Bradley confident US players can cope with the pressure and slay Slovenia
The Americans were 2-0 up against Brazil at half-time in the final of the Confederations Cup at the Johannesburg stadium on June 28, 2009, only to lose the match 3-2.
Today a win for Slovenia and for England against Algeria would leave qualification for the knockout phase out of the hands of Bradley’s team.
The USA boss accepts it is a big game but believes his team have plenty of experience of such high-pressure encounters, some won and some lost.
“Along the way there are finals and matches where the pressure is on,” he said. “We’ve had good experiences as a group, we’ve learned from both sides.
“We’ve learned from moments where we’ve stuck together and pulled out important wins and we’ve learned from days where we’ve let the game get away from us, I mentioned earlier the final last June.”
Bradley insists he and his backroom team have done as much homework on Slovenia as they did on England.
“Slovenia is a very good team, their coach Matjaz Kek has done an excellent job,” he said.
“We prepare the same way for every match, we work on the little things we think are important and leave other things on the outside.’’
For his part, Slovenia coach Kek feels his team have taken a great step forward in the last 12 months.
Kek described today’s match at Ellis Park as a “huge challenge” but their victory over Algeria means they go into the match in pole position and can assure themselves of a place in the knockout phase with another win.
“A year ago we were making preparations for playing San Marino, today we are thinking about the knockout stage in our second match,” Kek said.
“A great step has been taken. This is not the most important match in our history but it is important and can establish Slovenia on the global map of football.”
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