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USA vs. Brazil (Match Night Commentary)

USA CrestBrazil Logo 

The U.S. men's national team returns to action for the first time since the 2010 Wrold Cup tonight against a young Brazil team playing under new head coach Mano Menezes.

The Americans will be fielding a team with nine members of the World Cup team against a Brazil squad loaded with quality young players and anchored by World Cup veterans Robinho, Dani Alves and Ramires.

I will be providing commentary on tonight's match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):

——————-

FINAL– Brazil 2, USA 0. The scoreline is flattering. Brazil could have won 4-0 or 5-0 tonight.

Positives for the United States? Hmm, nobody got hurt? Just not much positive to take from the match.

Omar Gonzalez did get his first cap, and while I was rough on him at first, he did go 90 minutes and avoided any shocking mistakes.

Jonathan Bornstein? Not so much. He managed to erase the good vibes from his two good World Cup matches with a pretty awful 90 minutes tonight.

Landon Donovan played well, and Jonathan Spector did well. Maurice Edu also looked sharp. That's about it really. The rest were between underwhelming and terrible.

——————-

90th Minute– Thiago Silva and David Luiz are two of the best young centerbacks in the world. Shame neither was tested tonight.

Ganso comes out of the match. If you weren't up on Paulo Henrique Ganso before tonight, start following him. The kid is a future superstar.

——————-

85th Minute– SAVE BRAZIL!! Herculez Gomez has his header saved. Best chance of the night, on a Spector cross. Not a terrible night for Spector.

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83rd Minute– SAVE GUZAN!! Stones Carlos Eduardo from close range. This game could be 5-0.

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81st Minute– You know it's a bad night when the only thing the U.S. Soccer folks are proud to announce is the attendance.

77,223, third largest game in New Jersey for a U.S. national team match.

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79th Minute– That was Ganso off the post. That kid is seriously skilled. They don't call him the new Kaka for nothing.

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75th Minute– Not looking good for a USA goal tonight, but we did just get a Mexican wave going around the crowd.

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73rd Minute– Neymar is in for Ederson. All the USA defenders and Guzan just breathed a collective sigh of relief.

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70th Minute– SAVE GUZAN!! Stones Neymar. Great save. Neymar has forced four or five good saves tonight.

USA earn a corner and take it short. Altidore tries a near-post shot but its it way too tight.

——————-

67th Minute– Bedoya is replaced by Herculez Gomez. Three forwards in now for the USA. Pato is replaced Andre.

——————-

64th Minute– Not sure I would feel comfortable about a Goodson-Gonzalez centerback tandem. Not going to win a lot of track meets with that pairing.

Still waiting to see Kljestan make an impact. He's looked good for Anderlecht and has to be playing with some confidence.

I'm sure the Robbie Findley heckling on this comment thread will get interesting.

——————-

60th Minute– Neymar with a blast to force a Guzan save. He's having fun tonight, more than American defenders are having.

Landon Donovan is coming out, Clarence Goodson comes in. Donovan hands the armband to Michael Bradley. I'm pretty sure it's the first time Bradley has worn the arm band. Doubt it will be the last.

Robbie Findley is in for Carlos Bocanegra.

——————-

57th Minute– GOAL WAIVED OFF!! Bradley with a header goal ruled offside. Nice ball in from Kljestan after Bornstein earned the corner.

USA with another corner, earned by Altidore this time.

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55th Minute– Brazil is making some great passes and good off-the-ball runs that are catching the USA defense repeatedly. The Americans need to do a better job of keeping possession because the more Brazil has it the more chances they'll create.

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52nd Minute– Robinho hits the POST!

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50th Minute– No subs for Brazil. Same squad, having success in the second half as well. Pato missed a great look early. Could be 3-0 right now. Still might be soon.

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48th Minute– We are back (Internet has been an adventure at the new stadium tonight so apologies for delays).

USA with three subs: Altidore, Kljestan and Guzan are in for Howard, Buddle and Feilhaber.

——————-

HALFTIME– Some halftime thoughts:

Alejandro Bedoya hasn't had a good day, Bornstein has had a shocker. Haven't been that impressed with Gonzalez today, while Bocanegra didn't do well on the second goal.

Who has done well? Spector has held up well against Neymar, forcing the youngster to go elsewhere to find success. he's also hit some good crosses, at least early on.

The attack just hasn't done much.

——————-

HALFTIME– Brazil 2, USA 0. An ugly first half after a promising start. Other than Landon Donovan and Maurice Edu, I can't say we've had good performances from any Americans today.

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46th Minute– GOAL BRAZIL!! And it's Pato, who slips in behind Bocanegra and Gonzalez and runs onto a Ramires pass before beating Howard to make it 2-0.

