Group A - South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B - Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C - England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D - Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E - Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F - Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G - Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H - Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
The United States (#14) was drawn into Group C along with European power England (#9) but dodged a bullet when two weaker countries - Algeria (#28) and Slovenia (#33) - rounded out the group. The last time the Americans faced off against England was in a May 2008 friendly at Wembley Stadium, a game won by the English 2-0 on goals from John Terry and Steven Gerrard. The US has never faced Algeria or Slovenia.
“First, we saw we’re with England, which is interesting and exciting on its own," said U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan. "The other two we don’t know that much about. Algeria and Slovenia, we kind of have to do some research to figure out what they’re about.”
The outcome of the draw has many fans of the USMNT optimistic that they can advance out of the Group Stage, redeeming the program from a horrible showing in the '06 World Cup. The opening U.S. game of the Group Stage is schedule for June 12 vs. England in Rustenberg. They will take on Slovenia for the first time six days later in Johannesburg and round out the Group Stage on June 23rd against Algeria in Pretoria.
“I think there's a fair chance for us," admitted USMNT head coach Bob Bradley. "Slovenia and Algeria both came through great situations to get to this World Cup; Algeria with a historic win [against Egypt] and Slovenia beating Russia in the playoff. We feel that this is a group that gives us a really fair chance to move on.”
Group Stage Schedule for USA
June 12 - England vs. United States (2:30 p.m. ET) - Rustenberg
June 18 - Slovenia vs. United States (10 a.m. ET) - Ellis Park Stadium; Johannesburg
June 23 - United States vs. Algeria ( 10 a.m. ET) - Tshwane/Pretoria
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1 comments:
We Slovenian think you are very good, but we wil beat you. We play good matches and we owned Slovakia ( Slovakia: Slovenija = 0:2 and win Russia 1:0.
I respect your team which has very high team spirit and in fanatical but so is ours.
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