After the United States and England played to a 1-1 draw, pool favorite England was suddenly placed under unexpected pressure pending the outcome of their second round games.

Unfortunately for the U.S., that pressure is also coming from another team.

In a contest in which many were confident about the U.S.’s chances, Slovenia played the Americans to another draw, 2-2.  The tiny European nation gave a dismal display in their previous game against Algeria – scoring their winning, and only, goal on a mistake by goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi.  But with that win – and the accompanying three points – the Slovenians find themselves leading Group C with 4 points.

Given Slovenia’s struggles in their World Cup opener, their performance today was a bit of a surprise.  They attacked early and often – putting the game’s first two scores on the board.

In the 12th minute, Valter Birsa, with lots of space around him, fires from about 25 yards out and blasts the ball past American goalkeeper Tim Howard for their first score.  Then, after continuous pressing on both sides for more than 20 minutes, Slovenia strikes again.  This time it’s Zlatan Ljubijankic who puts it in, giving his team a comfortable 2-0 lead that it takes into intermission.

But what the U.S. did in the second half was nothing short of extraordinary.  After halftime, the Americans were able to turn the momentum of the match completely around.  They scored two minutes after the break on a great effort from Landon Donovan.  Donovan made a great move on Bostjan Cesar and then crushes a kick into the top of the net, cutting the Slovenian advantage in half.

Birsa got the Slovenians off to a fast start, scoring a goal in the game's 12th minute.

A couple of yellow cards later, Jozy Altidore heads the ball toward Michael Bradley who quickly whips it past Samir Handanovic, knotting the contest at 2 in the 81st minute of action. 

Moments later the U.S. put the ball into the opponent’s net once again, but it was disallowed because it came after the referees blew the whistle for a foul call.  As illustrated in the video above, this appeared to be a big-time blown call by the official.  There were more surges from Slovenia to regain the lead, but the U.S. had all of its defenders in place.  After 94 minutes of action, the final whistle was blown, ending the contest in a tie.

After Slovenia got off to such a great start, it had to be mildly disappointed to have the match end in a tie.  I say ‘mildly’ because they still sit on top of the group – at least for the moment.  An England victory over Algeria will yield a two-way tie at the top, putting the Americans in a precarious third place spot in the division.

As for the Americans, they had their aspirations changed in the blink of an eye – or, in roughly 12 minutes (the length of time it took for Slovenia to score).  Unfortunately, the have to be happy with this outcome because they were forced to battle back to avoid giving Slovenia complete command of their group.

The U.S. national team will take the field once again on Wednesday as they oppose Algeria.  The U.S. will be in a must-win situation if it wants to keep pace with current frontrunner Slovenia and potential frontrunner (pending tonight’s match) England.  Also, on Wednesday, Slovenia and England will go head-to-head in a match that could eliminate one of them from advancing into stage play (if the U.S. is able to defeat Algeria).