPID TO NOTICE A LOT OF OTHER BAD CALLS HE MADE oh well what you exspect from a RETARD THE LIKES OF THAT !
Why don't you all wait for the final before slamming each other. At least then you've earned the right. Until then, Have a beer.