Slovenia

This is the country we are playing tomorrow. Here are some snippets about their country:

- They gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1992.
- Their population is slightly over 2 million.
- They are a member of the EU and have been since May 2004.
- Their capital is Ljubljana.
- They largely are a Roman Catholic country.
- The highest paid Slovenian athlete is Anze Kopitar who plays for the Los Angeles Kings (he is really good.)
- Their per capital GDP is $24,417.

Here is some information on their soccer team:

- This is their second appearance at the World Cup. They also appeared at the 2002 World Cup where they finished with three losses.
- They have qualifed for one European Championship and that was in 1990.
- Slovenia's qualification group for the 2010 World Cup included Slovakia, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, and Poland. They finished second in the group and then went on to defeat Russia in the playoff.
- Their captain is Robert Koren, #8 (scorer of the winner against Algeria on Sunday.) He is currently without a club after playing for West Brom for the past 3 seasons.
- They have players playing all across Europe - their starting keeper starts for Udinese in Italy.
- The current manager is Matjaz Kek who appeared in one match with Slovenia. He has been the national team manager since 2007.

As a side note, the Yugoslavian team would be pretty good these days as they would have been able to pick from what is now Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and others. Not a bad stable of players to choose from.