Brazil Takes it to US

Americans on Brink of Elimination in Confederations Cup

June 19, 2009

To have any chance at staving off elimination in the tournament, the U.S. must defeat Egypt by at least three goals and get help from Brazil in their match against Italy.

For the second straight game, the Americans lost a player to a red card when Sasha Kljestan was sent off in the 57th minute for a late tackle. But unlike Monday’s 3-1 loss to Italy when Ricardo Clark was shown the red in the first half of a competitive game, the Americans were already down 2-0 against Brazil when Kljestan was ejected.

Landon Donovan and the US National Team lost 3-0 to Brazil.(Photo credit: Joyce Furia)

On the first goal, referee Massimo Busacca called a foul against Michael Bradley along the right flank, despite replays that showed the U.S. midfielder hadn’t made contact with Ramires, who tumbled to the ground. Maicon took the ensuing free kick and placed it perfectly to the back post onto the head of a streaking Melo, who redirected it with pace into the net and past a helpless Tim Howard for a 1-0 lead.

While shaky refereeing and Brazilian skill contributed to the first goal, the second goal was inexcusable from a U.S. perspective. USA drew the first corner kick of the match in the 20th minute. Landon Donovan took the kick short for DaMarcus Beasley, but Beasley whiffed on the square pass, sending a surging Brazilian counterattack the other way.

The ball was played ahead to Kaka and then to Ramires who started his run just inside his own defensive half. Ramires carried the ball with speed to the penalty area and slotted it through the legs of Jonathan Spector, the lone U.S. defender who was able to get back, for Robinho. With no one between him and U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, Robinho took a touch before firing the ball low and inside the near post to double Brazil’s lead. The entire play, from endline to endline, took Brazil just 14 seconds.

"We had a very nervous, tentative start to the game,” said U.S. coach Bob Bradley. “An early goal off a set piece really put us in a difficult situation right from the start. In that regard, Brazil is a difficult team to play against always. But when you go down a goal early, when in some ways you follow that up with a bad play on the corner and they put a counter together, you've really created as hard a situation as you can have. I certainly still felt that in the second half the chance was there. The start of the second half was better, more lively and more determined. Again, a red card in the second match in a row is very disappointing. At times players are trying to push harder, but in the end make a rash decision and it ends up hurting the team for the rest of the game."

The U.S. then changed from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2, with Clint Dempsey running up top alongside Josy Altidore, in an effort to create more offensive opportunities. At halftime, Bob Bradley brought on a second forward in Conor Casey, while dropping Dempsey back into a midfield role, and the change nearly paid off in the 48th minute. After a Brazilian clearance went right to Jonathan Bornstein, he calmly touched it over to Oguchi Onyewu. Onyewu started the ball forward, finding Michael Bradley who played a penetrating ball to Altidore. The 19-year-old played a one-two with Casey, receiving the ball on a full sprint before taking a shot that is just high of the near corner.

After the 57th-minute red card, Brazil was able to put the game out of reach. Maicon started the ball out of the back and moved ahead with pace. He got to the edge of the box where he played it in for Ramires, who touched it ahead to Kaka and Kaka touched it back to Maicon, who had continued his run around Bornstein. From a difficult angle near the endline, Maicon took a shot that deflected slightly off the toe of a recovering Bornstein and sailed high inside the near post for the 3-0 lead.

The shutout was the first for the U.S. since a 0-0 draw against Argentina on July 8, 2008, a span of 16 matches. The Americans also dropped their all-time record against the Brazil to 1-13, with the lone win coming back in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and 7-18-1 all time against teams ranked in the top five in the world.

U.S. Men’s National Team Game Report

Scoring Summary:
BRA – Felipe Melo (Maicon) 7th minute
BRA – Robinho (Ramires) 20th
BRA – Maicon (Kaka) 62

Lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard; 21-Jonathan Spector, 15-Jay DeMerit, 5-Oguchi Onyewu, 2-Jonathan Bornstein; 12-Michael Bradley, 16-Sacha Kljestan, 10-Landon Donovan, 8-Clint Dempsey, 7-DaMarcus Beasley (4-Conor Casey, 46); 17-Jozy Altidore (22-Benny Feilhaber, 60)

BRA: 1-Julio Cesar; 2-Maicon, 3-Lucio (14-Luisao, 70), 15-Miranda, 16-Andre Santos; 18-Ramires, 8-Gilberto Silva, 10-Kaka (19-Julio Baptista, 69), 5-Felipe Melo; 11-Robinho, 9-Luis Fabiano (22-Nilmar, 69)

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: Blink Del.icio.us Digg
Furl Google Simpy Spurl Technorati Y! MyWeb