Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ghana. Bring Them On.

The United States went undefeated in the group stage of the World Cup for the first time since 1930 with an exciting, nail-biting finish at Pretoria, as Landon Donovan scored one minute into added time to give the Americans a 1-0 win over Algeria.

The U.S. also won the group, as England beat Slovenia, 1-0, to take second place and eliminate Slovenia.

Clint Dempsey scored what appeared to be the first goal in the 21st minute, but the linesman called him offsides. It was tought to tell, but some replays appeared to show Dempsey level with the Algerian defenders. Oh boy, here we go again.

A tie for the US would have been fatal, as England led their match most of the way through, so a tie would have put Slovenia in the next round.

The US had many golden opportunities throughout the match, such as Dempsey hitting a post and then shot a rebound wide in the second half. Watching the match, I felt as if it was just a matter of time for the winning goal to be scored by the US. Algerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi played a very good match and made some terrific saves. He might have been the Man of the Match if had ended 0-0, but Donovan grabbed those honors with the biggest goal scored by the US in a very long time.

Here's more on today's match from ESPN.

The US now plays Ghana, Africa's last hope in this World Cup, at 2:30 PM on Saturday.

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