The Final: USA vs. Brazil
- Thread starter ASHOOR
- Start date
Ok so let me address some of those who questioned Brazil's strength considering that they won some matches with diffeculties and has to come from behind for other ones.
First of all, and although this is not an excuse ( after all we won it all ) this tournament is used by teams to prepare for the world cup. You get to experiment with what will work and what won't. I would rather that Dunga tries different players and formations now than in the world cup itself when it is too late.
I am actually happy that Brazil faced some hard opponents at times. I didn't want them to win with ease like they did in 2005, pretty much rolling and thrashing everyone in the way. That gave them so much confidence and thought they had already won the world cup before it had even started.
Brazil plays it's best when presented with some challenge. When you make it too easy for them, they lose their focus and end up screwing up.
The adversery they faced in this tournament, and still being able to overcome them, is the best thing that can happen to them before the world cup. It will give them lots of confidence while still recognizing that a lot needs to be improved and worked on.
But at the end of the day, and given Brazil's ability to win any game , even at the most critical moments, is a great boost to their confidence.
The works cup is less than a year away and Dunga now has to still work out other possible players in his roaster , possibly including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Diego, and others.
WC10 here we come.
By the way, with this win, Brazil will knock off Spain from the FIFA top ranking and reclaim it after a temporary decline to lower position.
ASHOOR
First of all, and although this is not an excuse ( after all we won it all ) this tournament is used by teams to prepare for the world cup. You get to experiment with what will work and what won't. I would rather that Dunga tries different players and formations now than in the world cup itself when it is too late.
I am actually happy that Brazil faced some hard opponents at times. I didn't want them to win with ease like they did in 2005, pretty much rolling and thrashing everyone in the way. That gave them so much confidence and thought they had already won the world cup before it had even started.
Brazil plays it's best when presented with some challenge. When you make it too easy for them, they lose their focus and end up screwing up.
The adversery they faced in this tournament, and still being able to overcome them, is the best thing that can happen to them before the world cup. It will give them lots of confidence while still recognizing that a lot needs to be improved and worked on.
But at the end of the day, and given Brazil's ability to win any game , even at the most critical moments, is a great boost to their confidence.
The works cup is less than a year away and Dunga now has to still work out other possible players in his roaster , possibly including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Diego, and others.
WC10 here we come.
By the way, with this win, Brazil will knock off Spain from the FIFA top ranking and reclaim it after a temporary decline to lower position.
ASHOOR
Ashuriena
New member
This is one of the only soccer games I've ever watched and I kept getting my view blocked by some hairy ape-ish Armenian jungle bodies that kept jumping up and down in front of the giant flat screen tv at this cafe and then someone told me USA won. I wanted to check, but the dripping sweat and dirty armpit smells off the hairy Armo bodies made me stay away. Sucks that USA lost.
Great article from CNNSI.com about how hard it is to come from behind in such an important game, let alone being down 2-0 after one half. But Brazil still came back! That is special enough.
Ashoor
-------------------
JOHANNESBURG -- Pedigree matters. If it didn't, we might not have witnessed what happened at Ellis Park on Sunday, an unstoppable rally that gave Brazil the Confederations Cup title in a 3-2 win over the U.S. Heck, when was the last time you saw a team come back from two goals down at halftime in a major final? (Apart from the 2005 Champions League final, that is.)
Certainly, coming back from a two-goal deficit is not the kind of thing you associate with Brazil. (Indeed, you don't generally associate two-goal deficits with Brazil, period.)
"Yeah, we're certainly not used to being two goals down, not when we're playing for the Sele??o," said goalkeeper J?lio C?sar after the match. "That was new to most of us. But that's where [head coach] Dunga came in. He told us we had to believe; he told us that we were strong enough, technically, mentally and physically. You know, when Dunga says things, you tend to believe him because we all know what he was like as a player: He was a true fighter who never gave up. And in those conditions, having a manager like that makes a big difference."
