World Cup 2010 Game 6: Slovenia 1, Algeria 0

The relief and happiness from the United States over the 1-1 draw with England dissipated somewhat the following morning with news that goalkeeper hero Tim Howard may have broken ribs. (And, seriously, playing a half with broken ribs...who says soccer is not a rough sport?) The best result in this would have probably been a 0-0 tie so that the United States was ahead on goals scored. Slovenia's late goal means that the United States almost certainly has to one of its last two games...that's assuming Slovenia doesn't tie England, too.

The game itself was pretty dull, and Slovenia didn't look great until Algeria had a man sent off for two silly yellow cards (jersey pull and hand ball diving for a header)--within four minutes of coming on. Algeria looked liked they had the possession ability to gut out a tie, but once the goal went in that was all she wrote. One bright side for the United States is that the 1-0 score wasn't a huge difference in terms of goal differential tiebreakers (or goals scored) down the line.

When I was in grade school I knew all the capitals of Europe. Now I'm not sure if I could identify all the countries on a map. If I understand my history correctly, Slovenia was autonomous in the early part of the 20th century but annexed (is that the right word?) by Yugoslavia in the 1920s. It was part of Yugoslavia after World War II but gained independence in the 1990s.