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U.S. U-23s take a beating against Brazil

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If the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team’s previous two friendlies against Brazil are any indication, the Americans’ chances of qualifying for next summer’s Olympics are slim.

After losing on Thursday, Andi Herzog’s men played their second friendly against Brazil at Mangueirao Stadium in Belem on Sunday, and the hosts pummeled the Americans, 5-1.

A Brazil own goal was the only bright spot for the U.S. on the evening, as a corner kick swung in by Colorado Rapids midfielder Dillon Serna was accidentally redirected into the back of Brazil’s net.

That was the only mistake the Brazilian national team made, though. Gabriel and Felipe Anderson each scored a brace for the hosts, while Luan tallied for Brazil as well.

This blowout loss for the U.S. comes on the heels of a 2-1 defeat to Brazil in Recife on Thursday. The Americans looked flat throughout the 90 minutes of play on Thursday, and they also failed to capitalize on a Brazil squad that was down to 10 men for more than 30 minutes. With Sunday’s result, no U.S. player scored from the run of play in these two contests.

The Americans were without a trio of U-23 players, including forward Jordan Morris, fullback DeAndre Yedlin and centerback Matt Miazga, who are all with the senior national team as they are set to do battle with Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday (6:30 p.m., beIN Sports).

The U.S. U-23s will play Colombia in a two-game series in March with the winner on aggregate advancing to the 2016 Olympics, which will be hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

What did you think of the U.S.’s 5-1 loss to Brazil? Think this group still has a chance against Colombia?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. This age group has struggled internationally all the way through U-17s in 2011 Round of 16 exit 1-1-2 record outscored 4-6 but 1-6 after first game win over Czechs, U-20s in 2013 Group stage 0-1-2 outscored 3-9. The years don’t align exactly, but its primarily the same group going through. That is why you see some of the younger guys being pushed in because the 22 and 23 year olds just aren’t very good. How many of that group see regular first team minutes Polster, Alashe, and Zelalem. Most of the Brazillians either start for Brazilian First Division sides or are at least partial starters in Ligue1 , Germany, or Italy.

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  2. watched this game and it came down to a difference in class. the Brazilian players where clearly much more talented. i’m pretty sure one of their players has a market value of 3x our entire team. maybe more, honestly.

    the US tried to press and did have some success in the first half. but Brazil finally got things going in the 2nd half. Colombia is not nearly as good as Brazil, but these games certainly don’t leave you with a sense of confidence…

    it also seemed our team wasn’t really playing as a team. some of that comes down to a group of guys thrown together. some of it has to do with the number of young guys. but by the time it was 3-1, i did not see anyone fighting for each other. only Kieswetter seemed to genuinely care.

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    • I think Colombia has a better u23 team than Brazil. Most of the first team players are actually big stars in Colombia First Division and Copa Libertadores (the suramerican equivalent tho UEFA Champions League), playing for colombian, argentina and brazil teams. Some players are already starters in Europe Top 5 Ligues. There are star players almost in every position.
      In order to compare, Colombia won Brazil 3-0 in the 2015 suramerican young Championship (Brazil final position was 4th), and the team has been sigficantly reinforced with better players since then.

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  3. Americans can’t accept mediocrity. But that is what we are. No coach or technical director is likely to change that, and if they did, it would take 20-30 years to take effect.

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  4. Amazing thing is, if you talk to Brazilians, they could give a rat’s a$$ about the olympic team results. We send our absolute best U-23 options, maybe minus Morris and Miazga, and they can’t even sniff a goal from the run of play over two games. We need a major revamp of our system from top to bottom, starting with removing the Technical Director.

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  5. The most damning thing I saw was the number of times our defenders and midfield watch Brazil as they took second and third chances on goal-everyone resulting in goal. It was a disgrace. How do you watch as your goalie is in a one on one battle and he makes two or three saves and you’re two feet away and all you do is watch? Absolute disgrace. And please stop with the comments about the weather and the names of the Brazil players…there should never be excuses. US Soccer should be way past these types of results by now. The US at all levels have obviously regressed under Klinsman. How he is able to keep his job is incomprehensible.

