Update: Awesome. It didn’t take but three days before the early morning games completely messed with my head. I spent the entire game thinking Slovenia was Algeria and vice versa. Now corrected in the following text.
Both teams have come out looking to move the ball and run, but Algeria has the run of play in the opening minutes, despite overhitting pass after pass. That could be nerves. We’ll see if they settle as things move along.
Fifteen minutes in it’s clear that if England and the US don’t advance out of this group, something has gone seriously wrong. These two are terrible. They’re not exactly Greece bad, but the level of play is not nearly what we saw yesterday.
The run of play has changed into Slovenia’s favor, but let’s not kid ourselves: If either of these teams make the round of 16, it’ll be because Bradley decided to play Ricardo Clark again and, I don’t know, the English bus has been driven off a cliff.
Second half “action” includes an Algerian forward intentionally trying to pull a Maradona “hand of God” move in front of roughly a billion TV watchers and, unfortunately for him, the referee. I can’t believe anyone is that stupid at this level, but then again this “level” is roughly MLS, so maybe I can believe it after all. Anyway, the red card comes out and Algeria will play a man down.
Slovenia scores on a bender in the 34th minute of the 2nd half, the second nice shot of the game. Looked like something that keeper should have had—God knows Howard would’ve—but maybe he’d been lulled to sleep like the rest of us by the action in front of him.
1-0 Slovenia and despite now leading the group, I’ve got to say I love both the US and England’s chance at moving to the next round.