Bocanegra had Pato, but stepped to face the ball. Pato raced at goal while Gonzalez failed to react. Plenty of blame to go around on that goal.

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45th Minute– Doubt we'll have much stoppage time. Two minutes to be exact.

Looks like Bornstein is staying home now, his forays forward have done nothing but give Brazil space behind to attack.

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41st Minute– Looks like we have Bedoya on the left now and Feilhaber on the right.

SAVE HOWARD! Stops a Neymar shot. A lot of ball-watching as Brazil circulates the ball.

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40th Minute– Bocanegra flashes a header off a USA corner kick. Donovan did well to spring Bedoya on a run down the right, but Bedoya can't beat his man and settled for a corner.

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37th Minute– SAVE HOWARD! Kicks away a Neymar blast as Brazil catches USA with a fast counterattack.

Just not feeling this USA lineup. Buddle, Feilhaber and Bedoya aren't providing Donovan with nearly enough attacking support. This group definitely misses Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore.

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35th Minute– Donovan forces a save with a hard free kick from the top left corner of the area. Victor did well to punch that away.

Americans need to settle down. Brazil looks dangerous right now.

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32nd Minute– Odd moment as Pato plows into Howard, leaving the ball to roll in for an apparent goal. The referee correctly whistled the foul, but not before Brazil celebrated.

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28th Minute- GOAL BRAZIL. It's Neymar with the header off a great cross from Andre Santos. Bornstein beaten on the header.

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28th Minute– Buddle hasn't looked very effective, though to be fair he hasn't had much to work with. Tim Howard should probably give up the long punts because Buddle isn't winning any of them.

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26th Minute– The Neymar-Ganso combo is a joy to watch, unless you're Spector and Gonzalez.

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21st Minute– Andre Santos with Brazil's first shot at Howard, but Howard gets in front of it and catches the spill.

Some good ball movement from these young Brazilians. Definitely helps that Robinho, Neymar, Ganso and Andre Santos play together. Tons of skill on that Santos team.

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18th Minute– Spector has hit some good crosses early on. Looks so much better at right back.

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16th Minute– The stadium is filling in nicely. Lots of folks were stuck in traffic just before kickoff. Not sure people did a good job of estimating how early to get to the new stadium.

Robinho is doing a good job of floating around and finding gaps.

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14th Minute– Robinho has slotted into a central role, where he's looking to deliver some pin-point passes.

Did everyone else enjoy the Robinho-Bornsteinho battle?

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12th Minute– Brazil is starting to find a rhythm. Donovan looks sharp early on, but I can't say the same for his teammates.

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10th Minute– Pato puts Gonzalez under pressure but can't get his shot on goal. Can't say I've got a lot of faith in Gonzalez being able to stay with any of Brazil's attacking four, though Pato is probably the slowest of them as he recovers from an ankle injury.

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8th Minute– Bocanegra appears to be shadowing Pato, leaving Gonzalez in space. Ganso looks like he's waiting for the spot to run into that space. Will the LA defender be up to that task if it comes?

Edu is down after a clash with Lucas, walking off under his own power.

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4th Minute– Donovan took a great touch on the Buddle pass to spring himself for that play. Nice start for him.

Brazil has yet to get started.

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2nd Minute– Donovan is playing in a bit of an advanced role so he looks like a striker early on. Feilhaber patrols the left, Bedoya the right.

Donovan dribbles into the area and earns a corner. Lobbying for a penalty, but he didn't go down on the challenge.

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1st Minute– We are underway.

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PRE-GAME– Top match-ups to watch tonight:

Ganso vs. Michael Bradley

Ramires vs. Landon Donovan

Robinho vs. Jonathan Bornstein

Alexandre Pato vs. Omar Gonzalez

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PRE-GAME– Brazil trots out the same lineup it showed off at last night's training. The Santos quartet of Robinho, Ganso, Neymar and Andre Santos are joined by World Cup vets Ramires and Dani Alves as well as standout forward Alexandre Pato. Thce centerback tandem of David Luiz and Thiago Silva is imposing.

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PRE-GAME– No, that's not the confirmed USA formation, but a projection. We could theoretically see Donovan as a forward, but with Brazil trotting out what should be a 4-2-3-1, I can see Bob Bradley going with a similar formation.

Omar Gonzalez will make his U.S. national team debut tonight. Color me surprised. Given the LA Galaxy's loaded fixture schedule and Gonzalez' inexperience I wouldn't have pegged him for the start, but it should be good to see how he holds up against forwards like Pato and Robinho.

Jonathan Spector gets the nod at right back, likely to help him get a game and possibly catch the eye of scouts. He doesn't seem likely to figure into West Ham's plans at this point.

——————-

PRE-GAME- Here are the lineups:

USA

—————————Buddle————————-

Feilhaber—————-Donovan—————-Bedoya

—————Bradley—————-Edu——————-

Bornstein——-Bocanegra——-Gonzalez——-Spector

—————————Howard—————————

BRAZIL

————————-Pato—————————–

Neymar—————Ganso———————-Robinho

—————–Ramires———-Lucas——————-

Andre Santos—Thiago———David Luiz—-Dani Alves

—————————–Victor—————————–

Comments

  1. Well, it’s going to be pretty tough to justify the next Bornstein selection, but hey… anyone have any better ideas? Remember that little Beasley experiment at left back? Edgar Castillo? Guy can’t defend any better than Bornstein. We just don’t have any depth there. And as far as the Klisestjan/Bedoya haters go, give the guys a break. Neither have been with the team much, Bedoya a little more than Kliestjan has lately, but honestly Kliestjan did better than I thought he would. Bedoya showed some promise combining with Donovan but he looked lost a lot of the time, which is really still to be expected. I’m not a total apologist though, I still don’t get giving Findley another shot.

    In a game where both teams were more or less thrown together without a lot of players they heavily lean on, the team with the best individuals was always going to shine. Brazil will win that battle every time, because the US relies so heavily on the team aspect of their play.

    Reply
  2. All you Bradley apologists can SUCK IT! This guy can’t even beat a young Brazilian team at with a bunch of World Cup veterans. Enough of this sh*t, let’s get a new, and better coach.

    Reply
  3. The US sucks! Bradley has to go. No system whatsoever. Losing 0 – 2 at home to a very young, newly coached Brazil is PATHETIC! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    Reply
  4. I know, who ever is in the control booth either has never worked a soccer game or knows nothing about high quality soccer or both. There were so many little things I wanted to see a replays of but was left wanting. I guess I became spoiled watching the world cup. back to US broadcasts 🙁

    Reply
  5. Do you and all the Spector haters watch football? The two central defenders had to shift to help on bornstiens side leaving Spector one on one with everyone. That means send two players at him and cross the ball with one of them. Wow very easy to see that was happening, just watch that second goal again, and you can clearly see the shift leaving the central right side open for Pato.

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  6. yea….. Findley offers nothing to me. I don’t know why he even tries to go by defenders. He is not a soccer player and barely a track star.. not even that

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  7. usa did played a 4-2-3-1 in the attack, but on defence they played a 2 lines of 4 players (4-4-2), its a good strategy but Brazil’s young team is awsome (they did not trained together for this match and gave to us this awsome show).

    Reply
  8. Boy I swear Robbie Findley can go suck an egg. He has no place in international soccer. Get rid of him, let him go and be the star for his Utah squad (which he doesnt even start sometimes btw)but not ever for the US National team. He is horrible and has the pathtic sprint that advances nowhere and then all he does is trips. I cant believe he started at the World Cup, where Bradley also needs to go too.

    Do I miss Charlie Davies or what, hope he gets better and back to full form and replaces this bum Findley.

    Reply
  9. THis is why Bob must go… He keeps calling sacha and Findley, his son feels like it was a birth given right to be on the field for the National team. He needs a coach to light a fire under his butt. We need a new coach so the competiton for spots on the National team is on an even field.

    Baby Bradley has never been subed out of a game even when he plays like crap.

    Reply
  10. It is/was embarassing. Saying that brazil’s olympic team could do that to a lot of teams does not make less embarassing. It means you are good at making excuses for poor performance.

    a wise old coach once told that excuses are like rectums. Everybody has one and they stink.

    Reply
  11. I don’t know what SBI is thinking but Spector looked awful. Besides a couple decent crosses, he was getting burned every second on defense.

    Reply
  12. I knew this would happen, i predicted we would get Mauled but due to some luck and a good Keeper we Kept it respectable. Michael Bradley is so overrated, so Overrated . He can keep the ball, he’s not a playmaker, He’s not a DM . wht the heck is he ? a box to box ?? He’s been this way for a long time but he gets away with it because his dad will never sub him and the fans are riding his nut sack. Bring on Jones+Torres and we will have a respectable Central Midfield Pairing .

    ——–Jones—Torres———
    —Donovan———-Dempsey—-

    thats a midfield that can hold the ball and create , even the worse striker will get tap ins with a Midfield like that. Creativity and defense.

    Reply
  13. How did spector play well? His side was even more of a sieve than Bornstein’s and he continually got abused by Neymar. Thought he was our worst defender by quite a bit

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  14. Faith, I don´t think so, we are so condescending with this team it´s ridiculous, I just don´t get it, we need to demand good results, in this game we didn´t compete, we had a full team and it was a Brazilian B team, please get a real coach…

    Reply
  15. He does need to do more, but he did fly in from Spain today, and it is 2am there.

    He seemed to turn everything off in the 80th min…. Guess i would do the same if I always had to backtrack to the midfield to not only play defense but get a decent ball to me.

    Reply
  16. Hey Ives,

    How’s the New Meadowlands stadium looking? It seems nice on the tube. Is it going to remain natural grass or revert to plastic for NFL?

    Any other scheduled soccer exhibitions in the future?

    Reply
  17. Would be a shame if this were BB’s last game as USMNT coach. He’s been a class act, and his teams usually showed a lot more desire discipline than they did tonight.

    Reply
  18. Well why isn’t working on improving your top league the best way for the success of U.S. soccer? If the top league is good, then the talent pool from which we can choose from is better right? I see what you mean by wasting this game by keeping bradely around.
    Guzan looked great.

    Reply
  19. Or, maybe Big Bradley knows this is his last hurrah and elected not to try out new players, but instead decided to give “his boys” a kind of send-off. A Thanks-for-the-memories moment.

    Maybe I’m reading way too much into this…

    Reply
  20. Outclassed, obviously. 0-2 is generous in this one.

    Good showing from Guzan, Edu was good in the first half. I thought Sacha looked great for 5 minutes, but the next 40 weren’t so hot. Same old same old from Jozy. Some good runs and work, but nothing good came from it. I think Gonzalez was ok for what is obviously a heck of a first rep. Spector stood up well, I thought–nothing great, and he looked awkward, but he slowed them down and didn’t have any glaring mistakes.

    Bleh, but no big deal. I can’t see this as an indictment of BB. I agree with AaroninStl–let’s get something done one way or another.

    Reply
  21. I generally have patience with Altidore but an entire half without a sniff at goal–not good for a striker..at least Hercules Gomez makes a run and gets a half chance…Right now Altidore seems only good at getting fouled…oh well we still have a long way to go but you have to be in it for the long haul until we see an entertaining team…

    Reply
  22. This is embarrassing end of story. goodbye Bradley, Micheal played like s***, bornstein has to go, Gonzalez is not ready(deer in headlights), Sasha started good but not can’t complete a single pass, spector is sketchy, edu like Sasha started good but now can’t pass…

    It’s like playing fifa 10, you have to shout at people to pass the ball then when they do it’s like there cross-eyed and color blind…WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PASSING TO!!!!!!

    Reply
  23. You know who we should get to play for us? A player with the kind of technical skill that Sacha THINKS he has. I’m a big fan of his and want to see him do well, but man, he keeps trying to out-Brazil Brazil and it’s not working.

    Reply
  24. THis is why Bob has to go. All we are going to get are the same things. Same old give away Sasha. Same old no possession.

    Reply
  25. Ganso and Rimeres were running the balls out wide allowing Robinho and Neymar to attack on the wings. IF the our Central Midfielders close down Ganso and Rimeres the wingers become mute, or less dangerous.

    Reply
  26. Wow, talk about fair weather friends! You guys are WAY TOO NEGATIVE. It’s a friendly. Brazil’s having a good game, the US isn’t, and that’s it. What did you expect would happen?I’m sorry that some of you can’t enjoy the game for what it is.

    Reply
  27. I guess what I’m implying is that this match was a perfect opportunity to blood some new players, to get them experience for the future. Perhaps we have more youth we could use and Bob’s choices aren’t as dire as you seem to think they are.

    To me, Bornstein & Spectre are known quantities. Let’s see what someone else can do? It’s a meaningless game against a great squad. In that vein, “Guzano” looks pretty good tonight.

    Reply
  28. We need to get Mac Kandji naturalized and playing for the U.S. We also need Juergen Klinsman; I realize it is popular, but it is also the right choice.

    Reply
  29. USSF is the perfect example of why you don’t want a bunch of insulated people who think the same way, running an organization. The coaching decision is long overdue.

    Reply
  30. Did you mean can anyone dribble, complete more than 3 passes in succession, or know when to hold the ball so 6 speedy Brazilians who do don’t make a beeline for your goal

    Reply
  31. It’s understandable though. We have a coach with an undecided future, players who likely won’t be around in 2014 and others who should be with their clubs fighting for spots.

    Brazil’s guys have everything to play for. Their coach has everything to put a good performance together for, as the shelf life of a coach in S. America is so short. If there is a God, he’ll deliver us a bona fide LB and end the Bornstein pain.

    Reply
  32. clumsy? rough play?

    pato? have you seen the kid play? he has more natural talent and skill than any of our attacking players. the boy is supremely talented and your comment about his name just kinda shows me you dont know what youre talking about.

    Reply

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