Two goals to the good at half time, the smallest nation in this World Cup should have sealed qualification for the knockout phase for the first time following goals from Valter Birsa and Zlatan Ljubijankic. 

However, the resilience of this American team was never better demonstrated in a frantic second half in which they might have snatched victory had Maurice Edu's strike not been wrongly ruled out for offside. Instead, America had to settle for just a point thanks to Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan.