World Cup: Slovenia Small Guys Teach U.S. Big Lesson

Slovenia attacked with poise and defended with resolution, Chris Matyszczyk says.

/ AP

Size doesn't matter. Technique does.

Population doesn't matter. Concentration does.

For long periods of Friday's World Cup group match against Slovenia, the U.S Friday suffered the kind of lesson in some of world football's difficult subtleties from which it takes a while to recover.

The U.S. doesn't have a while.

Yet, in a rousing finish, the U.S avoided defeat, thanks to a very well taken goal by the coach's son, Michael Bradley that made the score 2-2.

With just 8 minutes left, Bradley ran onto a headed knockdown and poked the ball high into the Slovenian net. It was an unusual moment of control in a very fractured performance.

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In the first half, the U.S was the graduate. Slovenia was Mrs. Robinson.

Slovenia might be a lot smaller than California. It might be barely the size of Houston. But it gave the U.S. some harsh lessons in the second round of World Cup group play.

For most of the first half, the country of a mere 2 million made the U.S look as if it hadn't started shaving.

Slovenia attacked with poise and defended with resolution, a resolution that might have been strengthened by events in the very first minute.

The U.S.' Clint Dempsey went up to challenge Slovenia's Ljubijankic for an aerial ball.

With both elbows dangerously high, one smacked into Ljubijankic's cheek.

Dempsey, at the very least, deserved a yellow card.

Yet his sharp nudge seemed to rouse the Slovenians into an unusual spurt of attacking.

Within 15 minutes, Valter Birsa moved confidently into U.S territory.

The U.S. defense gave Birsa time to consider Slovenia's place in world politics, the consequences of Perez Hilton's awful actions toward Miley Cyrus and whether Miroslav Klose of Germany deserved to be sent off against Serbia in Friday's early game.

Oh, and he had plenty of time to decide which side of Tim Howard he was going to place his left-foot shot.

It was inexplicable defending. Inexplicably naive.

Perhaps the U.S. back line was so convinced by Slovenia's reputation as a negative team that no one thought Birsa would be rude enough to shoot.

But the goal heralded a pattern to the game in which Slovenia was the controlling master and the U.S. was the frantic high school team, all effort and frenzy, but little creativity and control.

With three minutes left in the first half, Slovenia doubled its dominance.

Onyewu played Ljubijankic onside. The Slovenian ran forward with every clarity as to what he would do.

He slid the ball low to Howard's left. He did it calmly. He knew exactly what he was doing.

The Slovenians again performed an engaging goal celebration, dancing in a circle, waving their hands in the air, while the Americans, who had previously enjoyed a good attacking spell with Torres going close, wondered what had hit them.

The cliche is that this second goal was a sucker punch. But in order to execute one of those, you need a compliant sucker. The U.S obliged.

However, with just a couple of minutes gone in the second half, the U.S. found its own sucker. Donovan broke down the right.

Advancing on the Slovenian goalkeeper, Handanovic, Donovan unleashed a venomous head-high shot.

Handanovic, supposedly one of the better goalkeepers in the world, made like a 7-year-old girl whose big brothers forced her to stand in goal while they took pot shots.

The Slovenian goalkeeper literally cowered out of the way rather than have his pretty features threatened.

When the Balkan wars broke out in the early 1990s, Slovenia only participated for 10 days.

If you talk to people in neighboring Croatia, they'll tell you that the Slovenians are very wily. Especially when it comes to money.

However, as the game wore on, the Slovenians tended to resort to nefarious schemes in order to slow the American frenzy.

Though Altidore had a good shot saved, all too often the Slovenian defenders found it easy to anticipate American movement.

And, in the rare moments they were surprised, they simply tugged a shirt or dug in an elbow.

Yellow cards began to flow so smoothly that it was as if the referee from Mali might save himself some effort by merely pointing to his bright yellow shirt.

Then Bradley's joyous goal, which inspired tears from Americans fans.

Three minutes later, second half substitute Maurice Edu scored again.

Running on to a free kick from the right-hand side, he volleyed the ball high into the net and turned away in triumph.

There was only one problem.

The referee from Mali, Koman Coulibaly, blew his whistle for no reason that a reasonable person could muster.

Edu was definitely not offside. Indeed, Bradley was clearly being held and a more aware official might have signaled for a penalty in favor of the U.S.

It was a terrible decision. But so was the one that led to the free-kick in the first place, as Jozy Altidore blatantly dived to gain an advantage.

