Slovenia vs USA

Good little game.

Slovenia looked good in the first half, with Birsa drifting infield and finding a bit of space in behind Bradley. They scored two good goals, and defended fairly stoutly. However, USA came back forcefully in the second half, and should have won late on, where they had a goal disallowed for having two players fouled in the box (apparently; it wasn't immediately obvious what else it was disallowed for).

The main point to note was that both Dempsey and Donovan looked dangerous in attack when coming from wide areas or from deeper in midfield, in complete contrast to England, for whom we are told Rooney and Gerrard simply must be played further upfield. Donovan in particular was excellent; he has developed into a serious player. Donovan seemed a bright prospet when he first came through in Japan and Korea, but initally struggled in Europe. His loan spell at Everton proved he is very capable of flourishing at the highest levels, and he scored an excellent goal here, although the keeper could obviously have done more than step behind the goal line and cower away from the ball.