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  6. Cant really be surprised at the result of the game. The Brazilian U-23 is ridiculously talented, fabinho, Lucas Silva, Felipe Anderson, Rafinha, Wallace, Gabriel are all playing or will be playing a top 5 league soon. Compared to our team, they are a couple of levels above. However, what was concerning was the lack of fitness we showed. Everybody seemed gassed at around the 60th minute while the Brazilians were still going full steam, which can be a factor when we face a Colombian team with similar physique in Brazil. Regarding individual performances, Brooks had several timely clearances and if he had received more help from the lb, wouldn’t have had to gamble so much. The midfield was completely invisible, with the forwards suffering because of it. Hopefully when the full team is called, with Trapp, Gil, Yedlin, Morris et al, there is an uptick in the performance.

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    • A couple of things. If you want your team to press high, they had better be fitter than their opponents, which is why Klinsmann has stressed fitness so much. Second, don’t forget they were playing near the equator, so it was considerably hotter and more humid than what players from Europe or even most of North America are used to at this time of year. In fact, I just checked and the high for tomorrow is projected to be 84 degrees and current humidity is, get this, 94%.

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      • Yeah, Klinsmann has stressed fitness so much. At the same time, before Klinsmann, US teams at various levels were knows for their superior fitness, if nothing else. With Klinsmann in charge, US teams often appear out of gas mid-way through the second half.

      • Bryan- CU24 asked why the us seemed so much less fit, Gary simply was supplying at least a partial reason why. Didn’t watch the game, but let’s be honest if Brazil hadn’t gone down a man in the first match it probably would have been a similar score line.

      • I understand that, hence why I said it was concerning, even more so considering that when we play Colombia, the weather will be similar and we can’t afford to be gassed so quickly.

  7. The US made some basic errors on defense, but the Brazilians were faster, quicker, better at winning 50/50 balls, played extremely well together and their passing was superb. I’m not so sure this was a case of the US being really bad, but of Brazil being really, really good. I have doubts that our full national team could have beaten this U-23 from Brazil, especially in the second half.

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    • Either way, they appeared to have spanked us like a minnow, when this was supposed to be a very solid group of players for us.

      That said, I didn’t watch the game. If we were trying to play JK’s preached style of proactive soccer, this result won’t worry/upset me very much.

      Maybe he first game against Brazil could’ve been preparing for how we’re going to play Colombia away, and we tried to have a little bit more of a pressing/possessing style today to simulate us trying to get the win at home?

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      • The first 25 minutes of the game were pre-empted by the finish of a college soccer game so i didn’t see that. According to the commentators the US did press pretty well in the beginning. After that they tried to press off and on. They got a few turnovers as a result, but too often the Brazilians would break the press, go on a fast break and create chances. I think the pressing took its toll on the US players since about 2/3 of the way through the game you could see the US players slow down. Around 70 minutes subs started to come on, but , the flood gates started to open about 5 minutes later as the US just couldn’t match Brazil’s speed and quickness. It’s hard to press when the other team is faster and more skilled. And you know it’s going to be a long game when their defensive backs are faster than our attackers. Several times the US looked like ti was on a break away, but then the Brazil defenders would catch the US attackers and snuff out any attack. Also, the Brazilians just have much better football sense. They almost always make the right pass. Too often the US players would hold the ball too long or make the wrong pass and they sabotaged several scoring opportunities as a result. It’s kind of ridiculous how people want to find a scapegoat for a loss when most of the time the loss is due to the fact that the other team is better. The US has never been as good as Brazil, and it may be 50 years before we are

  8. A horrible performance. The score could’ve easily been 8 or 9 to 1. And this wasn’t Brazil’s best U23 team… Why is Andy Herzog coaching the US team? What coaching credentials does he have? Is being Klinsmann’s buddy enough to get this job?

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  9. Very disappointing performance even though the opposition was formidable. Hard to be confident about the March qualifiers based on these two games. The game was littered with basic US errors and in reality the final score could have been much worse. One could argue this team is not ready to participate in the Olympics.

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  10. Thats an old pic of Brooks. His hairline looked to be making a serious run for it today.

    As for the game Kieswetter was the only guy who didnt look completely out of place. Green and Zelelam were varying degrees of invisible and awful today. Still not sure what the hype was ever based on with either one.

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    • Agree. Green was especially poor. And so was Brooks — he’s making it a habit of watching the backs of opposing players when they’re scoring against the US.

      God help US soccer to survive the rest of Klinsmann’s reign.

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      • He came on for about 15 minutes. I’m not sure why this team is so young. Zelalem is like 18, CCV is 17, why are these guys on the U-23 team? Also why are USL scrubs like Sorto on this team. We seriously don’t have anyone better?

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