It was a tale of 2 halves for the US Men’s team tonight against Brazil, but the conclusion for both was the same. Brazil scored 2 goals in each half en route to a 4-1 victory at FedEx Field in Maryland.
Brazil dominated possession in the first half and took a 2-0 after 26 minutes on the back of goals from Neymar and Thiago Silva. It wasn’t until late in the first that the US managed to get themselves a chance and they converted it. Fabian Johnson played in a cross that found the head of Herculez Gomez to cut the Brazilian lead in half.
Overall though, the score flattered the US as Brazil controlled the game and wasted a number of chances that could have made the score bigger than it was. The second would be a totally different story, but the result was the same.
The USMNT controlled possession and got the vast majority of the chances in the 2nd, but left with nothing to show for it. Oguchi Onyewu hit the post with a header off a corner and two sure fire goals were saved with miraculous stops from the Brazilian keeper Rafael. He was really the star of the 2nd half for Brazil.
In true Brazilian fashion though, they were deadly on the counter-attack with a pair of by Marcelo and Alexandre Pato. After the first half, the 2-1 score flattered the US, but in the end 4-1 probably isn’t a fair representation of how they played.
Still, there’s quite clearly a gap between these two sides which should come at no surprise. At any given moment you could probably make a decent argument as to why Brazil is the best team on the planet. So for the US to play the way they did in the 2nd half, leaves fans with some positives.
The US is back in action on Sunday when they travel to BMO field in Toronto to take on Canada.