Know your Temporary World Cup Rival: Slovenia

Even their flag looks weak.

In the United States’ second game of pool play in the World Cup, they will play Slovenia on Friday morning at 10AM. Slovenia, although ranked #25 in the FIFA World Cup rankings, is currently in first place in our group, because of their win over the pathetic mighty Algerians in the tournament’s opening weekend. After the US-England tie on Saturday, both of the pool’s favorites are sitting two points behind the Slovenians. For the record, the US is currently ranked 14th by FIFA.

Adding to the intrigue was the Joe Namath-like guarantee of victory by Slovenian player Andrej Komac a few days ago. Quite a brash comment coming from a player who did not even start for his team in their opening game.

So where is Slovenia and what is their deal? Roughly the size of Houston, Texas, Slovenia became a country in 1992 after the fall of Yugoslavia. As of press time, I had not been able to determine an accurate slur for their countrymen, so I will probably just go with ‘Slav.’ This is the Slovenians second go-round in the World Cup, as they also made the field back in 2002, when the tourney was held in Japan and South Korea.

Slovenia, according to Wikipedia, has the best economic condition of virtually all of the eastern bloc nations that are considered “transition economies.” Kudos to Slovenia for starting down the road to prosperity, but beating out countries such as Azerbaijan and Croatia is roughly equivalent to being the cutest fat girl.

Look for a steady dose of awesome names on the Slovenian side, such as Zlatko Dedic and Zlatan Ljubijankic. Twelve players on the Slovenia roster have a last name that ends in ‘C’.

Hopefully the US can avoid the upset and send Mr. Komac back to his country eating crow. Komac’s fellow citizens, no strangers to war and barbarianism, may give him a dirt nap somewhere in the Alps if it turns out his mouth wrote a check his body couldn’t cash.