Showdown At Soccer City

The 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa comes to a close today with the championship match being played in Johannesburg between The Netherlands and Spain.

Team USA actually won their group and were poised to make a long knockout stage run but unfortunately lost to Ghana to end their South African business trip.

Hey soccer's only our fifth best sport in the States, but it'll be a different story at next month's FIBA World Basketball Championships for Men.

I'm also proud of Team USA and the gritty way they played. A few more breaks and they may have gone a long way in this 2010 World Cup.

But we'll have to wait like everybody else on the planet except for Brazil to qualify for the next FIFA World Cup tournament in 2014.

Back to the World Cup title game. The FIFA world number 4 ranked Netherlands finished atop Group E and knocked off Slovakia 2-1, FIFA Number one world ranked Brazil 2-1 and Uruguay 3-2 to get to the finals.

The FIFA world number 2 ranked Spain got off to a rough start. They were upset 1-0 by Switzerland in their opening Group H match but recovered to win the group.

In the knockout round Spain got into an interesting pattern of being scoreless at halftime, then coming up with a second half goal to send them to the next round.

They beat FIFA world number 3 ranked Portugal, Paraguay and FIFA world number 6 ranked Germany by identical 1-0 scores to reach their first World Cup final.

It will be the first FIFA world championship for whatever team comes out on top. Will it be the Netherlands, who are in their third final but so far haven't gone home with the big prize?

Or will Spain once again keep it scoreless until halftime, then come up with the golden second half goal and make it hold up for their first ever FIFA world title?

I'll be tuned in with the rest of the planet to find out.

2010 World Cup USA Watch-Dramatic Late Goal Wins Group C!

Lucky for me I grew up as a Houston sports fan. I'm used to nail biting, high pressure, dramatic games.

The USA suffered another disallowed goal by the referees, and missed point blank chances in both halves with the knowledge that the English had already scored a goal against Slovenia that was going to send them home.

A 20th minute goal by my Lone Star homeboy Clint Dempsey was erroneously disallowed by a phantom offside call by the linesman. The Cardiac Kids shook off the frustration of the disallowed goal and kept up the offense pressure.

They missed several chances to get the initial goal and clearly outplayed Algeria but the goal that allowed them to make a little World Cup history came in extra time in dramatic fashion.

In the 91st minute the counterattack against the Desert Foxes began that sent the USA men to the round of 16 for the first time since 2002.

A long throw to Donovan, a pass to Altidore who takes it quickly to the Algerian end and crosses it to the box. Dempsey is there to meet it, but so is the Algerian goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi. The ball squirts out and a streaking Donovan buried it into the net for his 44th and most important international goal of his career.

The goal gave the USA Group C with a 1-0-2 record and scoring more goals than the runner-ups, England. They won their group for the first time since 1930.

They'll get the opportunity to make some more US World Cup history and attempt to go where no US men's team has gone before, deep into the knockout round.

They play the second place team in Group D on June 26 which will be either Germany or Ghana.

2010 World Cup USA Watch-Controlling Our Destiny

“I think this team has shown that it keeps fighting until the end and we have now had the experience of pushing games when we’re behind. It’s a credit to the mentality of the players and to the fact that they’re going to fight for 90 minutes every game. We have a third match where we still have the chance to determine our ability to move into the final round.” U.S. head coach Bob Bradley.

Thanks to a scoreless draw between England and Algeria, Team USA is in control of its soccer destiny heading into Tuesday's final match with Algeria.

Thanks to being robbed by referee Koman Couilibaly of a Maurice Edu game winning goal that would have capped a World Cup comeback for the ages, Slovenia sits atop Group C with 4 standings points instead of the US. The 2-2 tie ensured we salvaged at least a point out of the mess.

The USA is tied for second in the Group C standings with England's Three Lions with Algeria at the bottom with one. Top two teams in the group advance to the knockout round and so far the USA has a 3-1 goal scoring advantage over England in that critical tiebreaker.

The Group C winner will take on the second place squad in Group D while the second place Group C team would get the Group D winner.

In Group D that looks like it will be either Germany or Ghana, with Ghana playing a crucial match against Australia later today that will break the three way logjam created by Serbia's surprising 1-0 upset of the three time world champion Germans yesterday.

It comes down to Team USA handling its business when they face Algeria's Desert Foxes on Wednesday, June 23 in Pretoria. They win, and they automatically qualify for the knockout round with 5 points.

They can potentially win Group C with a win, the English wake up and knock off Slovenia, and they maintain their plus 2 goal differential over the Three Lions.

If they draw against Algeria, they'd have 3 points, and would need a Slovenian win or a draw in the England-Slovenia match to advance provided they maintain their goal differential advantage over England.

At any rate, Team USA needs to do two things. Job One is play 90 damn minutes of soccer the way they played in the second half against Slovenia from now on.

