Group A

The big news of the day came with South Africa’s 2-1 victory over 10 man France who had Gourcuff sent off in the 25th.  Big for two reasons actually: first, France completed their collapse but they did manage to score a goal (Malouda, 70), their first of the tournament; secondly,  South Africa becomes the first host country to fail to advance out of the group stage.  With Mexico’s loss and their 2 goal lead RSA did have a slim chance, if they could score 3 more while shutting out France they would have gone on in the tournament.  That clearly didn’t happen but credit to RSA and their players for their victory over the last World Cup runnerup.

Group A action concluded with Uruguay’s 1-0 victory over Mexico who produced a subdued effort.  Both teams advance to the knockout round with Uruguay topping the group on the strength of their determined effort and most of all the 3 clean sheets.  Mexico will face Argentina in the first encounter of the knockout round and Uruguay goes up against South Korea.

Group B
The South Koreans advance with an entertaining and competitive 2-2 draw with Nigeria.  The Super Eagles opened the scoring from Uche (12).  The goal was clearly against the run of play however, and the South Korean side fought back to take the lead in the 49th on goals from Lee Chung-soo (38) and Park Chu-young.  Nigeria would level on a Yakubu penalty (69) which came shortly after the Everton man had missed an open net.  Those that said this Nigeria side didn’t quite measure up to the teams of their past were proved right.  Nigeria’s record in their last 8 World Cup matches is now 0-6-2.

An ominous warning for the rest of the 16 to advance; Argentina wins their group with a 100% record with a 2-0 victory over Greece.  Not surprising you say?  Well, they did it with 7 of the first choice 11 given the day off which allowed Lionel Messi to wear the captain’s armband for the first time.  But it wasn’t Messi that directed the possession (67%) and the unrelenting attack, it was Juan Sebastian Veron who, according to ESPN set a World Cup record for touches and passses in the process.  The goals came from Demichelis (77) and the aging Martin Palermo (89) as he was on the spot to knock in the rebound of a Messi shot.  Palermo’s goal was his first in the World Cup, although he did notch 3 in qualifying.

Worthy of note is that South American sides remain unbeaten in the World Cup with a 10-0-2 mark with three of them winning their group while South Africa’s win and Nigeria’s defeat now has the African nations at 2-7-5.

Group C
With the ’win you’re in status’ of both the USA and England the final games in the group stage can’t possibly be more significant.  If England wins the USA must win to advance.

Why is the USA in this position again?  Yes again, and their past history in the final game of the group stage is not good.  Even the success of 2002 actually depended on South Korea’s victory over Portugal which allowed the US to advance as they fell to Poland 3-1 in their own “win and you’re in” scenario.  In 2006 they lost again, this time to Ghana and that time there would be no rescue from another side to help them get to the round of 16.  The mission this time has to be to earn it themselves and to do that they simply must change a few things that have to be the “keys” of the game.

Those keys are: produce a clean sheet and get at least one goal from the front runners.  Believe it or not the USA has not kept a clean sheet in nearly a year as in their last 10 internationals they’ve actually conceded the opening goal.  Their tendency to leak goals started long before that however as they conceded goals at a frightening rate in CONCACAF’s final ten qualifiers too allowing 13 goals in the hexagonal (the final ten qualifiers).  Allowing goals at that rate is simply not good enough when it comes to the World Cup.  In the current group stage the USA has conceded the most goals in the group (3) while scoring only 3 themselves.  Not terrible mind you, but not great either and the result of course is that the goal difference, an expression of the overall quality of their play is zero, which is precisely why they are in the position they are in at the moment.

This game needs to be in that great category or they will again fail in their final group stage match.  They do have the ’protection’ if you will and could back in with another draw if they get the right result in the England-Slovenia match.  The USA needs to put that aside and focus on their own game and go out and win it.  They’ll likely do that IF they keep a clean sheet or at least don’t concede that opener yet again.  On their side in this effort is that Algeria has not yet scored a goal while on the other hand they’ve only conceded 1 (a -1 goal difference, even worse than the USA’s 0).

If the guys in front of him screw up, and their recent history is that they have all too frequently, Tim Howard must be there to make that game saving stop, especially early.  If the big keeper does that, and if he’s called on here he must, it can instill some confidence in the rest of the side.  He simply cannot be frozen in time with his feet in concrete as he was against Slovenia on their opening goal.  Yes, the comeback was thrilling and marvelous to watch but it really should not have been necessary at all frankly.  Conceding that goal from over 30 yards and not reacting to it at all means Howard was caught by surprise or never saw it.

Don’t know about you but I’m also tired of watching Altidore fail to deliver a goal and having his face in his hands in the internationally agreed posture of remorse for missing an opportunity.  Yes, he’s been denied by the post or bar or a terrific ’look what I found save’ at times, but he simply must do better.  That goes for the guys that play off him as well.  Frankly, it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see Buddle take that role and have the creative guy Gomez there to take advantage with his skill and guile.  It is a puzzle to me that the guy that has proven his goal scoring prowess repeatedly coming off the bench late in games hasn’t earned a more prominent role from Bradley.

If this team is to actually reach their potential they’ve got to play the game from the opening whistle, and actually earn their right to advance.  Harder said then done lately, but now is the time to change that and go out and actually earn their accolades.  Truth be told the USA has never won a single point in the 3rd match of the group stage.  Failing again in the final group stage match is unacceptable.

