The United States will play a World Cup match against Slovenia, at 10:00 a.m. ET. For both Group C teams, it is the second match. It will take place at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Going into the match, the United States will be the favorites. After England, they are the consensus number 2 team of Group C. They will have played England six days prior to this match. They will play this match with a great deal of urgency, as they will need wins in their remaining two group matches in order to advance, if they lose to England.

Going into the tournament, the United States has relatively high expectations. In the Confederations Cup, they upset Spain last summer 2-0 and nearly beat Brazil. They have fell victim to injuries, however. forward Charlie Davies was left off the team after suffering multiple injuries in a car accident in October and Defender Oguchi Onyewu is coming off a patellar tendon rupture.

Schedule of Slovenia gets progressively more difficult as they begin the tournament. Against Algeria, they open the tournament and follow up by playing the USA (projected to finish second in Group C) and England (first). A win against Algeria will give the Slovenes a sense of excitement heading into their match with the USA, as another win would likely secure them a spot in the next round.

USA’s biggest weaknesses, defense, and it is one of Slovenia’s biggest strengths. In European qualifying, they allowed the second fewest goals.

Slovenia will need increased effort from their goal scorers, in order for them to prevail. Goals have been hard to come by for Slovenia, they most likely won’t shut out the US and will need some sort of offensive production to avoid a loss and are as great as their defense.

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