By DPA,
Pretoria : The United States and Algeria will be seeking their first World Cup victory when they meet Wednesday, and a winner could even make it into the knockout stages from group C.
The US have drawn their first Group C matches, 1-1 with England and 2-2 with Slovenia, while Algeria fell 0-1 to Slovenia before holding England to a goalless draw.
Slovenia are the unlikely group leaders with four points from two matches, while the US and England have recorded two points apiece with the Desert Foxes of Algeria bottom of the standings on a point.
The group will therefore go down the wire Wednesday with Slovenia playing England and the Americans and Algeria playing a first match at full international level.
Four years ago, the US faced a similar challenge as they needed to beat debutants Ghana to advance to the next round but lost 1-2.
Now they face another African hurdle and insist they will accord Algeria all the respect they deserve Wednesday.
“Algeria are a good team. They’re athletic, they’re good defensively, they made some big tackles during that game against England,” said forward Clint Dempsey, who scored the equaliser against England.
“I think it’s a game that’s going to be tight, but as the game goes on it’s going to have to open up. We’re going to have to take risks because we know a draw may not get us through.
“We’ll just have to manage the game and see how it goes, and I think they’re going to do the same. They’re going to stay compact defensively, pick and choose moments when to go forward; but if it’s 0-0 in the 65th minute, you’re going to see the game open up.”
Bob Bradley’s team may have shown character for coming back in their last two matches, but they have also been working on not letting in early goals.
They went behind after just four minutes to England and fought from 0-2 down against Slovenia.
“The positive that we’re taking from this World Cup is that we’ve scored in each game that we’ve played in so far, so on that front, we’re doing well. We’re just going to go out and play our game and I think our game is good enough to win if we play our best,” said Dempsey.
After losing their opening group game to Slovenia, Algeria rescued their World Cup campaign by holding England courtesy of a solid performance back in the defence led by Glasgow Rangers centre back Madjid Bougherra.
It was such resoluteness at the back that had even qualified them to their third World Cup after a 24-year absence at the expense of bitter regional rivals Egypt, last year.
“I said we’d improve as time went by and that is what is happening and we are also growing in confidence and that is very important,” said coach Rabah Saadane.
“We only have one match left and the situation in the group is still open for every team to qualify.
“We need to use our potential to qualify for the next round.”
However, besides defending their own goal area, the Desert Foxes also know they have to fire a few goals at the other end of the pitch, if they are to make it beyond the group phase for the first time in their history.