Troy Checks in Again

Live from South Africa where he is trying to secure a ticket to tomorrow's game against Ghana, lagalaxy.com's Troy Bardy checked in with this report from his experience watching the U.S. beat Algeria and the celebratory atmosphere after the game.

Say all you want about the England match, but the game against Algeria clearly had the most significance so far for the U.S. That’s the beauty of the finals, every game means more than the last and in this case, U.S. had to win in order to advance to the round of 16.This time around I was able to get a category one ticket to the game. I knew the seats would be good but I wasn’t sure how good. When I arrived at the stadium (wearing my Donovan Everton jersey) and found my section, I asked the usher where to go, when she pointed me down towards the field I knew I was in for a real treat. 15 rows up, center circle, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The Algerian fans clearly outnumbered the U.S. fans but that was expected considering they’re from North Africa.When Algeria hit the crossbar in the opening minutes, I thought ‘here we go again’. But after that, the U.S. settled in and created several scoring chances of their own. Yet again they were victims of another tough call when Dempsey’s goal was disallowed. But that only seemed to motivate them more as they kept pressing and pressing and unfortunately, they kept missing and missing.

With every blown opportunity I thought Algeria’s chances were only improving. When the 90 minutes were up, I prayed out loud for the fourth official to hold up four minutes of stoppage time. Once he did, I truly felt that one someone was walking out of Loftus Versfeld with three points.Luckily for our country, it was Landon Donovan who came through yet again for the most dramatic goal of all-time just a minute later. When the final whistle blew and Landon ran over in front of my section and celebrated, I sobbed tears of joy for the team and for Landon himself as I could feel his emotions pouring out to all of us fans. After taping a couple segments with Yahoo! Sports’ Marcelo Balboa and Charissa Thompson we had the chance to enjoy the win a little ourselves. I can’t tell you how many hugs and high-fives I received for wearing my Donovan shirt and just how proud I was to be wearing it!The following day I had a chance to catch up with Landon and asked him what was going through his mind when the fourth official raised four minutes and if he ever thought to himself that their World Cup was coming to an end as I’m sure many of us did. Here’s what he had to say.