U.S. MNT World Cup Update
June 19, 2010
Pretoria, South Africa

U.S. CONTROLS ITS OWN DESTINY: Following Friday’s come-from-behind 2-2 tie, the U.S. Men’s National Team controls its own destiny heading into the final Group C match on Wednesday, June 23, against Algeria at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria. With a win, the U.S. will advance to the Round of 16 for the third time in the last five FIFA World Cups. A tie and certain results in the England-Slovenia match that kicks off at the same time would also see the U.S. advance. There are also scenarios in which a U.S. victory could clinch the top position in Group C. Wednesday’s match kicks off at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and will be broadcast live on ESPN and Univision, as well as online and on the radio in both English and Spanish.

SCENARIOS FOR JUNE 23:
USA Advances:
• U.S. win
• U.S. tie and England loss
• Tie and England-Slovenia tie, and the U.S. maintains it’s +2 goals scored advantage (USA 3 GF, England 1 GF)

USA Eliminated:
• U.S. tie and England win.
• Lose

USA Advances and Wins Group:
• Win by a greater goal difference than England wins by
• Win and England win by same goal differential while the U.S. maintains its +2 goals scored advantage
• Win by two or more goals and England / Slovenia tie
• Win by one goal and England / Slovenia tie while scoring more goals than Slovenia

Group C Standings

• Complete FIFA World Cup Standings & Results

USA VS. SLOVENIA ESPN's MOST-WATCHED SOCCER BROADCAST: The U.S. Men's National Team's match against Slovenia on Friday (June 18) morning was the most-watched soccer game among households in the history of ESPN networks - 3,906,000, based on a 3.9 fast national rating for the two-hour contest (10 a.m. ET - noon). It ranks third most-watched among viewers (P2+ - 5,200,000), behind the Germany/Italy semifinal (5,850,000) on July 4, 2006, and the US/Germany quarterfinal on June 21, 2002 (5,335,000). San Diego was the top market for yesterday's match, delivering an 8.5 rating - all the more impressive considering the 7 a.m. local start time. Rounding out the top five were Washington , DC (6.4), Miami (6.2), West Palm Beach (5.9), and San Francisco (5.7). San Diego was also the top market for the USA/England game on ABC (11.5). Through Friday, June 18 and 23 games on ABC and ESPN, the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.9 U.S. rating (for the two-hour match window) -- up 60% from 2006 (1.2). Household impressions are up 66% (from 1,336,000 to 2,333,000) and P2+ impressions are up 71% (from 1,720,000 to 2,950,000).

TODAY FROM STUDIO 90
U.S. Soccer’s popular web show Studio 90 features daily shows during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Here’s a look at the rundown for the June 19 show.

Studio 90: Today on Studio 90 we sat down U.S. assistant coach Mike Sorber right when the team arrived back at the hotel after the Slovenia match and we talked to him about the historic comeback the USA mounted to earn the 2-2 draw, keeping the Americans in the tournament. We also got some post-game reaction from Landon Donovan, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo and Maurice Edu, who scored the now infamous disallowed third goal. We also go over the advancement scenarios to the round of 16 for the USA .

Sounds from South Africa : Sounds from South Africa for June 19 features U.S. Men's National Team head coach Bob Bradley in a press conference from the team's base camp in Pretoria . Bradley discusses the game against Slovenia and also gives insights to the USA 's final Group C match with Algeria on June 23.

FROM THE MNT BLOG
A collection of notes, anecdotes and links:

• Algeria preparations begin

• Vice President’s video blog

• U.S. fans come out to Ellis Park

QUOTABLE: June 19, 2010
For more quotes, visit ussoccer.com

U.S. Head Coach Bob Bradley
 On his thoughts on the disallowed goal a day later:
“On the disallowed goal, I end up feeling badly for the team and our fans because a 3-2 comeback win would have given us a real chance of advancing and would have been something that was pretty special for everybody. It didn’t happen that way, so we put it behind us. We understand that if we win we advance and we understand that there’s a possibility that we still win our group. We have moved forward.”

On whether FIFA should require referees to publicly explain their decisions similar to other sports:
“We’re all accustomed to the fact that if it’s an NFL playoff game and there’s a call that’s in question there will be statement by the league from the referees, but FIFA operates differently and soccer – world football – is a different game. We could have a long discussion with regards to whether or not you’re offside if a little part of your body is ahead a guy or behind, so I think there are some aspects of it that are not made 100 percent clear which adds to the discussion of the game. From our end, we get used to that. We all have friends and family that ask us the same questions that most of you ask us and you end up saying that’s just how it is sometimes and you move on and get ready for the next game.”

U.S. Defender Jay DeMerit
On why the team has started slowly in the first two games:
“Ultimately, we prepare the same way every game so it’s hard to put your finger on one single thing. Warm-ups have been fine, our attitude going out of the tunnel has been fine, so I don’t think there is one thing we can put our finger on. We are a team that really responds to that, so I suppose that is the positive side of starting not as well as we expect to. We tend to use those types of things as more of a fuel to our fire. Now, I guess the positive side again thinking about that is let's think about the games where we actually start really well then what will happen. That’s when victories will start to happen, so looking forward that should be our goal, to continue watch the film and maybe find where to put your finger on those types of things and make sure that as we move forward that less and less of those types of things happen.”

FIFA WORLD CUP FACTS: USA Reset
• Clint Dempsey became the second player in U.S. history to score in two FIFA World Cup competitions with his goal against England .
• Landon Donovan became the third player in U.S. history to score in two World Cup competitions with his goal against Slovenia .
• Dempsey (2) joined Donovan (3) as one of four U.S. players with multiple World Cup goals. Bert Patenaude (4) and Brian McBride (3) are the others.
• Michael Bradley became the 17th player in U.S. history to record a World Cup goal by scoring against Slovenia .
• After two games, 12 players have made their FIFA World Cup debut: Tim Howard, Jay DeMerit, Benny Feilhaber, Edson Buddle, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden, Maurice Edu, Jose Torres, Jozy Altidore, Robbie Findley and Herculez Gomez

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