Dunga wasn't everybody's cup of tea as a player and the purists may still sniff in his general direction. The idea of employing two holding midfielders like Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo, plus a worker bee like Ramires, may not be in keeping with the aesthetes and their "Jogo Bonito" mantra. But there can be little question that Dunga has added a different, tougher dimension to the Sele??o, injecting an element of grit and toughness, without compromising the technique and creativity.
Yet in the first half Sunday, Brazil looked fairly dazed, shell-shocked by the U.S.' one-two punch of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. If the first goal was a function of some not-so-tight marking (a fact which made Dunga blue in the face), the second was the result of a perfectly executed U.S. counterattack. Donovan to Charlie Davies, back to Donovan, Andr? Santos turned inside-out, ball in the back of the net. It was textbook stuff, intelligently and accurately executed.
Dunga may no doubt have been tempted to change things around at halftime. The thunder-and-lightning combination of Jozy Altidore and Davies was giving his defenders -- particularly Luis?o -- fits. Meanwhile, Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu were effectively shackling Fabiano while, in central midfield, despite the absence of Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark and Benny Feilhaber were forcing Kak? into uncomfortable positions.
Then, barely after the second-half kickoff, came Lu?s Fabiano's goal, a gorgeous swivel and shot which halved the U.S. lead and swung the momentum decisively the other way. The timing of goals does matter and, perhaps, the worst possible time to concede is either side of the break.
Brazil ratcheted up the pressure, Tim Howard was called to make a number of fine saves (the kind which deservedly won him the goalkeeper of the tournament accolade, despite conceding nine in four outings) and you got the sense it was just a matter of time before the Sele??o broke through. Kak?'s header should have been the equalizer -- Howard palmed it away after the ball had crossed the goal line -- but the goal wasn't awarded. No matter. Fabiano's strike made it 2-2 after Robinho hit the crossbar with the U.S. goal under a full-fledged siege.
U.S. head coach Bob Bradley had no cards left to play at this stage. With Altidore off the pitch, there wasn't much punch left and, in some ways, L?cio's winning header was predictable. There was only so much of a battering the admirable Onyewu-DeMerit partnership could take before eventually crumbling.
"Look, we played well, we gave them a very good fight," said Dempsey after the match. "It's just that they created more chances and scored more goals and deserved to win. Sometimes you just have to accept that."
For Brazil, it's the third Confederations Cup title. And while this tournament may lag far behind the World Cup or the continental championships (like the Euros or the Copa Am?rica), make no mistake about it, the players who were here were 100 percent committed.
"Am I prouder of this or of the Champions League [title with Barcelona]?" asked Brazilian defender Dani Alves. "Both, because I didn't start either final, but still feel like they belong to me."
Brazil showed a solidity and a cohesion which hasn't always been there in the big tournaments. Credit for that has to go to Dunga. As for the U.S., it was a cruel defeat, but there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The bottom line is that Bradley's crew more than held its own against opponents who were qualitatively on another level. Howard, Dempsey and Bradley are the only U.S. players who get regular playing time in a major European league (though admittedly, Donovan and a few others probably could as well).
This U.S. team is greater than the sum of its parts. It showed a maturity and an intelligence which hasn't always been there in the past. And there are enough players with a sizeable upside who, one hopes, will continue to develop: Bradley, Altidore, Benny Feilhaber and Davies. The trick is building upon what was achieved here in South Africa next summer.
Ashoor
-------------------
JOHANNESBURG -- Pedigree matters. If it didn't, we might not have witnessed what happened at Ellis Park on Sunday, an unstoppable rally that gave Brazil the Confederations Cup title in a 3-2 win over the U.S. Heck, when was the last time you saw a team come back from two goals down at halftime in a major final? (Apart from the 2005 Champions League final, that is.)
Certainly, coming back from a two-goal deficit is not the kind of thing you associate with Brazil. (Indeed, you don't generally associate two-goal deficits with Brazil, period.)
