Group C
Played Wins Draws Losses For Against GD Pts
- USA 3 2 1 0 4 3 +1 7
- England 3 1 2 0 2 1 +1 5
- Slovenia 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4
- Algeria 3 0 1 2 0 2 -2 1
Group God: Landon Donovan carried the American side, scoring their vital, last minute winner to secure qualification to the knock out stages and also starting a comeback from 2-0 down against Slovenia while being the centre of all the team's attacks.
Group Donkey: Robert Green can't escape this one. Only played the opening game against the USA and dropped a clanger as a 40 yard Clint Dempsey shot bobbled off his thumb and into the back of the net. Not even palming a simple shot onto the post can make up for that one.
Group Donkey: Robert Green can't escape this one. Only played the opening game against the USA and dropped a clanger as a 40 yard Clint Dempsey shot bobbled off his thumb and into the back of the net. Not even palming a simple shot onto the post can make up for that one.
While some unimportant men called Obama and Haywood clashed over a little oil spill on the other side of the world, everybody else cast their eyes onto the real England vs USA clash in Rustenburg. Four minutes in, every one of those pairs of eyes, apart from ITV HD viewers, saw Steven Gerrard open England's account for the 2010 World Cup in fabulous fashion with a well worked goal. America equalised with a somewhat more fortuitous strike from Clint Dempsey, assisted by Robert Green, who paid the price and was dropped for the Algeria game, who themselves started their campaign against Slovenia. What looked on paper as one not worth watching turned out to be... one not worth watching as Slovenia prevented what could only be described as a bore draw as Robert Koren's strike was scooped in by Algeria keeper, Faouzi Chaouchi. Algeria seemed to make a habit of boring games as they frustrated England for the full 90 minutes as both sides failed to score, disappointing England fans, who consequently booed their side and led to meltdown in the England camp, John Terry saying the squad were unhappy, Fabio Capello saying quite the opposite. The USA however were in a similar position after their first two games, only lacking high expectations and a meltdown, having come from 2-0 down at half time to eqalise in the 82nd minute, only to have a winner wrongly disallowed in injury time. The final matchday saw any two of England, Slovenia and the USA able to qualify, England and Slovenia battling it out in front of what could be seen as a home England crowd on a turf almost as bad as Wembley's at Port Elizabeth; fortunately Jermaine Defoe's strike putting England, in their all red kit, through to the second round to face the winners of group D, thanks to an injury time winner from Landon Donovan and the USA, after hitting the post twice and again having a goal wrongfully disallowed, which put the USA through in top spot, leaving Slovenia out of the top two.
Glen Johnson of England was the player with the best Castrol Index rating in the group of 9.15, a rating determined by fans ratings after and during matches.
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