The United States and Slovenia were tied at 2-2, after an exciting match in the Ellis Park Stadium of Johannesburg for World Cup 2010 Group C. Slovenia was up 2-0 at half-time, but USA came back to score two goals and stay alive on the race to the second round.
From the very first minutes of the game it was obvious that both teams had rhythm, passion and appetite to play a great game for the fans in Johannesburg. Valter Birsa sent a powerful shot outside the penalty area that left Tim Howard motionless to open the score for Slovenia. The Americans took action and started bombarding Samir Handanovič from every possible angle: Landon Donovan at 15′ and José Francisco Torres at 37′ lost two great chances for the United States, with Handanovič stopping both shots. But in a counter attack from Slovenia, Zlatan Ljubijankič took the ball to score another goal and send his team to the locker room with a great advantage.
But the game was not yet over for a fantastic USA team that started even stronger in the second half. Donovan came inside the penalty area, had nobody to pass the ball to, so took a powerful shot to score the first goal for the United States. The game slowed down a lot after that point, and every minute passing was bringing Slovenia closer to the round of 16. Slovenia of course was doing everything on the field to keep the score as is, sometimes with determination, and other times with strong defence (three yellow cards after 70′).
But the players of Bob Bradley had the last word in the game, and more specifically his…son Michael. Just 8 minutes before the final whistle Michael Bradley ended up with the ball inside Slovenia’s goal area, to score the second goal of the game for the United States and keeping the World Cup 2010 dream alive for his national team. In fact nobody understands why USA did not take the three points, when in 85′ the referee stopped a goal from Jozy Altidore, saying there was a foul.
