Huge day for American soccer here. The World Cup really took off with one of the most important goals in Landon Donovan's career as he clinched our place in the next round. Let's start with that game, eh!
United States vs Algeria. It's not a marquee game in many people's minds by any measure. If it weren't for the stage and what was on the line it wouldn't be something anybody talked about. Yet here it was, the game the USA needed to win to clinch advancement and the group. The whole country was watching. I've never experienced an atmosphere that was so interested in soccer, but the performance of this American side is exciting everybody! So the whole world was watching as we fought against the North African side that had held England to a draw. Early on Dempsey hit a goal into the net... that was disallowed! For this to happen a second time was sheer tragedy. The game kept going, of course, and everyone was grumbling about what was sure to be another talking point. That's when, in stoppage time, Landon Donovan booted that Jabulani into Algeria's net and put us ahead 1-o. The match finished two minutes later and we had earned our way into the next round. We damn near lost the match due to a bad call and bad finishing, but we got there in the very end. America is behind this side. Our string of matches, against first Ghana and then either Uruguay or South Korea, can be seen as winnable. This is going to be a damn good tournament.
Our opponents in the next round will be Ghana, a team that beat us in our miserable campaign four years ago. They had a match against Germany in which they only needed to hang on and not give up too many goals. The match was very, very even for the most part. It was a good showing for a German team that had to recover from a loss to Serbia. They did so in convincing fashion by getting a goal against a struggling Ghana squad. This 1-o win meant that Germany won the group and Ghana, with the result of the other group match, came in at second. Ghana are the only African team out of six to make it into the knockout stages and carry the hopes of the continent on their shoulders. Should make the next match very tense for them.
The second match from that group was Serbia vs Australia. Both teams had a chance of getting through, Serbia through a win and Australia through a big win. I didn't watch this game since I was watching Germany and Ghana fight it out, but I saw the goal updates. Australia went up 2-0 at one point and needed only another goal to get ahead of Ghana and qualify, but Serbia crashed their party by scoring late and making the final tally 2-1. The Aussies and Serbians didn't do enough in their match to get ahead of Ghana and went home. Germany's win put them into first in the group and lined them up for a round of sixteen match against the second place team in our group... England! As far as big matches and rivalries go, Germany vs England is a mackdaddy. Surely it has English fans nervous, but they did have a good showing in their match.
England vs Slovenia started off slow and both teams looked unconvincing. England started to dominate the game towards the middle and Jermain Dafoe slammed one home putting England up by one. It was all England could do to hold on for the rest of the match as Slovenia hoped to get a point and second place. Sadly the Balkan country couldn't muster the skill to get around an England team that finally found it's legs. Slovenia, despite looking good in the group, fell below England on points and were eliminated. England came in second to the United States on goal differential which, as I've mentioned, puts them against Group D winners Germany in the next round. If England want to wipe 40 years of failure away there is no better time to start than against Germany. It's as simple as this, if England get past Germany they can win the whole thing. They've got to be considered underdogs which won't help them. It'll be one HELL of a match at least. The biggest match of the next round.
Tomorrow the fates of Japan, Denmark, New Zealand, Cheataly, Slovakia and Paraguay are decided. Hoping for a big showing from the Blue Samurai!
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