Brazil 4 US 1: The Passion of the Gooch

by Slate Quicksilver

The US Men's National Soccer Team played Brazil in Baltimore last night.  The scoreline was approximately what one would expect.  4-1 Brazil.  A terrible handball inside box call and converted ensuing penalty gave Brazil and early lead.  This was followed by 20 minutes of ineffective play for the US and another Brazilian goal off of a lazily defended corner kick.  The US stole a goal before the end of the first half on a nice play that cut the Brazilian defense open.  The second half started off terribly for the US with Brazil catching the Americans with a vicious counterattack.  But after that, and subbing in Clint Dempsey, the team punched back and became the attacker.  Strong attacks stretched the Brazilian defense to the brink several times and if not for 4 brilliant saves by Rafael and a header off the crossbar, the game's score could have been very different.  A late late gorgeous goal by the Brazilian made the embarrassment complete.

Again, it was the scoreline that was about right.  Yet the US deserved more than 1 goal.  Hercules Gomez (yes, that's his name) looked good up top and Donovan and Dempsey looked legit together at midfield.  Attack after attack and corner after corner really made the Brazilians work.  All of those attacks were initiated from the midfield and again, it's bad luck that they only scored once.  To be sure, the Brazilians also were attacking during the second half and a shot that hit square off the post from Pato could've made it 5-1.  But the Americans played even soccer with the Brazilians in terms of possession and out shot and out-cornered them.

However, the defense looked absolutely terrible.  Oguchi Onyewu (US's center defenseman) was particularly bad.  The handball called on him early was unfortunate bad luck.  It hit his elbow and honestly, there was nothing he could do.  But the 2nd, 3rd and 4th goals (particularly the 3rd and 4th goals) were products of him misplaying balls, getting burned by younger and faster players and "Gooch" just not playing up to the level of someone on a national squad.  It may be time for him to ride out in the sunset.  Yes, it's Brazil we were talking about here and they make most defenders look bad, but this was a particularly offending game because he was victimized numerous times.

This lack of stalwart defenders is becoming an issue for the US.  Our defenders are either old (Cherundolo), useless (Onyewu) or inexperienced (everyone else).  Sadly, this is not exactly a good time for a trial by fire for new players.  It's interesting because the US used be pretty solid back there while it was the fact that we had literally no one who could score a goal up top at striker.  Now, with Altidore, Gomez, Boyd and a nice rotation of other players, we have an abundance of scorers.  Problem is, we have no one at the back line worth a shit. 

While the US's toughest opponent in World Cup Qualifying (3rd Round) is Jamaica, who isn't exactly Brazil, the US cannot afford to lose more than 1 game in qualifying.  Further still, the Klinsmann era hasn't been lighting it up on the road.  Wins at Italy and Slovenia were nice, but there were a whole lot of losses elsewhere on the road.  Guatemala in a few weeks will be a difficult test even if Guate isn't a very good team due to a very hostile crowd.  **Note to self:  Do not support rebel factions in rainforest countries that share qualifying in international sporting events with us if we have to travel to their country**

So the US moves on to play Canada next week.  Then, it's World Cup qualifying.  This 5 game wave (or "tournament" as coach Jurgen Klinsmann has said) has seen off the two hardest games:  Scotland and Brazil.  Scotland was an immense success.  Brazil was a difficult loss wherein the scoreline didn't reflect the gameplay, but was still a disappointing loss.  We can only hope games with Canada (road), Antigua (home) and Guatemala (road) can bring some solace to a difficult loss like last night.