Slovenia has four points after the 2-2 draw with the USA, giving the East European team a possible chance to advance in the World Cup for the first time, but it could have been so much more. This is only Slovenia’s second time competing in a World Cup finals, and perhaps they were caught celebrating early what seemed like a second consecutive victory after an outstanding 2-0 first half showing. But that lead evaporated fast as the USA scored twice in the second half, including an equalizer in the 82nd minute.
Slovenia’s future in the tournament now depends very much on the result of England versus Algeria later today. If England win comfortably, as they should, Slovenia will likely need to beat England next week in order to reach the second stages for the first time in their short history as a football nation. They certainly can’t rely on Algeria to hold the USA who are looking very strong at the moment and could well score a few against the African side next Wednesday.
The Slovenia national football team is relatively new to world football, having played their first match in 1992 after the split of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. Before that, Slovenian players played for the Yugoslavia national football team. They then started afresh with a diluted pool of players, but quickly picked up momentum as a footballing nation. The question is, have they come far enough to compete against the larger nations like England.
“Last year we were preparing for a match against San Marino in the qualifiers, now we are bracing ourselves for a clash whose outcome could put us among the world's elite teams. The match against the Americans (was) massive because we (had) a great opportunity to put ourselves on the map of respectable soccer nations.” Slovenian Coach Matkaz Kek said before the game. Now, they must redeem themselves against Steven Gerrard’s charges.
Despite being a relatively new nation to participate in the World Cup, Slovenia is 25th in FIFA ranking. Slovenia was the surprise qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2000, when they beat the Ukraine in a playoff. They turned some heads during the tournament, drawing with Yugoslavia and Norway, and only losing to Spain 2–1. Slovenia achieved another major success two years later, qualifying for the 2002 World Cup this time defeating Romania in a playoff. Surprisingly they did not lose a match in their whole qualifying campaign, recording six wins and six draws. However, they did not do as well in the finals, and they returned home pointless.
The team failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, despite being the only team to beat Italy on their way to winning the tournament with a shock 1–0 victory on home turf. Slovenia found itself at the 2010 World Cup after defeating Russia in the playoffs in November 2009.
This years’ team boasts a “tough, defense minded” group of players, whose “combination of physical and mental toughness, the lack of marquee players and a slug-it-out, slow-it-down style makes the Dragons a team opposing Coaches hate to face”. Before the 2010 World Cup, Slovenia never managed to make it past the first round in the World Cup, or the European Championships. Friday’s match against England could be a historic, or history repeating itself.
The country’s most successful, and dramatic, player is Zlatko Zahovič. When Slovenia qualified for the 2002 World Cup, Zahovič had a very serious argument with the Slovenian national coach Srečko Katanec and he was sent home immediately after the first match against Spain. Katanec resigned immediately after the World Cup, so Zahovič returned to the national team. He played his last national team match on 28 April 2004 against Switzerland. Altogether he played 80 matches (a record) for the national team and scored 35 goals (also a record), thus making him the most successful Slovenian football player since their independence in 1991 and the inception of the country's football association into FIFA in 1992.
Zahovič is infamous for his numerous public arguments and rows with coaches and management, the one with Srečko Katanec being the most prominent. Soon after at Olympiacos he had an argument with the management and he left the club before the season was over. He also had an argument with Valencia coach Héctor Cúper, believing that he was not being given enough opportunities.
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