If Slovenia had won this, they would have gone five points ahead of England and been the first team to qualify for the second round.

The game hadn't really looked like much when Tim Howard was watching Slovenia move forward in the thirteenth minute. Valter Birsa struck the ball from so far out that the Everton goalkeeper probably thought the unpredictable Jabulani would float high or wide.

The ball did take a swerve, but the height of the flight didn't alter and America went a goal down.

Slovenia did everything they needed to do to keep ahead, and just when the United States thought that they might get a sniff at an equaliser, Slovenia took a slight tug at the Stars and Stripey nasal hair and made their eyes water; as Zlatan Ljubijankic calmly slotted the ball past Tim Howard with the inside of his foot.

Should Brad Guzan or Marcus Hahnemann be coming on for the second-half? Of course not, but that's the sort of rubbish you hear when an England goalkeeper only lets one soft goal go past him.

Half-time: 2:0

At the start of the second-half, Team USA's double substitution paid instant dividends, as Landon Donovan put the North American giants back in with a shout against the European minnows.

The US goal didn't really ruffle Slovenia; as they continued to play their short-passing game, in search of another goal.

The United States brought themselves level with less than ten minutes to play; a long ball was headed down by Jozy Altidore for Michael Bradley - the manager's son - to toe poke home.

With the USA level, the goalscorer's father went all defensive again - instead of pushing on for the win.

Maurice Edu couldn't believe that the USA's third goal was disallowed, for tugging off the ball.

So Slovenia are not through, and even if England beat Algeria later tonight, nothing in the group will be decided until next Wednesday. Slovenia must be very disappointed, but full credit to Papa Bradley's substitutions.

Slovenia 2 USA 2

Both teams reached the 2010 World Cup finals through a play-off: Algeria beating Egypt and Slovenia getting the better of Russia.

Within three minutes, Algeria's Nadir Belhadj made his presence known with a free-kick that stung the palms of Samir Handanovic.

Other than that, considering one of these teams had the chance to go top of Group C neither showed the authority or imagination to do so.

Rafik Halliche's header, from a corner, was the only other real goalmouth incident of the first-half.

Slovenia didn't even earn a corner, until five minutes before the break. Valter Birsa then earned another, a couple of minutes later; Faouzi Chaouchi made the save look spectacular but the shot, although high, was straight at him.

Half-time: 0:0

Slovenia showed a little more conviction going forward early in the second-half; Matjaž Kek then deciding that perhaps things would work better with Zlatan Ljubijankic up front instead of Zlatko Dedic.

Twenty minutes before the end, Algeria tried to put their mark on the game; substitute Abdelkader Ghezzal twice getting close - but still not close enough.

As Ghezzal stupidly earned a yellow card for shirt-pulling, shortly after coming on, a deliberate hand-ball in the Slovakia area in the 73rd minute reduced Algeria to ten men.

Just when it seemed like Slovenia didn't have a clue how to make the best of their man advantage, Robert Koren turned on the edge of the Algeria penalty area and his low shot bounced over the open-to-collect arms of Faouzi Chaouchi.

Slovenia probably didn't deserve to win the match but the uninspiring victory does put them top of the table.

Algeria 0 Slovenia 1