A stirring second-half fightback kept USA’s hopes of progressing into the last 16 alive after the most thrilling match of the World Cup so far — but they will feel that they should have had all three points after a late winner was ruled out. Slovenia, the smallest country in this tournament, were two goals up at the break thanks to Valter Birsa and Zlatan Ljubijankic — and seemingly set fair to become the first team to automatically qualify for the last 16. But USA coach, Bob Bradley, shook things up at half-time and his side responded by dominating the second half and deservedly pulled level after goals from Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley. And it looked like they had grabbed the winner when Maurice Edu smashed home Donovan’s free-kick four minutes from time — only for the referee Koman Coulibaly to rule it out, apparently for offside. Slovenia made the better start and nearly went ahead in the ninth minute, when Milivoje Novakovic got the jump on Jay DeMerit only to fresh-air Birsa’s cross. A goal was not long in coming, however, as Birsa drifted in from the right, turned and — spotting Tim Howard off his line – curled a left-footed 25-yard shot high into the net. Moments later Samir Handanovic made a flying dive to clear Donovan’s swirling free-kick, but Slovenia were on top and Howard, who received a painkilling injection before the game, did well to collect a long free-kick from Robert Koren with lurking opponents around. For the first half-hour USA could not get into the game. Too many long passes drifted over the head of Jozy Altidore or, in the case of Oguchi Onyewu, to the opposition. Finally, though, the USA team got the ball on the ground and began to play. Handanovic did well to push away José Torres’s free-kick, while Miso Brecko had to be alert with Donovan lurking on the far post after fine interplay between Robbie Findley and Clint Dempsey. However, the USA’s dreams of reaching the knockout stage seemed to be in grave danger of being shot down when Two-nil when Ljubijankic coolly slotted home. It was clear the USA had to change things and the coach, Bob Bradley, did so at half-time, bringing Torres and Findley off, and Edu and Benny Feilhaber on. Immediately Donovan seized on a mistake, ran into the box and shot from close range. Handanovic seemed to flinch as the bullet went past his head and high into the back of the net. Suddenly the large US support was revitalised and the chants of “USA! USA!” were heard above out the tuneless lament of the vuvuzelas. The chances continued to come. Onyewu missed a free-kick by inches; Altidore breezed past Marko Suler only to hesitate on the edge of the box, allowing the Slovenian defender to recover before, a few minutes later, hitting a slapshot straight at Handanovic. The pressure was building and Slovenia resorted to increasingly desperate measures to break up USA’s rhythm. First Suler was booked for barging over Altidore outside the penalty box. Then, three minutes later, Andraz Kirm joined him in the book after a trip on Steve Cherundolo. And Bojan Jokic also saw yellow after going through Donovan. World Cup 2010 Group C Slovenia USA World Cup 2010 Sean Ingle guardian.co.uk
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Slovenia 2-2 USA | World Cup 2010 Group C match report
