Had it all the way.

Sort of a strange way to see the United States national team in its do-or-leave match with Algeria. A day off for us here in Abu Dhabi, so no flat-screen TV in the office, which is just as well. Hard to watch when you’re working. And the Yanks played at the same time as the English, so the sports department at The National certainly was overrun by nervous Englishmen from other newsroom departments who were ready to savage their lads if things went bad.

Instead, we were in the rooftop tavern at the new Holiday Inn (nicer than it sounds; trust me) south of the tiny apartment. In a long room known as the Thirty-First Bar (it’s on 31st street, see?) with a great view of the grand mosque and a “Bucket of Bud” for 75 dirhams (six 33cl bottles for about $21). Could be worse. Especially after the manager finally found the U.S. match on Al Jazeera — which was showing England-Slovenia on about 24 channels. Not that this country skews British, or anything …

So there we were, four Yanks at the end of the bar, with our own little TV, in a room crowded with English watching all the big TVs … and for the longest time thinking this was just … not … gonna … work … out.

Then came the greatest sports star in the history of San Bernardino County, little guy by the name of Landon America (aka, Donovan), to save the day — and make our night.

Curious game. Well, they all are. But this one especially, because it appeared as if the Desert Foxes were operating under the misapprehension that a scoreless result would be a positive thing for Algeria, the Maghreb, Africa and the Arab world.

Really, the Algerians could hardly have done more bunkering in had they arrived with several tons of concrete, anti-personnel land mines and a mile of barbed wire.

After that early Algeria scoring chance (you know the one; when every American soccer fan could feel his or her heart stop for a moment as the ball banged off the crossbar in the eighth minute) … Algeria played as if it could progress with a tie.

The Yanks pushed forward and forward and pushed some more, and Algeria just soaked it up, usually with nine guys in front of the ball.

Anyone who had walked into the Thirty-First Bar from the street and watched five minutes of the match would have thought the guys in white needed a victory to advance and the guys in green (Algeria) needed no more than a tie — or even a defeat by fewer than three goals.

Let’s back up for a second and contemplate Bob Bradley’s lineup. Two items of interest.

1. Herculez Gomez at forward for the suspended Robbie Findley. I would have preferred Edson Buddle, but the idea apparently was to bring out one forward who could control the ball and run at the defense a bit and, anyway, any warm body would be better than Findley.

2. Jonathan Bornstein at left back for Carlos Bocanegra with Boca sliding over to the middle ahead of Oguchi Onyewu. I liked this switch. A lot. It didn’t necessarily do what it was supposed to do, but the reasoning behind it was sound. With the big and bulky Bocanegra at left back in the first two matches, the U.S. had nothing happening on the left during the attack and was counting on Oguchi and his not-quite-yet-sound knee to be a bulwark in the middle. The introduction of Bornstein, who can run, meant Algeria had to at least be conscious of overlapping runs on the U.S. left; it got Bocanegra out of trying to keep up with little wingers and it moved Gooch safely to the bench, where his lack of range and apparent mistrust of his knee couldn’t hurt the team.

Back to the match.

The most important moment of the first half, aside from the shot banging off the bar, was the officials taking another goal from the Americans. Really. They did this. Second consecutive match. Yes, it was a close call, but … c’mon, Fifa owed the Yanks one from the disallowed goal in the Slovenia match.

Gomez rolled a pass across the mouth of the goal to Clint Dempsey, who was alone at the far post and poked the ball into the net … but was ruled offside.

My first thought was that, well, yes, perhaps he was, but then Al Jazeera ran a couple of replays, and Dempsey was perfectly even with the last Algeria defender, and the goal should have counted, and … how many goals can a team have taken from it by the officials in a World Cup and still get out of the first round? I was thinking “two may be one too many.”

Especially when we got to the half, and England was leading 1-0 over Slovenia, and if the scores held up, England would win Group C,  Slovenia would be second and the Yanks third … and on a plane back to the States tomorrow.

