SOUTH AFRICA – The opening game in Group C of the FIFA World Cup soccer tourney pits the huge underdog USA team against England and the teams kick off the action at 1:30pm this afternoon under the buzz of those obnoxious horns.

In ‘Miracle on Ice’ fashion, the USA team upset the heavily-favored UK 1-0 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup so it could always happen again.

The U.S. team is getting strong support from home as 8,000tickets were sold in the U.S. for the game and only 6,000 in England although they are located much closer geographically to the South Africa stadium.

After yesterday’s low-scoring affairs, the South Africa 1-1 tie with Mexico and the scoreless 0-0 affair between Uruguay and France, we’re due to see a few kicks or headers hit the back of the net.

England’s new coach, Fabio Capello has his team focused coming into this competition after a near-perfect run qualified them for the tourney. England won 9 out of 10 matches netting 34 goals in the process, 6 more than their nearest qualifier Spain.

On the other side of the fence, the U.S. team under coach Bob Bradley are coming off a strong performance in last year’s FIFA Confederations Cup when they ousted favorite Spain in the semi-finals before losing a close one to Brazil 3-2.

So the question is, is this U.S. team capable of upsetting the Brits again more than a half century later?

Analysts are saying the US has to play a near flawless game to have any chance against this UK team.

“When we look at any top-level game, you need six, seven, eight guys to have really good nights,” U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley said. “There’s a lot that goes into winning big games, beating good teams. We’ve done that before, and we’re just concentrating on doing all of those things now in training leading up to the game so that we’re ready to go.”

This match should have England controlling ball possession kind of like seeing the Detroit Red Wings on a power play but the strategy against that should be trying to jam up the middle of the field until they can free up some of their stronger attacking players and create a few chances.

While the field is expected to be leaning heavily in England’s favor, expect U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard to see a lot more action than his counterpart.

Camping on his doorstep may be one of the top players in the world, England striker Wayne Rooney.

“You need to be close enough to your teammates so that when Rooney comes off of you, the next guy knows he’s there,” Howard said. “If you have him, then you have him. But if you want the next guy to take him you have to open your mouth.”

“Between the midfield block and the defending block, we have to try to condense the space so we don’t give Rooney enough time to manipulate the game as much as he would like,” added U.S. defender Jay DeMerit.

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