The USA have established themselves at these finals in South Africa as a side with bags of heart and a never-say-die spirit. After a hard-fought draw with pre-tournament favourites England and a dramatic fightback against Slovenia, Michael Bradley – holding midfielder and son of coach Bob – has looked the virtual personification of that determination and fire.

The Borussia Monchegladbach man – mature beyond his 22 years – sat down for an exclusive chat on the eve of the make-or-break third Group C game against Algeria in Pretoria. With a focus that defines this likeable Stars and Stripes side, the topics open for discussion were the dramatic match against Slovenia, his role in the team and the general togetherness in the camp.

FIFA: With two points from your first two games, you need a result against Algeria. How are you feeling in the build-up?
Michael Bradley: We have 90 minutes to get ourselves into the next round. We know it’s going to be a hard game, but it’s a big game, and as a player these are the kinds of games you love to play in, with everything on the line. We have a big chance to get ourselves into the Round of 16.

You play with a lot of intensity. Does playing at the World Cup bring that intensity out?
No. I try to play like that every time I step on the field. It doesn’t matter for me if it’s a World Cup or a league match, or training. I am who I am as a player, and it’s important to know the things that I do that help my team. I always try to bring that to the table.

You’re a holding midfielder, but you managed to score the equaliser against Slovenia. Did you sense something was there for the taking, is that why you pushed up?
Not really. We were down 2-0 at the half, and we knew that we had to push the game. We really had to push the tempo and run and fight and battle for every ball, and get forward and get back. We needed to have the commitment to do that until the final whistle. I just tried to size up things on the field and to see if there was a way where I could get forward and get a chance – and so the ball went forward to Jozy [Altidore], and I just tried to move off of him.

I think there’s going to be a real feeling of excitement on Wednesday. This is our time and we’re ready to go.

Michael Bradley, USA midfielder

It was a pretty good finish too.
It was a great ball from Landon [Donovan], and then Jozy did incredibly well to be strong and then to head it down right in my path. I just needed to make sure I put it in.

There seems to be a great togetherness in the team.
One of the big things about our team is the mentality and the spirit that we have. We enjoy being around one another, we enjoy spending time with each other, and I think you really see that come out on the field. When we get in tough spots, or things don’t go our way, there’s still a real feeling of togetherness and fight and just sticking by one another. You need that in the toughest of times.

Maurice Edu’s goal was disallowed near the end. Can you talk about your feelings on being so close to a winner?
The emotions of a game like that run high. When you think you’ve won and then the goal is called back it’s an emotional moment. Let’s be honest – that’s one of the things that makes football such a great game. Now there’s nothing more we can do about it, and the focus on our end is 100 per cent towards the game on Wednesday.

Is confidence high going into the Algeria game?
We have confidence in ourselves as a team, and as a player you want to play in the biggest games, where the spotlight comes on the brightest. I think there’s going to be a real feeling of excitement on Wednesday. This is our time and we’re ready to go. We’ll give everything we have.

Goals are football’s very currency and, as such, it should come as no surprise that the names of Muller, Kempes, Ronaldo and Rossi are woven into the fabric of this great tournament. Indeed, the list of top scorers at previous FIFA World Cups™ reads like a who’s who of the game’s all-time great marksmen, with Argentina’s Guillermo Stabile leading in 1930 where the likes of Leonidas da Silva, Just Fontaine and Eusebio would stylishly follow. For strikers at South Africa 2010, the challenge is to join this pantheon of goalscoring legends.

With FIFA World Cup immortality at stake, the prize is undeniably attractive, and while most harbour the ambition secretly, others have spoken openly of coveting the adidas Golden Boot. It is now three months since Gonzalo Higuain declared that “my dream is to be the top scorer at the World Cup,” and the good news for the Argentina No9 is that he has taken an significant step towards realising that ambition.

After a tense opening round of matches unique for the fact that no individual player scored more than once, it was Higuain – with the first FIFA World Cup hat-trick in eight years – who effectively fired the starter’s gun in the race to finish as South Africa 2010’s top scorer. The Real Madrid striker still leads that particular pursuit, in fact, but even at this stage he is not without some formidable rivals.

Arguably chief among them is Luis Fabiano, whose reaction to scoring twice against Cote d’Ivoire was to declare himself a “dark horse” in the chase to catch and pass Higuain. In the build-up to the tournament, the Brazil centre-forward had pinpointed three main rivals, while also confirming his own ambitions. “[Wayne] Rooney and [David] Villa are players that can fight for the Golden Boot,” he said. “Lionel Messi will also score a lot of goals – and I hope to be among them as well.”

While Rooney and Messi have struggled to justify this faith, Villa – the third member of Luis Fabiano’s star trio – did inch closer to Higuain with a brace against Honduras. The Spain striker would even have moved joint-top of the scoring charts had it not been for a missed penalty in the same match, although that is unlikely to dent his self-belief. “It would be great to be top scorer here,” Villa has admitted. “With the quality we have in playing the final ball, I could do it.”

Diego Forlan is also to be found lurking just a single goal behind the early pacesetter, although the Uruguay striker insists that he is “not thinking of being top scorer”. Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan has similarly claimed that he is “under no pressure” to continue his own encouraging early scoring form. With two goals apiece already to their name, Forlan and Gyan may struggle to play down expectations that they are genuine contenders, but this should not be the case for others on the same tally.

Korea Republic defender Lee Jung-Soo, for example, will do well to add to his group stage efforts, while midfielders Tiago and Elano must also be considered clear outsiders. Nigeria’s Kala Uche, meanwhile, will be denied the opportunity to bolster his own two-goal haul thanks to the Super Eagles’ first round exit.

What remains a distinct possibility is that a contender or two could overcome an underwhelming return thus far to stake a major claim, with Messi, Rooney and Fernando Torres among those more than capable. It is also worth keeping an eye on a group of potential candidates who have already opened their South Africa 2010 accounts, a group that includes the likes of Liedson, Dirk Kuyt, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nicklas Bendtner and 2006 winner Miroslav Klose.

Liedson, certainly, has already mentioned the possibility of challenging, while Bendtner showed that he is not short on confidence when asked if he considered himself a contender. “If you ask me,” said the Dane, “if I am the one of the better goalscorers in the world, I would reply yes, because I believe it.”

Boosting his hopes will be the knowledge that, in all but one of the last eight FIFA World Cups – Ronaldo at Korea/Japan 2002 being the exception – it has required a maximum of six goals to top the tournament’s scoring charts. Higuain is currently halfway to reaching that landmark, but with such a vast array of strike talent on show in South Africa, the pursuit of the Golden Boot seems highly unlikely to a one-horse race.

For a look at those in the running for this year’s Golden Boot and a list of the men who have topped the scoring charts at previous FIFA World Cups, just click on the links to the right.

The French national football team abruptly cancelled a training session on Sunday afternoon following an altercation between captain Patrice Evra and Robert Duverne, the team’s fitness coach.

France coach Raymond Domenech had to separate the two men to prevent their dispute from escalating, after which Duverne threw his stopwatch to the ground and left the grounds in anger.

The players later released a statement saying they had refused to train in protest at the decision to expel Nicolas Anelka from the team after Anelka launched a tirade of insults against Domenech in a dressing room row during France’s 2-0 loss to Mexico on Thursday.

France team director Jean-Louis Valentin announced he was quitting his post after the training session was cancelled.

“Quite honestly, I’m leaving South Africa and flying home to Paris,” he told journalists at the French headquarters in Knysna.

“I’m outraged and disgusted. I’m quitting my job here. What is happening here is a scandal for the (French football) federation, for the French team and for the entire country.