Second-half sub: Benny Feilhaber for Herculez Gomez. Again,  good call. As the half wore on, I told my fellow Americans “Herculez has disappeared”. Though I thought Bradley would go for Buddle at that point. Instead, he chose Feilhaber, an offense-minded midfielder to play on the left, allowing Dempsey to join Jozy Altidore at forward.

Then came 45 minutes of really dreary, depressing soccer. England holding that lead, the Three Lions crowd telling us by their shouts and murmers how things were going in the rest of the room. We ordered another Bucket o’ Bud.

The Yanks seemed just plain tired in the second half. Probably a function of chasing the Slovenia game back on Friday, and 45 minutes of pressing in the first half. Algeria looked weary, too, but it was hard to imagine why, considering they never went forward in numbers … since they thought a 0-0 tie was going to be a good thing, remember?

(Moment of clarity, about the 80th minute: The Algeria coach, Saadane, never thought he would get out of the group phase, and neither did his country, but being able to go home and say “I tied England and the U.S.” would be enough to make him appear a “winner.” And if that wasn’t what was going on, well, then I have nothing else, because Algeria’s unwillingness to come forward was constant, perplexing and, finally, infuriating.)

So, we get to extra time, four minutes … and somewhere around the 90th minute I’m gauging “how am I going to feel about this?” and “seriously ticked” is the leader in the clubhouse, along with thoughts about how the harsher chunk of the U.S. soccer media would go goat-hunting and try to fit horns to Bob Bradley, even if the U.S. had gone out not because they sucked but because officials took away two perfectly good goals in a goal-starved tournament.

Which takes us to the moment of redemption and celebration.

First minute of extra time. Algeria is actually forward in some numbers, having walked the ball up against the exhausted Yanks. (A moment before, a little man standing in front of me, a U.S. fan but not an American; yeah, go figure; had said the game “was not fast enough” and I had suggested “those guys are just beat.”

Anyway, Algeria gets one of its handful of good chances, late, and the ball comes out (from Tim Howard, I believe) and the Yanks control it and … lo and behold! … Algeria actually has a half-dozen guys behind the ball. This is a pregnant moment.

One more backtrack: I have seen every significant match the U.S. has played since 1989, going back to before the Paul Caligiuri “Shot Heard Round the World” in Port of Spain, Trinidad (yes, I was there) … and counter-attacking is what the Yanks do best.  Always.

We don’t have the skill and the patience and the game-sophistication to break down a team that won’t come forward. We just don’t. And it isn’t easy. Negative soccer is all the rage, and about the only countries that can be counted on to break down a Maginot Line of defenders are Brazil, Argentina and maybe the Dutch.

The U.S. had not managed it today. Came close, but hadn’t done it (between the stolen goal and Dempsey missing two easy shots in a span of about three seconds), and “close” is what gets you sent home.

But now? Algeria was caught upfield. For one of the few times in the match. Just as England and Slovenia went “full time” at 1-0. (Meaning the Yanks win, or they’re out.)

I sat up in my chair. This is it … or it’s over and 2010 is a failure, etc., etc.

Landon has it in the middle of the field, and the Yanks have fanned out like the Lakers on a 4-on-2 fast break, with late sub Buddle on the left, Dempsey in the middle and Altidore on the right.

(Donovan, the hero of the Slovenia match, had been strangely quiet in the second half after a very active first. Tired? Marked out of play? Too much left-side action? Too much Dempsey whiffing? I would have to watch the tape to be sure.)

This is the American offense at its best, at speed, with the ball at Donovan’s feet.

He pushed it down the field, slightly to the right of middle, and about halfway to goal rolled it forward on the right to Altidore (who worked like hell in this match, let’s acknowledge), and Jozy took a few touches while being closely marked.

Altidore then crossed it into the box, where Dempsey and an Algeria defender and Algeria’s very nice goalkeeper, Rais M’Bolhi, were waiting.

