Shooting the Breeze: World Cup 2010 Day 8 - Group C - Slovenia vs USA
2-2. The USA showed immense character to battle back from 2-0 down and were strangely denied what would have been a winning goal when a late Maurice Edu strike was disallowed.
Slovenia must have thought they were destined to be the first team to qualify for the 2nd round when they went 2-0 up before half time but the resilient Americans got out of jail and kept themselves in contention for a place in the second round.
A stunning 16th minute strike from Valter Birsa beat US goalkeeper Tim Howard and Zlatan Ljubijankic made it 2-0 shortly before half time after a nice pass from Milivoje Novakovic.
Bob Bradley's US team were out of sorts in the first half, but a bold half time tactical switch bringing on Maurice Edu and Benny Feilhaber brought almost immediate dividends.
Star player Landon Donovan found he had few options after breaking free down the right flank so he opted to shoot and found the roof of the net with aplomb.
It was game on as both sides attacked each other but, just as the American push for the equaliser started to lose momentum as the game went into the last 10 minutes Bob Bradley gambled again and took off a defender for a striker in Herculez Gomez.
Jozy Altidore promptly laid on the equalising goal from a long pass on the right into the path of the onrushing Michael Bradley whose sliding effort found the back of the net to the delight of the watching American fans, many of whom were clearly overcome with emotion.
It might have been an even more emotional match when the Americans were denied what looked a perfectly sound winning goal as Maurice Edu was mystifyingly adjudged to be offside while converting a cross just 5 minutes from time when it seemed more likely that an American penalty would be the outcome if play had to be stopped.
