Forget all the statistics and scenarios, all the preamble and permutations. The United States’ task in today’s decisive World Cup Group C finale against Algeria is simple, if not quite easy. Win and the Americans are in. It really is that basic.
If the U.S. defeats Algeria — which history says it won’t — it will advance to the knockout stage. The Americans can sneak through with a tie if England loses to Slovenia or ties and doesn’t outscore the U.S. by two goals. But the safest, surest way for the Americans is to handle their own affairs.
“Clearly, if we lose we’re done and if we win we’re through,” said midfielder Landon Donovan. “There are scenarios where if we tie we could still advance, but at this point our objective is very clear: It’s to win the game and take all the other stuff out of the question, and that’s our goal.
“In the second half [Friday] we simply refused to let our World Cup end. [It] was 11, 12, 13 guys who wanted to do something special. . . . Being down 2-0 with your World Cup on the line is a difficult and daunting task to overcome, but the way we’ve been hardened over the years made that possible.”
Today’s match in Pretoria won’t be easy.
The U.S. has played six World Cup group stage finales, and lost all six. The most recent came four years ago, when the Americans put themselves in position to advance, only to see Claudio Reyna give away the ball for a goal and center back Oguchi Onyewu give away a penalty kick for another, with Ghana winning 2-1.
“Obviously we had a bad outing in 2006, and we’re not happy with how things worked out,” said center back Carlos Bocanegra. “We have a great chance [today] to get a win and advance. It’s important for us because we had that disappointment in ’06.”
Despite showing an admirable knack for comebacks, the U.S. has an irritating tendency to fall behind early — first in qualifiers and then allowing goals in the first 15 minutes to both England and Slovenia before rallying for draws.
“It’s not something we enjoy. No one likes going behind in a game,” said goalkeeper Tim Howard. “But we seem to be very resilient and we start to play more to our strengths: Playing direct and letting the boys up there hit them in the mouth and push them around.”
Algeria is dangerous with playmaker Karim Ziani and Karim Matmour — Michael Bradley’s Borussia Monchengladbach teammate — and the Desert Foxes will attack early, needing a win to advance and reportedly using three forwards.
U.S. coach Bob Bradley has some tough decisions. He may pair Maurice Edu, who had an 85th-minute goal disallowed vs. Slovenia, in central midfield with his son Michael. Bradley also must replace suspended forward Robbie Findley, perhaps with Edson Buddle, or even midfeilder Clint Dempsey.
Forward Jozy Altidore missed practice yesterday because of an upset stomach.
“Jozy just wasn’t feeling well, but he’ll be fine for [today],” the coach said.
The U.S. went to a 3-4-3 formation to rally for a tie against Slovenia, but don’t expect to see Bradley get that aggressive. Still, Algeria knows it has to win and has to attack, and if it plays with three strikers, there could be some wide-open soccer.
“If Algeria plays to its potential, we don’t need to worry about our opponents,” Algerian right winger Matmour said Sunday. “If we play our style of football we can beat anyone.”