To Dempsey’s credit, he got a foot on the pass, but he touched it about the same moment that a defender reached him and M’Bolhi came off his line to deflect the shot. A sort of three-car wreck in the goalie box.

Then came two critical/fortuitous breaks for the U.S. …

1. The ball rebounded away from goal, but not far, and not fast, and neither left nor right but right in front of goal …

2. … and Landon Donovan, just as he no doubt has been doing since playing AYSO in Redlands and club soccer in Rancho Cucamonga … was following the play right down the middle of the field, closing in on goal. You know, in case a rebound came out. Almost like a hockey player might.

And there it was, the Jabulani ball, spinning slowly at the edge of the goalie box, with the keeper on the ground to the right and Dempsey and a defender in a heap on the goal line … but no one and nothing between the ball and the back of the net … and Landon Donovan in the 91st minute struck it with his right foot, but not too hard because it wasn’t necessary … and the ball traveled at a nice even pace …

Into the goal! (Tell me that Andres Cantor’s description of the goal, and its aftermath, in Spanish, doesn’t bring tears to your eyes.)

U.S. 1, Algeria 0.

Pandemonium among U.S. supporters in the Thirty-First Bar. Well, all five of us. High fives all around. Including with the little mystery man. And the English fans are crowding around the one TV with the U.S. game on … and want to know “what happened?” because the Three Lions had just finished, 1-0.

And, after various and sundry detours and disappointments, the two sides that deserved to come out Group C — the English and the Yanks — have done it.

It was not a great goal by Landon. Of the 44 he has scored for the national team, it might have been the easiest. Not remotely like that miracle “impossible angle; put it into the roof of the net” goal he managed against Slovenia a few days ago. This one? Just a tap into an empty net.

The degree of difficulty did not deter Landon from a giddy celebration, however. Unlike the Slovenia goal, which gave the Yanks a chance … as opposed to putting them into the final 16 of the World Cup.

He did a belly flop and skidded about halfway to the corner flag.  The U.S. bench cleared to create one of those scary dogpiles. (Hey, don’t hurt anyone down there … you’ve got another game to play!)

Couldn’t happen to a better guy. I am a Landon partisan. You all know that. But it has been a long eight years for him, which must seem like an eternity when you’re still only 28. He had the great, clinching goal against Mexico in the Round of 16 in Korea in 2002, and got the Letterman show exposure and all … but he suffered in the 2006 World Cup, when great things were expected of the team, and him, and it didn’t work out, and he was pilloried so severely that it did, really, change him. Since then, he has not been a giddy kid who plays for fun … but a guarded professional who knows the deep sting of a fan base that has turned against an athlete. The taunts. The gibes. The “Landycakes” nonsense.

(After the match, it was reported he broke into tears, perhaps twice. This is a guy who usually, around a soccer pitch, shows no signs of a softer side.)

Some of his post-match quotes: “I’ve been on a long journey these last four years. People who know me closest know how hard I’ve worked for this.”

On bouncing back from having another goal disallowed: “We embody what Americans are about. We can either moan about it or get on with it.”

He added: “I’ve been through a lot in the last four years and I’m so glad it has culminated this way. The lowest point soccer-related was after the 2006 World Cup. Personally: July last year [his divorce from Bianca Kajlich]. Those experiences can harden you and help you grow if you look at them the right way. It all came together today. When you try to do things the right way it’s good to see them get rewarded.”

So he is allowed, thank you, to celebrate that goal, even if it is the easiest World Cup goal he could imagine. It won the game, it put the U.S. in the second round, it was his second of the tournament and now South Africa 2010 is a success and Landon’s team (because that’s what it is, his team) has advanced, and anything after this … is gravy.

Oh, and we realized (we were two Buckets of Bud in, remember) … the U.S. has won the group! England is second. Ha! Not that it matters that much, because whoever comes up next (Germany, Ghana, Serbia … and, update: it’s Ghana) is going to be a handful. And favored, frankly.

Had it all the way, right? We all knew it. Sure. That’s our story. And we’re sticking with it … right into the second round.