The Enemy Part One: Slovenia

Im going to start looking in depth at the competition the USA will face in the group stage come summer. First up Slovenia. This team has been surprising people since its inception in 1992, qualifying for Euros in 2000 by beating Ukraine, managing an unbeaten qualification run for the 2002 world cup, and more recently beating out mighty Russia to qualify for South Africa. The Slovaks also recorded a memorable 1-o victory over Italy in the run up to Germany 2006, a competition Italy would go on to win.
Its easy to write off Eastern European countries, but when you take a closer look at Slovenia you realize that they possess quite a few quality players, most of which have signficant experiance with the national team. Up front Slovenia draws on the goalscoring powers of Milivoje Novakvic, FC Colonge's leading scorer of the 08-09 season, Valter Bisra, striker for Ligue 1 side Auxerre, and Zlatko Dedic, who plays of Bundesliga side FC Bochum. In many ways the Slovenian team and the USA team are similar, at least in terms of mentality. Both teams have been responsible for upsets in the past, and both teams seem to be playing for respect. Their is a real collective spirit about the Slovenians, whose thrilling win over Russia was partially the result of constant chances created by the defense on the counter attack. The US would do well to dominate the midfield, which is by far the teams weakest point. The Slovenian midfield generally lacks quality, with few players based in top European leagues, with the exception of inexperienced (and rarley capped) midfielder Rene Krhin of Inter Milan. If the likes of Dempsy, Clark, Holden (Beasley?), can smoother the middle, the USA should have no problem limiting Slovenia's chances.