USA Wins Group C

Well, only one scenario could play out.  And for a long time it looked like it'd be the one where the USA was sent home, but Tim Howard sent a great pass out to Landon Donovan, then to Jozy Altidore, a shot off the Algerian keeper by Clint Dempsey, and a rebound right to Donovan who calmly kicked it to the back of the net.  After watching it hit the net, Donovan ran over to the  sideline and headfirst slid right in front of the corner flag and was mobbed by his teammates.

The game was a huge struggle, tons of missed chances, some possible referee missed calls, but none of that mattered in the end.  The offsides was huge, could have saved the USA a lot of headache.  The play where Dempsey got smacked in the face and walked away bleeding looked bad on the replay.  Watching live it didn't seem to bad, but the replay showed the Algerian player clearly smacking Dempsey in the face, that's no good and needs to be called.  I was worried for Dempsey when I saw that and afraid he wasn't going to make it back out for the rest of the game.  The style of play by the Algerians was also very frustrating in the 2nd half.  Did Algeria want to win or did they just not want the USA to win?  It was a funny storyline how Algeria was wronged in 1982, it was crazy watching the scoreboard of the 2 games, hoping someone would score.  A USA goal meant USA won the group, and a Slovenia goal (draw) meant USA advanced as the runner-up.

Everyone in America was preparing to fire off about Team USA, give up, complain, go back to baseball, talk about basketball, or even tennis.  The journalists were ready to blast the team for not scoring when they needed to, for missing their opportunities, etc.  All hope for American soccer seemed lost.  Everyone said USA had a great team and they should be expected to do well, but a disappointing knock-out in the group stage would have erased all that and all the advancements this team has made in the last 2 years would have been lost.

I went to see USA play Turkey in their last tune-up in America in Philadelphia and I loved it. The crowd was awesome, the team was awesome.  I thought they might just jog around, knowing the game didn't really matter, but they played hard and showed us fans they were ready to do something great.  I'm happy they pulled out the win and this tournament isn't over for this team.

I never had a strong opinion for or against Landon Donovan.  I figured I didn't know enough about soccer to give a strong opinion one way or the other.  But now, I don't care, Donovan is a great leader and he has come through in the crucial times for this team.  I screamed when he passed that ball off to Jozy, I thought he should take it in all the way, but he knew what he was doing, and the ball ended up back at his feet and he scored, allowing us all to celebrate.

Next up on Saturday at 2:30pm EST, is the runner-up of Group D.  Don't quit know USA, this team has only just started. They got off to a slow start, but they should have it figured out now.  Two full days of rest and then delight Americans again on an awesome Saturday afternoon.

Group C: One game to go. What's the Scenario?

Here are the standings for Group C:

Team	GP	Wins	Loss	Draw	Goals For	Goals Against	Goal Differential	Points So Far	Points Available
Slovenia	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	4	3
USA	2	0	0	2	3	3	0	2	3
England	2	0	0	2	1	1	0	2	3
Algeria	2	0	1	1	0	1	-1	1	3

On Wednesday at 10am EST, USA vs Algeria and England vs Slovenia.
The top two teams in the group advance.
Standings are based on total points.
The first tiebreaker is goal differential.
The second tiebreaker is total number of goals scored.
The third tiebreaker is greatest number of points in the game between tied teams.
The fourth tiebreaker is goal differential in game against tied team.
The fifth tiebreak is greatest number of goals scored against tied team.

Now every team is still alive, thanks to the Algeria-England draw.

USA wins against Algeria:

1. If USA wins and Slovenia beats England, USA will be the 2nd seed out of Group C (Slovenia the 1st seed).
2. If USA wins and England ties Slovenia, USA will advance.  The 1st seed between USA and Slovenia, will be the team that scores more goals in their game.  (So a 2-2 Slovenia tie and 1-0 USA win, means Slovenia will be 1st seed)
3. If USA wins and England beats Slovenia, USA and England will advance.  USA will be the 1st seed unless England scores 2 more goals than USA in their win.

USA ties Algeria:

1. If USA ties and Slovenia beats England, USA will be the 2nd seed out of Group C.
2. If USA ties and England ties Slovenia, USA and England will be tied in points.  The team that scores more goals in their game will advance.
3. If USA ties and England beats Slovenia, USA will be eliminated. 

USA loses to Algeria:

1. If USA loses and Slovenia beats England, USA will be eliminated.
2. If USA loses and England ties Slovenia, USA will be eliminated.
3. If USA loses and England beats Slovenia, USA will be eliminated.

Now USA wants to be the 1st seed out of Group C, so that they don't have to face Germany in the next round (or the team that tops Germany!).

What to root for:
A USA win and England tie or win.
A USA tie and England tie or loss.

Group C: How Can Team USA advance

I'm not a soccer analyst and I'm not going to try to be.  USA just tied Slovenia 2-2, in their second game.  The result keeps USA alive, but it puts USA in a tough situation. England and Algeria have yet to play today and that affects everything a lot, but lets analyze the standing as of now.

Standings as of right now (12pm June 18):

Team	GP	Wins	Loss	Draw	Points So Far	Points Available
Slovenia	2	1	0	1	4	3
USA	2	0	0	2	2	3
England	1	0	0	1	1	6
Algeria	1	0	1	0	0	6

Standings if England wins later today:

Team	GP	Wins	Loss	Draw	Points So Far	Points Available
Slovenia	2	1	0	1	4	3
England	2	1	0	1	4	3
USA	2	0	0	2	2	3
Algeria	2	0	2	0	0	3

If England beats Slovenia, then USA advances with a win.
If Slovenia beats England, then USA advances with a win.
If England and Slovenia draw, then USA must win and win the tiebreaker.

Standings if England ties later today:

Team	GP	Wins	Loss	Draw	Points So Far	Points Available
Slovenia	2	1	0	1	4	3
USA	2	0	0	2	2	3
England	2	0	0	2	2	3
Algeria	2	0	1	1	1	3

If England beats Slovenia, then USA advances with a win.
If Slovenia beats England, then USA advances with just a draw.
If England and Slovenia draw, then USA advances with a win, or advances with a draw and winning the tiebreaker.

Is scoring down for the World Cup so far?

I've heard a lot of talk about how scoring is down and what it means so far. The problem I saw was that everyone was citing numbers for average goals per game over the course of the entire tournament.  It could be possible that goals per game is different for the team's first game. I only looked at the last 5 World Cups (back to 1990).


World Cup: Average Goals Through Each Team's 1st Game

Average	2010	2006	2002	1998	1994	1990
Goals Per Game	1.563	2.438	2.875	2.313	2.500	2.250
Goal Differential	0.938	1.438	1.500	1.063	1.333	1.417

2010 is the first year where the average goal differential is less than 1 and the average total number of goals per game is less than 2.  The past years were somewhat skewed by some large wins by some of the better nations that haven't really happened this year (except Germany).

What will happen from here on out? Hopefully more scoring. Your ideas in the comments on why the scoring is down, please.