USA beat Algeria and advance to the second round

The United States beat Algeria by 1-0 with literally seconds left on the clock, and managed to advance in the round of 16 for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Landon Donovan’s goal in extra time gave the United States the first spot of Group C, leaving England behind while sending Slovenia home early. The game played in the Loftus Versfeld Stadium of Pretoria had lots of excitement, many chances from both sides, and of course the unexpected twist at the end that brought things upside down in Group C.

Algeria came strong in the first half, had the overall ball possession, and missed quite a few chances to open the score. Rafik Djebbour hit the post just 6 minutes in the game, missing the biggest opportunity for Algeria during the first 45 minutes. The United States slowly slowly started to come back, creating a lot of problems to Algerian goalkeeper Raïs M’Bolhi. USA even scored a goal with Clint Dempsey in 20′ and after a nice assist by Donovan, that did not count as an offside violation.

The two teams kept the fast pace and rhythm going throughout the entire game, with Bob Bradley’s team being a little bit more dangerous on the field. Jozy Altidore is 57′ gave an excellent pass to Clint Dempsey that hit the post, and then took a second shot on the rebound barely missing the target. And when everyone thought that the final score would be at 0-0, the American team kept fighting to win the game: During the first minute of extra time Altidore gave the pass to Dempsey that took a quick shot. M’Bolhi blocked, but the ball ended up to Donovan that had no problem pushing it inside the empty net sending the United States to the second round while leaving Slovenia third and outside of the last 16.