The US World Cup Run By the Numbers

Here are some numbers on the US' World Cup run:

3: The number of minutes that the US led during their four World Cup matches, all of which came in second half stoppage time against Algeria.  It wasn't apparent to me at the time, but in hindsight that's a pretty telling statistic. 


189: The number of minutes that the US trailed during their four matches, with the Algeria match being the only one in which they were not behind at some point.  That's 48.7% of the time played.


19: The number of players on the 23 man roster that played in South Africa.  Only Jonathan Spector, Clarence Goodson, Brad Guzan, and Marcus Hahnemann failed to earn minutes in the four matches.


3: The number of goalscorers, with Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Michael Bradley accounting for the US' five tallies.


2: The number of good goals nullified by incorrect calls, with Maurice Edu being denied his first career World Cup goal against Slovenia and Clint Dempsey getting what would have been his third career World Cup goal called back against Algeria.


0: The number of goals from the strikers, the second consecutive World Cup in which a striker has failed to find the back of the net. 


13: The number of players who made their World Cup debuts (i.e. earned their first career World Cup minutes).  Included in this group are Jozy Altidore, Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley, Edson Buddle, Tim Howard, Jonathan Bornstein, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Jose Torres, Stuart Holden, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, and Jay DeMerit.


5: The number of substitutions made by Bob Bradley at or before halftime (four came at the start of the second half, while the fifth came in the 31st minute against Ghana), reflecting starting lineup issues and the need for goals after failing to produce in the opening 45.


9: The number of yellow cards accumulated by US players throughout their four matches.  Only Robbie Findley was suspended due to accumulation after his phantom yellow card against Slovenia.


0: The number of red cards for US players at the 2010 World Cup, a nice change of pace after the Yanks saw red twice in Germany and three times in the Confederations Cup last summer.


0: The US' goal differential, as they scored five times and conceded five times.


-3: The US' goal differential in the first half, as well their goal differential within the first 15 minutes of the match.


+4: The US' goal differential in the second half, not counting the extra time goal that they conceded against Ghana.


2: The number of goals conceded on shots from outside the box: the goals by Valter Birsa of Slovenia and Kevin-Prince Boateng of Ghana.


0: The number of US goals scored and conceded off of set pieces.


19.4 million: The number of viewers on ABC and Univision of the USA-Ghana match.

-----

That's it for now, hopefully I'll have another post up tonight.  Stay tuned.