Quick Facts Going into the US v Algeria Game

Per US Soccer, here’s some interesting facts that you may enjoy before tomorrow’s big huge monstrous game.

Fact, facts and more facts:

·        Tournament rules provide that all 23 players will dress for FIFA World Cup matches. Drawn as Team ‘A’ for the game, the U.S. will wear the all-white Nike home strip for the first time in this World Cup, while Algeria will sport all green. The maximum number of substitutions will be three.

·        U.S. forward Robbie Findley will be serving a one-match suspension after picking up his second caution of the tournament. Algeria enters with all players available for selection.

·        Steve Cherundolo and Jay DeMerit are carrying cautions into the match. Another yellow card would trigger a one-game ban.

·        The 2-2 draw against Slovenia marked the first time the United States has come back from a two-goal deficit at the World Cup.

·        The U.S. now has five ties all time in World Cup play, with four of the draws coming against European opponents. The lone exception came in the 2002 World Cup, when the U.S. tied 1-1 with hosts Korea Republic in Daegu.

·        The U.S. and Algeria have never met at the international level. The Algerians are appearing in their third World Cup finals and their first since 1986.

·        The meeting with Algeria marks only the second match for the U.S. against an African team in the World Cup, which have now come in successive tournaments. The U.S. faced Ghana in 2006 in Germany.

·        This will be the USA’s third visit to Loftus Versfeld, having played there for the first two matches of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup against Italy and Brazil.

·        Against Slovenia, ussoccer.com Man of the Match Michael Bradley scored his first World Cup goal and the eighth of his career. It’s also his second on South African soil, having tallied the second goal in the USA’s 3-0 win against Egypt on June 21, 2009, in the FIFA Confederations Cup.

·        He becomes the third player on the current roster have scored in a World Cup, adding to Dempsey’s pair and Donovan’s trio.

·        Donovan’s strike against Slovenia marked his third career goal in the World Cup, tied for second on the USA’s all-time list with Brian McBride and one behind Bert Patenaude.

·        He’s also the third U.S. player to score in multiple World Cups, joining Clint Dempsey (who reached that feat with the tying goal on June 12 against England) and former U.S. forward Brian McBride.

·        Donovan collected his 10th World Cup cap, tied for second on the USA’s all-time list with Claudio Reyna and one shy of the U.S. record shared by Cobi Jones and Earnie Stewart.

·        He has started in every World Cup match for the U.S. since 2002. Steve Cherundolo and Oguchi Onyewu have started all five of the USA’s previous World Cup matches dating back to 2006.

·        Altidore’s assist on Michael Bradley’s game-tying goal was his first for the full team.

·        With his start against Slovenia, José Torres became the seventh U.S. player to make his debut start in the World Cup here in South Africa, joining Altidore, Bradley, Clark, DeMerit, Findley, and Tim Howard.

·        Herculez Gomez became the 10th player to get his first World Cup cap during this tournament, entering as a reserve against Slovenia after Edson Buddle and Stuart Holden came on against England.

·        Dempsey is the third player to score in back-to-back games in the World Cup for the United States, having also tallied the team’s lone goal against Ghana in the final group game in 2006 in Germany. Bert Patenaude scored four goals in two games during the 1930 tournament and Landon Donovan scored in back-to-back games in 2002 against Poland and Mexico.

·        Findley became the first U.S. player to start a World Cup game for the U.S. after not participating in the qualifying cycle since Pablo Mastroeni started against Portugal to open the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

·        Nineteen of the 23 players on the U.S. World Cup Team appeared in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying for the U.S., although only eight appeared in at least half of the USA’s qualifiers (Altidore, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Howard and Onyewu).

·        The U.S. squad carries a variety of World Cup experience into South Africa, as 15 players have been named to their first World Cup roster. Meantime, six players had played in a World Cup game prior to South Africa. Cherundolo, Donovan, and Beasley have earned a place in their third World Cup.

·        Sixteen players on the roster have scored at least one international goal, and seven have scored in 2010: Altidore, Bocanegra, Buddle, Dempsey, Maurice Edu, Herculez Gomez, and Clarence Goodson.

·        Buddle became the most recent debutante on a U.S. scoresheet, netting a pair in the USA’s 3-1 win against Australia on June 5 in Roodepoort. He is the first player to score his first two goals in the same game since Sacha Kljestan posted a hat trick on Jan. 20, 2008, against Sweden.

·        Donovan’s assist against Australia increased his record-setting total to 45 for his career.

·        Howard finished the 2010 qualifying cycle with six clean sheets in 13 appearances and a 0.92 goals against average.

·        Howard hit his silver anniversary in caps after starting on May 29 against Turkey, completing his first 50 caps with 30 victories and 19 shutouts. José Torres also hit a milestone, reaching double-digit caps in perhaps his finest performance for the national team.

·        By earning 45 minutes against Australia, Marcus Hahnemann made his first appearance for the U.S. since Oct. 17, 2007, a 1-0 win in Switzerland. Hahnemann holds the record for the longest layoff between caps for the United States, with an eight-year, five-month, 28-day break between games from Nov. 19, 1994 to June 8, 2003.

·        With their goals on May 25 against the Czech Republic, Edu and Gomez became the first pair of U.S. players to get their first goal in the same game since Holden and Robbie Rogers tallied in the 4-1 win against Grenada on July 4, 2009, to open the 2009 Gold Cup.

·        Gomez made the World Cup team after appearing in just two matches before coming on at halftime against the Czech Republic to earn his third cap.

·        Five of the seven defenders on the roster have at least one goal for the national team: Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein, Cherundolo, Goodson, and Onyewu. Three of those tallied in 2009, and all of them memorable. Bocanegra’s game-winning header against Honduras in Chicago; Goodson performing the same feat against the same team in the same stadium in the Gold Cup; and Bornstein capping off qualifying with a last-second header against Costa Rica.

·        With his goal against the Netherlands on March 3 in Amsterdam, Bocanegra upped his career tally to 12, just one shy of the mark set by Marcelo Balboa for U.S. defenders.

·        Only two players on the U.S. World Cup team made their first U.S. appearance for Bradley within the last year. Holden debuted on July 4, 2009, with an Independence Day goal in the Gold Cup, and Buddle in the match against the Czechs.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Average Age: 26.9                               Average Caps: 34.2
Most Caps: 125 (Landon Donovan)      Fewest Caps: 4 (Edson Buddle)
Oldest: 37 (Marcus Hahnemann)           Youngest: 20 (Jozy Altidore)

Play professionally in: England (7), USA (4), Germany (3), Mexico (2), Scotland (2), Denmark (1), France (1), Italy (1), Norway (1), Spain (1)

Hometown in: California (7), Texas (3), Illinois (2), Arizona (1), Florida (1), Georgia (1), Indiana (1), Maryland (1), Nevada (1), New Jersey (1), New York (1), Virginia (1), Washington (1), Wisconsin (1)

USA IN THE WORLD CUP: The U.S. is competing in their ninth World Cup finals tournament since participating in the inaugural event in 1930 where they finished as semifinalists, defeating Belgium in their first match. Some other facts:

Matches played: 27
Record: 6-16-5
GF/GA: 30/54
Best finish: Semifinals (1930)
Highest margin in win: 3-0 (vs.Belgium, Paraguay in 1930)
Biggest defeat: 1-7 (vs. Italy in 1934)
Most matches, player: 11 (Earnie Stewart, Cobi Jones)
Most goals, career: 4 (Bert Patenaude)

USA’s MARKS ON WORLD CUP HISTORY:

·        The United States are only the fifth team in World Cup history to come back from down two goals at half time to draw a match.

·        The first hat trick in World Cup history was recorded by Bert Patenaude, who scored three times in the 3-0 victory against Paraguay on July 17, 1930.

·        Brad Friedel is only one of two goalkeepers – joining Poland’s Jan Tomaszewski – to save two penalties in one tournament.

·        The U.S. are the only CONCACAF team to reach the semifinals of the tournament, achieving that feat in the 1930 event before losing to Argentina.