Bradley, Donovan reflect after euphoric win

Some post-game quotes from Landon Donovan and head coach Bob Bradley after the Americans' momentous 1-0 victory over Algeria.

Donovan scored one minute into stoppage time to lift the U.S. to the top of the group and into the Round of 16.

Donovan on the game-winner:

"I knew that they had pushed a lot of numbers forward so when the ball broke, a lot of us had almost cheated, for lack of a better word. Like I said, we had to rely on our back four and Michael, really, to do a good job of stopping their counter attacks. When the ball came I wanted to take a good touch forward and be aggressive right away, and I had a lot of options. At the moment I chose Jozy, and he did a good job of putting a dangerous ball in to Clint, who did a great job of making an effort to get in front of the goalie and then it just bounced there.”

Donovan on all the missed chances:

“Sometimes in soccer you have games like that, where you get a lot of chances and they don’t go in ... We knew that they were pushing and we had to take some chances, and the guys in the back did an unbelievable job of stopping counter after counter from them and giving us a chance to score so we could finally get it.”

Bradley on all the missed chances:

“You think two things: when you’re in the game long enough, there are times when that happens and you just say ‘it’s not our night.’ But the real thing that you do as a coach is you keep trying to think of what’s going on in the game, are we still creating chances, how many changes do we have left, what else can we do to keep giving ourselves a chance to get the goal? In the end, it’s just the efforts of the players that make the difference.”

Bradley on what this win meant to the U.S.:

“Soccer continues to grow in the U.S. Some of the sports, like football, basketball and baseball have long histories and great traditions, but soccer is developing history and tradition. One of the nicest things tonight was when we were coming to the stadium, the street was lined with U.S. supporters—waving flags, dressed up, chanting USA, knocking on the bus and we don’t always have that. To have that happen at the World Cup, in South Africa, I think that was a really special feeling tonight. To finish the night with a great win to go hand-in-hand with the kind of support we do have, that shows we’re making big steps.”