Big news on the US side is that we’ve benched Ricardo Clark replacing him with Torres. GREAT news as far as I’m concerned, never having been a Clark fan. Otherwise the line-up is the same as the match against England.
Two seconds for the US to give away the ball and less than a minute before Dempsey has clocked some guy with an elbow. No card, though, so hurray for the US. US possession game looks iffy in the opening 5 minutes.
Bradley with a superior pass to Findley. Split to defenders with it and Findley got a corner out of it. Lousy corner from Donovan, though.
Slovenia has generated two good chances thus far, and by rights should probably be up one. DeMerrit was beaten badly on a cross, but the Slovenia player missed.
Slovenia scores on a nice shot, but Guch wasn’t within 10 city blocks of him and the shot came from the top of the circle. Howard didn’t move; he had no chance. 1-0 Slovenia and not at all against the run of play.
I don’t understand the US tactics. We’ve done little more than hit long balls out of the back—Slovenia’s possession ball looks far superior to us.
In the 35th minute the US gets a free kick on a foul just outside the box to the side. Torres shoots and it’s a good shot that the keeper saves. Corner US. Nothing. We bring a lot of people up for the corners, though. I like that even if it means we’re susceptible to counterattack.
Findley gets a yellow off a corner. The ref said, wrongly, that it was a handball. Findley hit it with his face.
US attack in the 40th minute dangerous but gets cleared.
Slovenia scores again in the 41st. US defense torched again. Looks like Guch kept the man on. Hate to say it, but Guch is killing us. Clearly being a 90 percent or whatever he’s at in coming back from injury is insufficient. Either that or he’s not good enough to be there in the first place. Seriously, this is shades of Lalas.
2-0 Slovenia at halftime. We’ll see what Bradley comes up. I suppose replacing Guch is out of the question since it would require moving Bocanegra to the middle and we’ve no one else to fill the left back, but if we don’t come back soon, Bradley can pull Guch and go with three defenders out of necessity.
Outside of getting somebody tossed or injured, though, this game couldn’t be going much worse for the US.
Edu on for Findley and Feilhaber on for Torres. OK replacing Findley, less crazy about replacing Torres. The problems aren’t in midfield or up top. But those are the only areas Bradley can realistically make any changes.
Two minutes into the 2nd, Cherundolo plays a ball down the wing, Donovan gets open and crushes one into the net! Great goal! 2-1 Slovenia. Replay is awesome! The keeper literally ducks out of the way, Landon hit it so hard. That’s hysterical.
23 minutes into the second, Altidore fouled just outside the box. Yellow card to the Slovenia player with US appealing unsuccessfully for a red. Altidore gets a great shot off the rebound but right to the keeper. US is mounting some sustained pressure—finally. Looks like Landon’s goal has given us the juice we needed.
Guch out Gomez in in the 35th minute of the 2nd. Going with three defenders with 10 minutes to go. Good sub as Guch has had a terrible game and we need a goal.
Bradley with the equalizer in the 36th minute of the 2nd! 2-2! Great header from Altidore and Bradley steamed through the middle to put it away. Coach Bradley switches to four defenders now. He’s playing for a tie.
US has a goal called back. Foul in the box says the ref, but I don’t see it. At least not on the US. All kinds of opportunities to call a penalty on Slovenia.
And that’s the game. 2-2. US will need to beat Algeria to advance, but we did well to come back.