In a moving display of unity, the American starters put their left hands on each others’ shoulders as the Star Spangled Banner played before kickoff on a crisp night at Royal Bafokeng Stadium, a little more than two hours northwest of Johannesburg. A few minutes later, the U.S. was in disarray.

For the second straight World Cup, a defensive breakdown in the opening moments resulted in an early deficit. In 2006, it was Jan Koller powering a header past Kasey Keller. On Saturday, it was England captain Steven Gerrard slipping by Ricardo Clark and poking a shot through Tim Howard in just the 4th minute.

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It was a disastrous beginning, and the Americans clearly took another 5-6 minutes to recover and get their bearings. Coach Bob Bradley opted to start Real Salt Lake speedster Robbie Findley up front with Jozy Altidore, and had Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey on the wings as expected. The central defense tandem of Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu would be charged with limiting the fearsome Wayne Rooney, although both were continuing to recover from injuries.

“The whole idea was, don’t concede early. And that’s what we did. Conceded early. And it was like, ‘Damn!’ But I thought we responded well,” Dempsey said.

With 10 minutes elapsed, the players expected to lead the attack had barely touched the ball, and the defense that raised so many questions leading up to Saturday already had conceded a goal. The scoreboards and clocks in Rustenburg weren’t working, adding a surreal touch to the impending disaster. It was hard to imagine how the 2010 World Cup could have started worse.