The second thing they need to do is adopt the famous maxim of Oakland Raider owner Al Davis: Just win, baby.

2010 World Cup USA Watch-We Wuz Robbed

Team USA went into today's match against Slovenia in an unusual position for a mens soccer team:

As a favorite.

But coach Bob Bradley may need to set the alarm clocks a little earlier for this team.

Once again the USA fell behind early. In the 13th minute Valter Birsa got loose and rocketed the ball past Tim Howard for a 1-0 lead.

It got worse in the 43rd minute as Zlatan Ljubjankic scores on a counterattack just before halftime to give Slovenia a 2-0 lead after the USA nearly scored an equalizing goal in the 41st minute.

The Comeback Kids were staring at a serious hole as the team trooped off the pitch into the locker room.

Whatever coach Bradley had to say, I hope he taped it for future use.

The comeback started in the 46th minute with Landon Donovan going in uncontested on the right side and blasting the ball past the Slovenia's goalkeeper Handanovic to narrow the gap to 2-1.

Team USA kept up the offense pressure despite some crappy calls from the officials and tightened up their D. Their pressure was rewarded when Michael Bradley received a headed pass from Jozy Altidore and scores to tie the match in the 81st minute.

Then in the 86th minute comes the jacked up call that if the USA fails to exit Group C, will be griped and bitched about by USA soccer fans for eternity.

Donovan is fouled (and I'm surprised the ref called it as horrible as he was) to set up a free kick. There was much pushing, shoving and holding of Dempsey, Altidore and Bocanegra going on in the penalty box that should have been called and resulted in a penalty shot.

Maurice Edu scores to give the USA what would have been a 3-2 lead, but referee Koman Couilibaly of Mali calls a foul on the USA to nullify the goal.

Excuse me?

"I still don't know why the goal was disallowed," USA coach Bob Bradley said after the match.

The game ended in a 2-2 draw that gave the USA a critical point in Group C play. They also made a little World Cup history as they became the 21st squad to be down two goals at the half but come back to get a point.

It was the first time a USA soccer squad had ever done that.

But it should have been a win and three standings points. Had the USA played 90 minutes of soccer instead of 45 minutes, it probably would be.

FIFA may not like instant replay, but in a sport that has little scoring and your chances of advancing in a World Cup final may hinge on one goal, if for none other than fair play reasons alone they should consider instituting it in certain situations.

Let's just hope this horrible call doesn't cost us any more than a critical win.

But that depends on the result of today's England-Algeria match.

We could either have hope of getting into the Knockout Round or be on the outside looking in after our final round robin match with Algeria's Desert Foxes.

2010 World Cup USA Watch-It's A Draw

Team USA didn't win their opening Group C match versus England, but they didn't lose it either.

They played England to a 1-1 draw in a highly hyped and anticipated match on both sides of The Pond. It was the first time England and the United States have played in a World Cup match since the 1950 'Miracle on Grass'.

It didn't get off to a great start for Team USA. Steven Gerrard blew past USA defender Ricardo Clark and beat goalkeeper Tim Howard in the 4th minute to give England an early 1-0 lead.

The US stormed back in the 40th minute when Texan Clint Dempsey blasted a shot at the goal from 25 yards out that skipped off the grass twice and incredibly through the hands of English goalkeeper Robert Green to tie the game before halftime.

Jozy Altidore nearly gave the US the lead in the 65th minute after blasting a rocket toward the upper corner that went off Green's hand and just missed entering the net.

England then turned up the offensive pressure, but Tim Howard made a series of saves that preserved the draw and the point that Team USA gained in the Group C standings.

Team USA's next match will be against Slovenia on June 18, and they close out Group C play with Algeria on June 23.

They need a win in either one of those matches to move on to the next round.

2010 World Cup USA Watch-USA v. England

Team USA opens up in World Cup Group C play with its first competitive match against England since the 1950 'Miracle on Grass'. That 1-0 game was rated as the greatest upset in FIFA history.

This time Team USA and team captain Landon Donovan won't be sneaking up on England or the rest of the world. They are ranked Number 14 in the FIFA world rankings, upset then FIFA World Number 1 ranked Spain last summer enroute to the Confederations Cup final with Brazil and have 14 players on this squad who play in the English Premier League.

The Americans will try to capture some of that almost 50 year old magic with a team that is the most diverse USA team ever put together for World Cup competition.

The USA men are trying to prove to the rest of the soccer playing world that we can hang and compete with the soccer superpowers. They also want to erase the memories of a less than satisfying 2006 World Cup tournament in Germany.

They tied Italy 1-1, but lost to Ghana and the Czech Republic to compile an 0-2-1 record in Group play and not advance.

If they want to advance in the 2010 edition of the World Cup tournament, this widely anticipated match against England is a critical step toward doing so.