"Yeah, we're certainly not used to being two goals down, not when we're playing for the Sele??o," said goalkeeper J?lio C?sar after the match. "That was new to most of us. But that's where [head coach] Dunga came in. He told us we had to believe; he told us that we were strong enough, technically, mentally and physically. You know, when Dunga says things, you tend to believe him because we all know what he was like as a player: He was a true fighter who never gave up. And in those conditions, having a manager like that makes a big difference."
Dunga wasn't everybody's cup of tea as a player and the purists may still sniff in his general direction. The idea of employing two holding midfielders like Gilberto Silva and Felipe Melo, plus a worker bee like Ramires, may not be in keeping with the aesthetes and their "Jogo Bonito" mantra. But there can be little question that Dunga has added a different, tougher dimension to the Sele??o, injecting an element of grit and toughness, without compromising the technique and creativity.
Yet in the first half Sunday, Brazil looked fairly dazed, shell-shocked by the U.S.' one-two punch of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. If the first goal was a function of some not-so-tight marking (a fact which made Dunga blue in the face), the second was the result of a perfectly executed U.S. counterattack. Donovan to Charlie Davies, back to Donovan, Andr? Santos turned inside-out, ball in the back of the net. It was textbook stuff, intelligently and accurately executed.
Dunga may no doubt have been tempted to change things around at halftime. The thunder-and-lightning combination of Jozy Altidore and Davies was giving his defenders -- particularly Luis?o -- fits. Meanwhile, Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu were effectively shackling Fabiano while, in central midfield, despite the absence of Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark and Benny Feilhaber were forcing Kak? into uncomfortable positions.
Then, barely after the second-half kickoff, came Lu?s Fabiano's goal, a gorgeous swivel and shot which halved the U.S. lead and swung the momentum decisively the other way. The timing of goals does matter and, perhaps, the worst possible time to concede is either side of the break.
Brazil ratcheted up the pressure, Tim Howard was called to make a number of fine saves (the kind which deservedly won him the goalkeeper of the tournament accolade, despite conceding nine in four outings) and you got the sense it was just a matter of time before the Sele??o broke through. Kak?'s header should have been the equalizer -- Howard palmed it away after the ball had crossed the goal line -- but the goal wasn't awarded. No matter. Fabiano's strike made it 2-2 after Robinho hit the crossbar with the U.S. goal under a full-fledged siege.
U.S. head coach Bob Bradley had no cards left to play at this stage. With Altidore off the pitch, there wasn't much punch left and, in some ways, L?cio's winning header was predictable. There was only so much of a battering the admirable Onyewu-DeMerit partnership could take before eventually crumbling.
"Look, we played well, we gave them a very good fight," said Dempsey after the match. "It's just that they created more chances and scored more goals and deserved to win. Sometimes you just have to accept that."
For Brazil, it's the third Confederations Cup title. And while this tournament may lag far behind the World Cup or the continental championships (like the Euros or the Copa Am?rica), make no mistake about it, the players who were here were 100 percent committed.
"Am I prouder of this or of the Champions League [title with Barcelona]?" asked Brazilian defender Dani Alves. "Both, because I didn't start either final, but still feel like they belong to me."
Brazil showed a solidity and a cohesion which hasn't always been there in the big tournaments. Credit for that has to go to Dunga. As for the U.S., it was a cruel defeat, but there is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The bottom line is that Bradley's crew more than held its own against opponents who were qualitatively on another level. Howard, Dempsey and Bradley are the only U.S. players who get regular playing time in a major European league (though admittedly, Donovan and a few others probably could as well).
This U.S. team is greater than the sum of its parts. It showed a maturity and an intelligence which hasn't always been there in the past. And there are enough players with a sizeable upside who, one hopes, will continue to develop: Bradley, Altidore, Benny Feilhaber and Davies. The trick is building upon what was achieved here in South Africa next summer.