In a surprise Bradley does put Gomez up front in the starting 11 and strongly suggests his lack of confidence in Onyewu by leaving him out.  Or is it his fitness (?) which was an issue before the first ball was kicked and warned about right here ahead of the World Cup’s first match.  I mentioned then I expected his lack of real competitive action before the competition began would become an issue for Bradley.  Which is it?  But many fans won’t like Bradley’s move.  Many fans would see it as a negative: Jonathan Bornstein in the starting 11 with Bocanegra and Demerit taking the central defender role.
Despite fan ire with Bornstein, Bradley still has confidence in the guy and remember, he coached him at Chivas USA.  Worth mentioning is that this back line has never been grouped together in a starting role.

Algeria counters with three strikers in a bid to open their game and score goals and in the sixth minute it led to a great chance early when DeMerit missed a volley attempting to clear a searching ball and Djebbour hit the bar with his shot.  USA escapes near disaster early in the match and nearly the same thing happened just minutes later when Cherundolo miss hit his clearance giving Djebbour another chance which went well wide.  A good run by Altidore from deep led to Bradley being taken down in the area and he sweeped the ball away to Gomez.  His initial shot was well saved and the rebound was sent across goal to Dempsey at the back post who slammed it in.  Again, the goal wouldn’t count as Dempsey was ruled offside (it was clearly a wrong decision; Dempsey was not offside).  Good grief!  USA has the second goal in the group stage play ruled out.

In the 33rd Dempsey was sent in nicely but his toe-poke attempt didn’t get past the keeper.  In the 36th minute Altidore again squandered a great chance banging the ball over from 4 yards.  Many will now say the man out there should have been Buddle.  Instead of finishing the golden opportunity we see yet another scene of the hands to the face as the chance goes begging.  It just happens far too often with the young Altidore.  A team simply cannot succeed when the chances are not taken and it must be said Gomez too didn’t finish when he had the opportunity on two occasions.  One did lead to the denied goal however but he might have done better with the first attempt.  At this level spurned chances often lead to disaster.

With England leading at the half they now face 45 minutes to find a way to victory or they pack their bags and go home.  Feilhaber comes on for Gomez but still no Buddle as Altidore stays on the pitch.  In the 57th a terrific run from Altidore and the pull back found Dempsey whose first attempt found the post and then sent the rebound wide.  Another opportunity not cashed in.

Buddle comes on in the 64th (for Maurice Edu) and in the 67th his header from a delightful cross from Cherundolo went directly to the keeper who reacted well and held the rebound.  Just two minutes later a hard low cross from Altidore looking for Dempsey was nearly deflected in for an OG.  In the 81st Dempsey takes an elbow to the face trying to get on a cross that draws blood and no call.  Then, just a minute later Altidore is chopped down with a challenge from behind but Dempsey could not keep his attempt down from the free kick.

As the match entered added time (4 minutes) Algeria made a rare advance to the US area and were caught and Howard’s throw started the counter.  Donovan led the rush, put the ball on the wing to Altidore who drove his cross low and hard looking for Dempsey again.  The ball was taken off his foot by the diving keeper and lay for Donovan who had wisely continued his run and banged in the match winner.  An unreal match where the determination of the US created chance afer chance and couldn’t cash in but then this incredible counter-attack in the first minute of injury time to win it.  Not only win it, but they also win the group and send Algeria and Slovenia home.  The USA wins their first points ever in the third match of the group stage of a World Cup.  And yes, they did keep the clean sheet too.

Speaking of earning their accolades the only team in more turmoil than England at this point is France and they’re on their way home.  England could be too as a loss to Slovenia and a US win would send them packing their bags.

As unreal as that scenario would be it is a distinct possibility.  When you look at this collection of players you have to scratch your noggin’ and wonder how in the hell did they get themselves in this position in the first place?

Here is a team of truly world-class players from top to bottom.  At every field position this team is made up of guys that are among the world’s very best.  Could that be the source of their problems on the pitch?  Frankly, the answer to that just might be yes.  You have to say ’might be’ because their success in qualifying would put the lie to saying yes you’d think at first blush, but that wouldn’t be accurate.  The team that blitzed through qualifying didn’t have all these guys together at that time as a matter of fact.

England seems to have become a collection of great players and far from the effective team everyone expected them to be.  Very much like the side that failed to qualify for Euro 2008 with essentially this very same team.  The difference is this time they’ve become a disjointed outfit instead of a team.  That needs to end here and now and you can expect it will in this match with Slovenia.  Actually, you could say it must.

England too undergoes a bit of a shakeup as both managers, Bradley and Capello seem to still be searching for the answer to their woes.  Or are they both just searching for the answer for this particular match?  Defoe in the starting 11 versus Heskey along with Milner sure seems to be a far better response for England.  Americans would wish for such options for Bradley that is for certain.

It worked for England as they produced the kind of performance you’d expect from this collection of great players in a 1-0 victory over the group leaders Slovenia.  Where did the goal come from?  Defoe.
A Rooney attempt late on came back off the post.  Okay, so why is that important?  Had Rooney hit the back of the net, or anyone else for that matter, and England won by 2-0 they would have won the group and avoided facing Germany (at least for now).

England and USA advance from Group C with England to play the winner of Group D and USA to face the runnerup.

Group D
Australia was inspired by Tim Cahill and won 2-1 over Serbia but it wasn’t enough to advance.  Both the Socceroos and Serbia are out.

Ghana was the better side for much of the match but Germany got the goal (Ozil, 60), winning on the day and also win the group.

USA will face Ghana, the team they lost to in their final match in WC 2006 on Saturday and England faces Germany on Sunday.