After the game, U.S coach Bob Bradley was desperate not to criticize the referee with his mouth. But his eyes had sharp metal spikes emerging from them.

Yes, the U.S was hard done by. But for too long it was hard done by its own lack of control, guile and penetration.

Now it must look to the other games and hope results fall its way.

Sometimes, large countries are given harsh lessons by small ones. This was one of those nights.

[rodnacious]

Mr. Matyszczyk, your prejudicial views are obvious. Only you and the referee. Mr. Coulibaly see that game as a valid win for Slovenia. I wish now that we have never intervene in the war that saved countries like Slovenia from themselves.

Your discourse on that game is deplorable!

[Stevengarrett]

This is the most disgusting article I've read on the USA Football/Soccer team being robbed of a win. Even the BBC, which hates & belittles USA's team every chance they get, agreed that USA should have won. Why not focus on the fact the ref in question has still yet to even tell FIFA what, if any, penalty or foul there was? Instead you have this written by someone who obviously doesn't even follow the sport! Everyone involved in this article being printed needs to be reprimanded, if not fired! SHAME ON YOU, CBS! Fox News gives a more biased and informed report than this! FOR SHAME!

[spaaanky]

Good job on losing all credibility for soccer articles.

[HorribleArticle]

I'm shocked with this article. Obviously the author is inept on understanding the sport of football/soccer and that is fine with me. What?s not fine with me it is CBSNEWS. One would think that a business dedicated to news and has international reach and audience would be able in paying for some one that has minimum understanding of the sport. The author sounds as a visitor from out of space given the job of explaining to people of earth the sport that he (the author) himself as an alien has just discovered.
Only one word comes to my mind; RIDICULOUS

[Fancey00]

My first online comment to an article - ever.
Chris. What did you cover before you wrote about a soccer game that you apparently just read the hi lights and recapped? Did you seriously open and close talking about the population of the two countries? The U.S. and Slovenia are both still in a good position to go to the next round, and feel free to look into this, but the U.S. is not exactly a historical soccer powerhouse. Before the game you wrote that "It won't be easy" in regards to USA doing what needs to be done to win. After the game it's a "Big Upset"? What happened there Chris? You need to be good before you can be "upset". You need to be very good before beating you is considered a "Big Upset". This wasn't basketball (Where Slovenia has representation as well). Being large does not make you good at something...especially something that is highly unpopular in a country. Good game between two underdogs fighting for a bid. With all the things you could have focused on...population? Not to mention the pot shots you take at Slovenia for only fighting 10 days in the Balkan Wars...Well Done Chris. Be the U.S. reporter that references the military might of the country we just played in a SOCCER GAME. "Wily" with money? How exactly did that get past the editor? Terrible article, Chris. Awful.

[omgyfg]

This guy's probably a blogger. He's obviously out of his element writing a legitimate sports article. Why else would he reference something as stupid as Miley Cyrus in a World Cup match summary? ABC, get some real sportswriters on youir site please.

[andy1080]

The headline of this article should refer to the main fact that team USA was robbed of a win from the result of an obvious poor call. I'm shocked that this is mentioned at the bottom of the article. Poor recap, and poor reporting for sure. Yeah Slovenia has been a bit of a surprise in the World Cup, but there is a bigger story here, especially with an American readership. When the American media changes their coverage of soccer, only then will we see a spike of interest in the sport here in the states.

[awp0]

Hmmmm....Pretty sure that everyone in the USA locker room knows what we know: the correct outcome of this game was 3-2 USA in a remarkable comeback victory. Not sure why they should take any lessons from Slovenia, a team that folded in the second half when the US team finally started playing close to their potential.

The only lesson I learned had more to do with the quality of FIFA refereeing and how weak the whole sport can be as a result.

[CrackerJackson]

I actually spent time to log in so that I could agree with everyone on this page.

FOCUS, CONCENTRATION, TERRIBLE OFFICIATING!!! Thats all you need to win a World Cup.

[gtronymousbosch]

This reporter might actually be dumber than the ref--actually, one of the few match-ups that would be more exciting than the come-back we just watched would be Chris Matyszczyk v. that ref in a Stupid competition. It's almost as if some copy editor made up a fake personality just to see what he could get into print. "The Slovenian goalkeeper literally cowered out of the way rather than have his pretty features threatened?" It sounds something like a high-school newspaper.