England took an early lead on Slovenia in the other simultaneous match, meaning the US appeared to need a win against Algeria to advance from Group C in the 2010 World Cup. Once again, the officials (a linesman this time) played a negative part to this game. Clint Dempsey volleyed in a goal in the 20th minute that was called back incorrectly for being offside when he was not. I was irate. For the second game in a row, a terrible call was made that disallowed a US goal and potentially cost us points. For the next 70 minutes, the US battled to make that non-goal irrelevant and win the game. Time after time, the US marched down the field and appeared ready to score only to see the ball hit the post, sail wide, or gobbled up by the Algerian keeper. They also had to survive a few Algerian chances on the counterattack.
It appeared as though time would run out on the US and they would end up with another tie. I was extremely nervous as watched and I began to get angry at the referee and linesman that were responsible for the US having to go home. I know there were other things that happened that caused us to be in this position, but that is where my brain was focused. I was ready to flip out. And then I did. But it wasn’t out of anger, it was out of joy. We scored! We finally scored! A beautiful outlet pass by Howard got the attack started and it ended with Landon Donovan putting in a rebound that put the US up 1 in the 91st minute. Joyous celebration commenced. We held on for the rest of stoppage time and took a 1-0 victory and a trip to the Round of 16 as Group C winners!
What a finish to an incredibly hard fought game. The bad calls didn’t end up being a factor since we advanced and ended up group champions. It was huge to win the group too. Finishing second would have caused us to play Germany in the next round followed by the winner of Argentina – Mexico if we were to somehow advance. Now we have to play Ghana (chance for revenge!) and the winner of Uruguay – S. Korea if we win the next game. (Note: The only other time we won our group was the first World Cup in 1930 where we finished third)
This was an amazing win by our team. Once again they were the comeback kids (or the cardiac kids if you prefer). They certainly made it exciting. They never gave up. Not when two good goals were taken away from us in consecutive games. Not when chance after chance was narrowly missed. Not when the tie look inevitable. Donovan scored one of the most important goals in US history (probably second to 1950 WC goal by Joe Gaetjens to beat England 1-0). This is what makes soccer so great. I hope that game brings in more US fans to this sport. Next game is Saturday at 2:30 Eastern. Watch it and get your friends to watch it. GO USA!!!
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