The U.S won a dramatic 1-0 victory over Algeria to advance to the knockout stages of the 2010 FIFA South Africa World Cup on Wednesday. Landon Donovan scored off a breakaway in the second minute of extra time to give the Americans the lead and send them to the second round atop Group C based on a superior number of goals scored. Had the game remained scoreless for the last two minutes of extra time, the U.S would have been eliminated and Slovenia would have taken their place.
The game mostly featured the Americans launching onslaught after onslaught against the Algerian goal, but desperate defence and fantastic goalkeeping kept the game scoreless until almost the very end. A mad scramble in the 21st minute appeared to give the American side the game’s first goal but was ruled offside. Herculez Gomez took a shot, with the rebound going to an unmarked Clint Dempsey, who coolly pocket the goal- but he was called offside, although replays show Dempsey onside.
The Algerians benefited from spectacular goalkeeping from Rais M’Bolhi, who simply robbed the Americans at multiple times throughout the match. He stopped Dempsey point-blank in the 35th minute, and was effective throughout the match, making saves and catching crosses and passes to keep the game 0-0 and bolster his team’s defence, which did not look as solid as it did against England.
Missed opportunities for U.S, little offense for Algeria
M’Bolhi did get lucky when Dempsey twice missed golden opportunities, in the first half shooting a way over an open net from the penalty area, and in the 57th minute missed a shot wide off of a rebound that had a gaping net right in front of him, in one of the most incredible misses of the tournament. But M’Bolhi stood tall later to make a save point-blank off of Landon Donovan.
If M’Bolhi managed to keep his team in the game, the Algerians did almost nothing to get the win they needed. Coming into the match, the U.S could have theoretically advanced with a simple draw, but the Algerian needed to win. Despite this, they generated almost no offense, even though they would need two goals to advance. Rafik Djebbour did come close in the opening minutes, rocketing a shot off the cross bar, but they did little in the second half.
Disallowed goals almost cost U.S.
Despite the U.S.’ advancing, some focus will be put on two disallowed goals of the U.S. this tournament. In their game against Slovenia, they were tied 2-2 before they appeared to take the lead with just minutes left off of a free kick. But the goal was disallowed on a seemingly non-existent foul called by the referee. A 3-2 victory over Slovenia would have given the U.S. two more points and they would have qualified easily.
Against Algeria, the offside call against Dempsey will also be controversial, as the overhead angle shown on the television feed also appeared to show Dempsey was onside. Some field-level commentators noted that Dempsey may have been offside, but in any case having one goal removed against Slovenia and another questionable call against Algeria will likely be at least somewhat forgotten with the incredible last-minute heroics of Donovan giving his team a shot at winning their country’s first ever World Cup.
Last-minute Yanks advance
This victory means the Americans have made the knockout stages for the third-time since 1994. They will look to replicate their 2002 feat of making the quarterfinals, which they accomplished then by beating Portugal 3-2. This time however, they even finished atop of England in their Group, giving hope to the American team, who’ll face either Ghana, Germany, Serbia or Australia, depending on the way Group D matches play out on Wednesday.
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