SLOVENIA 2 USA 2:SLOVENIA MAY have come within eight minutes of becoming the first team to qualify for a place in the knock-out stages of this World Cup but it was the Americans who left Ellis Park in despair after a cracking game last night.

On course for defeat and elimination through most of the encounter, there were ultimately denied victory and one foot in the last 16 by what looked a very poor refereeing decision late on.

Bob Bradley’s side had trailed by two at the break but battled their way back to level terms by the 82nd minute when the manager’s son Michael drove home an equaliser from the centre of the box.

Three minutes later, though, they looked to have snatched a memorable win and moved to the brink of qualification themselves only to have Maurice Edu’s close- range conversion of a Landon Donovan free ruled out for what Malian match official Koman Coulibaly deemed an infringement by an American in a densely packed box.

“I’m assuming it was for a foul somewhere,” said a disgruntled Donovan afterwards. “Obviously it wasn’t offside but we did ask the referee many times who the call was on and he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, explain himself.

“He just ignored us or didn’t understand, I’m not sure how much English he speaks. Anyway, I think this was the guy’s first World Cup match so maybe he just got carried away by the emotion of it all but you can’t take a good goal away from a team; that’s just not good enough.”

Coulibaly, in fact, does speak English, and while this was indeed his first World Cup game, he is not short of experience in high-pressure situations, having officiated at five African Cup of Nations tournaments, including this year’s in Angola, where he oversaw the final.

He did seem to get things badly wrong for the goal he disallowed, however, with replays showing a massed tangle of competing bodies on the edge of the six-yard box where, if one party was more guilty of pulling or pushing that the other, it certainly appeared to be the Slovenians.

“I haven’t seen the replay,” observed the US coach in his characteristically understated sort of way, “but what I’m told is that one of them was holding Michael and he tried to get loose. I’ve been told that there were three fouls in there, all of them against Slovenian players.”

Ultimately, though, Bradley senior was still able to look on the bright side a little for he acknowledged his team’s involvement in this World Cup would have been all but ended by the defeat that had had one stage looked the most likely outcome.

“We were in a situation where we couldn’t lose. This tie keeps us alive and that’s the most important thing.”

His opposite number, Matjaz Kek, meanwhile, accepted the Americans’ apparently superior stamina had been the undoing of his men but, he insisted a little unconvincingly, “I don’t think the referee has affected the outcome of this game”.

Pleased with their performance in, and point from, their meeting with England, the Americans had come into this game confident they could take another significant step towards the knock-out stages.

Instead, they were caught cold early in the first half by a lively and capable Slovenian side, whose fluent passing and speed on the break threatened at times to overwhelm Bradley’s defence.

Slovenia’s opener still came a little out of the blue, though, with Valter Birsa picking up possession some 25 metres out 13 minutes in and then, as Oguchi Onyewu struggled to adjust his positioning so as to attempt a block, unleashed a powerful, swerving shot that left Tim Howard rooted to the spot.

The Americans promptly threw themselves into the pursuit of an equaliser only to get caught out badly when Zlatan Ljubijankic beat their offside trap and finished coolly to double his side’s lead three minutes before the break.

Once bitten, the Americans were a little shy about committing themselves to the same extent again after the break, with Bradley altering the approach slightly with a couple of substitutions, all the time taking care not to open his side to conceding a third by over-committing it to attack early on.

Almost immediately, the increased pressure they exerted began to yield a succession of free kicks in promising area of the pitch, almost all of which Donovan did well with.

In the end, though, the sometime Everton midfielder took matters into his own hands and laid down the first concrete foundation for the fightback with a memorable goal from play.

Breaking free down the right he cut in towards goal but lacked support in the centre and so looked certain to shoot from a tight angle.

Marko Suler chased back to try to get in a block but arrived too late, while his goalkeeper, Samir Handanovic, clearly leant backwards so as to avoid the impact of the forceful close range strike.

“I took a touch and aimed it at his head,” observed Donovan wryly. “Fortunately, I don’t think he wanted to get hit.”

With his side still chasing an equaliser late on, Bradley was forced to gamble and so he replaced Onyewu with Herculez Gomez, leaving him with three men in defence and attack.

Two minutes later the Americans had their equaliser, with Jozy Altidore getting up to knock the ball down to the manager’s son, who powered above and beyond the helpless goalkeeper from 10 yards.

The American supporters were jubilant, the Slovenians dismayed but while the scoreline was to remain unchanged from that point until the end of what was a thrilling encounter, the emotions of both sets of fans had been largely reversed again by the time the players left the field 10 minutes later.