We were supposed to win this one, over a country with the population of Houston. But a combination of bad early defense and clueless officiating left the US footballers with a 2-2 tie.
I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I can not recall the US ever getting the benefit of the type of mystery call that nullified the winning goal by Maurice Edu off of Donovan's beautiful direct kick in the 85th minute. I can remember us getting screwed out of many goals we deserved (such as the hand ball on the goal line not called against Germany in 2002). Can't remember us on the other end. Enlighten me if you can come up with one.
The real loss of the day was England tying lowly regarded Algeria 0-0, which puts the them in third place in the group. I just checked a few of the London tabloids on line, and they are being roasted and toasted (or maybe boiled and fried, since they are English) by the press.
So, what happens next? England plays Slovenia on Wednesday at the same time that the US plays Algeria. If the US wins, there is no combination of results in the other game that will stop our lads from advancing as we would have 5 points. If we tie, we would still advance if England and Slovenia also tie, if England did not score at least 2 more goals than we did, as goals scored is the second tie-breaker. Here's the crazy one: if the US and Algeria tied 0-0, and Slovenia and England tie 2-2, that means the advancing team would be chosen by a random draw.....a coin flip. Oy!
Keep you calendar clear for Wednesday morning!
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