USA-Slovenia: 1st Half

Typical of a World Cup match, the walk down to Ellis Park was full of anticipation, with a lot of Americans and pro-American South Africans looking for a W. Here's the crowd in the ticket-checking line...
The high expectations for the Americans were justified. Yes, Slovenia led the group, but that was the result of a lone lucky goal against the lowly Algerians. Surely a small European country with fewer inhabitants than Miami-Dade county would be a relative cake-walk for the Americans. Here is video of some fired up USA fans in line for Budweiser before the game and anticipating a win...

Inside Ellis Park, there were a few scattered Slovenians. What do you yell at Slovenians? It was tough to come up with anything that stuck. Some insults went as follows: "You suck, Slovakia!" "Slovakia? No, we're from Slovenia!" "Yeah, whatever. Maybe we'll invade you next." I mean, it's kinda hard to dislike these nice people...
There were many more Stars-and-Stripes supporters. Indeed, residents of the United States bought more World Cup match tickets than those of any other country beside the hosts. USA players would later comment that it felt like their first home game. They are used to predominantly hostile Latino crowds in places like Houston and Los Angeles, which sell out large stadiums but root for the other side. Here's Bill and me with some compatriots...
Some absolute nuts just down and to the left in full Uncle Sam gear with enlarged portraits of Washington and Lincoln (neither of whom, I'm certain, ever played soccer)...
But hey, it's not everyday you have a chance to be on global television, so you have to do something pretty crazy. The fan-cam zoomed in on them pretty quickly (and, I learned later, they were featured on the telecast)...
And then the match started...
The festive mood popped in the 13th minute when the American defense decided to give Slovenian striker Valter Birsa ALL DAY LONG to virtually tee the ball up and knock a 25-yard shot past Tim Howard, who declined to move on the play. Was he visually blocked out, we wondered? Apparently not, according to television replays. Uh-oh. Once again we gave up an early goal and had to chase the game. (Such behavior would repeat itself against Ghana, ultimately leading to the USA's demise.) I hate when the other team scores first and scores early. It colors the whole rest of the game with desperation and dread.

For a little while, it looked like the plucky Americans would equalize as they pounding the ball back and forth across the Slovenian goal box. But the ball would not cross the line between the posts. In a classic counterattack, Slovenia broke out of their defensive end, leading to a pretty 42nd-minute Zlatan Ljubijankic finish and fury amongst the American faithful.

One Slovenian goal rendered us deflated. Two goals made us apoplectic. Debbie Downer herself couldn't have written a more depressing script. You mean we flew all this way for this? Gooch and Torres were terrible. Donovan and Dempsey were tentative. We'd had enough of the excuses from US Soccer; the United States should never suck this bad at anything! They had one half to earn back our respect. Definitely the emotional low point of our entire trip.