Only one minute in the game between the United States and Algeria mattered: the 91st, when Landon Donovan annulled atrocious calls from referees that stripped team USA of two previous goals and coolly finished off Algeria to send the US atop of their group ahead of England, and into the next stage of the World Cup. Donovan smartly followed a rebound from Clint Dempsey’s late shot, and buried the ball in the back of the net, generating an uproar in a city that otherwise rarely stops for anything at noon on a Wednesday. It was kind of like basketball.

Among the most fanatic were the fans who watched the game at Lower East Side’s Nevada Smith’s. The legendary soccer bar fit a few hundred American fans who took off work to watch their team win. For half an hour, it almost felt like home.