US players, favorites for a change, vow no letup against Slovenia on Friday

US players vow no letup vs Slovenia

IRENE, South Africa — American fans were obsessing over England for six months, wondering how the Americans would stop Wayne Rooney.

Well, they did.

Now that the U.S. got past the English with a 1-1 tie, a big part of the Americans’ World Cup fate will be determined Friday against Slovenia.

“There’s nothing flashy about them,” Landon Donovan said Tuesday. “There’s not a few players, like with England, where you go, ‘We need to 100 percent stop that player or else we’re in trouble.’ But they seem to be a very good team overall. They seem like they have good chemistry. They seem like they know each other well.”

Sound familiar?

Sure does to the U.S. players.

“A team of individuals that are willing to work for each other. A collective,” defender Jay DeMerit said. “We’ve mirrored that type of tag before, and we know as a team how far that can take you.”

There was some new gear at training in Pretoria on Tuesday, with many players wearing navy ski caps, most wearing sweat pants and some putting on gloves as a biting 22 mph southern wind ripped across Pilditch Stadium, where the temperature was just 46 before the sunset at 5:24 p.m.

It will be a different type of game, too, against Slovenia, which beat Algeria 1-0 in its opener on Robert Koren’s 79th-minute goal, which bounced in off the arm of goalkeeper Fawzi Chaouchi.

Central midfielders Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clark were pinned in defensive positions against the English, while Donovan and Clint Dempsey were pinched in, forcing attacking wingers to go wide.

Slovenia, which qualified by defeating Russia in a home-and-home playoff last November, likely will rely on counterattacks. For that reason, there has been speculation U.S. coach Bob Bradley might consider starting Jose Torres in place of Clark in an effort to improve possession.

“Mentally we’re going to have to be probably more prepared, because when you get into battles like that, it’s mentally the hardest thing to get through for 90 minutes,” DeMerit said. “Ninety minutes is a long time when you’re kicking and fighting and bruised and all the rest of that. That’s when the mental prowess comes into play.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the Americans don’t want to be in the position of having only one point through two matches while Slovenia has six and England may have four.

“In all likelihood, if we lose we’re out of the tournament,” Donovan said. “That’s the reality of the situation.

“A tie means we’re still in the tournament. You have to be aware of that. That being said, we understand very clearly that if we win the game, we’ve got a very, very good chance of getting through. So that will be our focus,” he said.

A victory against Slovenia on Friday would put the U.S. in prime position to advance going into its Group C finale against Algeria on June 23. And even though the U.S. is a 2-1 favorite, according to betcris.com., players don’t see it as much of an advantage.

“They’re going to be a tough team,” said Clint Dempsey, who scored the tying 1-1 goal against England in the opener. “They keep the ball well. They have players who can cause you problems. So we’re just going to have to play our best game to get something out of it.”

While the United States is ranked 14th in the world, Slovenia is 25th. Still, Eastern European defenses have been difficult for the Americans to infiltrate. Czechoslovakia won 5-1 at the 1990 World Cup, Romania won 1-0 four years later and Yugoslavia by the same score in 1998.

Even after the Americans started with a win against Portugal and a draw with host South Korea in 2002, Poland beat the U.S. 3-1. Four years ago, the United States opened with a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic.

“If they decide to come and sit back, then it’s going to be tough to find space, but we’re going to have to try to make advantages and punish them when we get chances,” Donovan said. “At some point, you have to take some risks if you want to score.”