Introduction
The USA entered this match in confident mood after a well fought draw against Group favourites England. The USA chose to prepare for this tournament by training at sea level rather than altitude.
They felt that being able to train at high intensity would be more beneficial than dealing with altitude problems and having to train at low intensity. This was based on knowledge gained from a 2009 defeat to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final in South Africa 2009.
With 10 players having had Premier League experience in their squad, they should be able to see off the former Yugoslavian nation of Slovenia and put themselves in a good position to qualify. Slovenia started this game on the back of a win against Algeria and would be confident of progressing further, even against the might of the USA.
These minnows, known as Reprezentanca, have entered this tournament with one of the meanest defences in the UEFA zone, conceding just 3 goals in 8 matches.
Slovenia Starting Line Up:
Slovenia: Attacking
Employing a 4-4-2 formation, they focused many of their attacks towards Andraz Kirm (17).
This right footed player would cut inside and look to combine with his strikers or deliver in swinging crosses towards the far post. On the right side their left footed Valter Birsa (10) was deeper and slightly pushed inside which created lots of opportunity for the marauding right back, Miso Brecko (2) to exploit on overlaps.
From their Gk possession they would push both full backs high and wide. Their two CB’s would literally split the box in an attempt to get their two midfield playmakers on the ball. If the GK could not play out they kicked long towards Kirm (17) who was being marked by a small full back.
This was a strange but successful ploy that gave them lots of joy even though they had the height of Milivoje Novakovic (11) to aim for if needed. Normally you would see a player of this size pull out from a central area to play on the shoulder of the full back to use his dominance in the air.
The combinations of their wide players and full backs gave them lots of success on the flanks, but interestingly both wide players were opposite footed to their position on the pitch.
Slovenia: Defending
A very clear strategy emerged when out of possession. They dropped to the half way line and allowed the USA to have the ball at the back.
Both Novakovic (11) and Zlatan Novakovic (9) screened the ball from being played to the USA central midfield by forcing the ball out wide where they would quickly press using Kirn (17) and Birsa (10) and force play inside or backwards.
Pressing the ball quickly in their own half of the pitch was a key trend to all their defending and they held the edge of the penalty area quite firmly. If there was a weakness it would be in Marko Suler (4) who appears to lack the pace of the other defenders and was susceptible to mistakes as he lost his shape frequently.
At corners they had 3 zonal players defend the near post area and were well marshalled by their big goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, who is considered a rising star and plays his club football in Italy with Udinese.
USA starting line up:
USA: Attacking
USA deployed a 4-4-2 formation which included a very compact midfield four and at times they were no further apart than 30 meters. The two split strikers operated in the areas between the Slovenian centre backs and full backs. The back four attempted to play out from the goal keeper when they could and then through midfield.
The outer operating midfield players tried to receive the ball infield between the Slovenian midfield and back four. When they did get on the ball they then tried to release the strikers with balls slid in behind or over the top of the Slovenian centre backs.
When pressed at the back they were prepared to hit the strikers early in behind if at all possible to utilise their strikers pace who would be more than willing to run in behind. The two USA full backs never got forward with any purpose in the game because they never had a period of controlled possession.
The game plan of getting their two outer operating midfield players on the ball never emerged in the first half because Slovenia were the dominant team and in the second half however they released the ball earlier from their back players to their strikers and this gave Slovenia more problems.
USA Second Half Line Up:
USA: Defending
There was no real defending strategy evident sometimes they pressed early with the front players and sometimes they dropped off and this was usually triggered by the action of the nearest defender to the ball. They had two sitting midfield players who attempted to protect the back four.
With Slovenia using their two wide midfield players to good effect the USA back four became very fragmented on occasions and they got exposed in between their full backs and centre backs by the movement of the Slovenian strikers especially in the first half when they conceded two goals.
Slovenia may be disappointed not to have won the game after leading 2-0 but after the second half the USA would probably feel the same way. With England and Algeria drawing 0-0 later in the evening, the Group is still wide open although Slovenia appear to be in the driving seat at the moment and a leading contender to advance in the competition.
