Let's get at this Game Prievews: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/us/news/2003/06/20/us_brazil/ http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=37872&itype=113&iCategoryID=0 If you goto Sights & sounds you'll find interviews with Arena and Mathis, both of whom speak about Brazil. For the first time since 1994 The Brazilians will be taking this match as seriously as possible. Its not outside the realm of possibility that the Brazilian coach be sacked for losing to the Americans. Ronaldinho is losing money on his transfer value as long as he continues to play poorly. Against Cameroon the Brazilians were apparently lethargic, played with out their trademark flair, and possibly underestimated the Cameron side. They were also taken out of the game due to the high intensity, and superior athleticism of Cameroon. That last point is something I think we can capatalize upon. If we play pressure defense, forcing them into turnovers, making the game ugly, and then use our speed to get out onto the counter were we can use our athletic advanatage at its best. Stuff the middle. If brazil can run up the gut of our defense we lose. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. To be succesful at this, we need possesion out of our A-Mid, and great games from our defensive midfielder(s) Suffocate the flanks. If we're succesful at shutting down the middle, Brazil will have to run the flanks and try scoring off of crosses. Our wide midfielders are gonna have to be on their horses and stay infront of the ball. Harass the ball. to bad no one keeps track of turnovers because thats gonna be the key. We don't have enough offensive creativity without O'Brien and Reyna to break down the Brazilian defense. We need to force Brazil into making mistakes. When we do that we gotta get out on the break hard and fast. Finish. We're not gonna have more than 5 or 6 chances to score in this game. We MUST finish well. DON'T TURN THE BALL OVER
The good news Brazil played probably their best 11 against Cameroon. Emerson, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Kleberson, Dida, Belleti, Juan, Lucio. I'd hate to be Lucio trying to chase down a fresh Jeff Cuningham in the 87th minute or Ronaldinho being knocked on his ass by a 6' 3'' Gibbs, knowing your big$ move to ManU is on the line. To quote the head of the Axis of Stupid, GWB, "they keep misunderestimating us." They are ripe for the picking.
Yup. We are going to be putting out a much different sqaud than we did in the Turkey game, which if you ask me is refreshing. I'm not going to do the "If I was Bruce" thing because, really, I'm not sure. Brazil looked less threatening than Turkey and Cameroon easily. I even think we looked better than Brazil...okay, for stretches. If we can get over the intimidation factor ("ohmigod we're playing Brazil") we could get out of there with 3 points. I believe Bruce has a plan and he is going to stick with it. We are going to see a much better line-up for the game against Brazil. Whether or not we play good, that's up to us.
Re: The good news I don't think depth will be a problem for Brazil But I was definatly thinking Jeff Cunningham. Is Cory Gibbbs really that big? Damn he can move pretty well to.
I watched the Brazil game, and perhaps I was not as underwhelmed as everyone else. They are a quality side, and they were unfortunate not to score against Cameroon. On the bench quietly sat one of their very best players, Alex, who if you watched the US play in Guadalajara against Brazil, caused us fits. Other players like him are anxious to erase the Cameroon memory. Similar to what has been said about Duke basketball, Brazil doesn't regroup, they simply reload. Strategy to beating Brazil? Well, I for one am glad that this is a must-win game. Ask Alexandre Guimares what it is like to try and play for a tie against Brazil. Bad news. You have to counter, and you will be given about 3 opportunities to score. You'd better convert them.
I wasn't that underwhelmed with Brazil either, particularly the first half, when they constanty pressured. Adriano is a horse. (Where does he play his club ball anyway? I'd never heard of him.) I think we have to go with two d-mids in this one and hit on the counter. I don't really see any other way.
I agree...if we try any other way we'll get killed. We just don't have the skill to go head to head with these guys.
Adriano plays for Parma in Italy's Serie A. If you haven't heard of him, you likely will after this game. Although he is still green with the national side, he is arguably the most highly prized young center-forward in Serie A. He scored about 15 goals for Parma this year, which obviously is tremendous. The only reason he won't be returning to Inter Milan (which owns half of his contract and option) next year is because they already have Crespo and Vieri. In short, he'll be a great test for Boca and Gibss. Bring him on!
Unless the USA changes it's way of playing they have no chance. It's France 98 all over again, After sunday The USA is done.
Either the US plays defensive soccer almost bordering on bunkerball or it goes on the attack, with every matchfit striker behind the ball. But through it all it must have some semblance of organization, something that could not be seen for noticeable periods of time against Turkey. And like you guys said, don't turn the ball over. Tomorrow will be difficult, but nowhere near impossible, for the US. Brazil is beatable, and Cameroon proved that. They are more likely a draw than a loss. They'd better be, or else the US is more definitely on a plane home Tuesday morning.
Re: The good news Is this football or something? If Gibbs knocks down Ronaldinho, that's a foul. We saw what happens when you aggressively defend someone in the box---PK. All you idiots bitching about who played against Turkey need to realize that Bruce is platooning players in order to keep them fresh.
Just shut down the middle and don't worry about the flanks. If you force the Brazilians wide then you've won half the battle and they are not particularly strong at crossing the ball into the middle in the air.
Arena must include the following players (in addition to Mathis) to have a chance: Chris Klein, Pablo Mastroeni, Kyle Martino, Carlos Bocanegra and Taylor Twellman
On there worse day, even the third stringers from Brasil have the skills and pace of the game in their favor against any confacaf side. If we had our top 11 out there, it might be an even match, but with the group in France, we still will have to struggle mightly to beat them. Still, on any given day.......
Re: Re: USA - Brazil Pre-Game Thread Boletti, the right midfielder. Delievered one of the most beautiful crosses I've ever seen to Gil vs Nigeria for a goal. Tradiationally they might not cross very often, but some of these guys definatly have the skill.
Any particular reason why? Klein is the lasy person I'd want out there versus Brazil. He'd be completly out of his depth. And I'm pretty sure if Martino got his first major international run against a desparate Brazilian side he'd be in full panic mode.
Re: Re: Re: USA - Brazil Pre-Game Thread True, but asking to stuff the middle and suffocate the flanks--no team is going to be able to do both of those things without serious bunkering. You've got to pick one or the other and hope that the somewhat slim aerial advantage we have will be enough for the crosses. Aerial advantage doesn't mean much when they put the cross right on the guy's head though, no doubt.
U.S. regroups for Brazil, Chris Cowles, Houston Chronicle. Brasil tenta fugir do fiasco contra EUA, O Estado de São Paulo: Alex expected to start in place of Gil. Ricardinho to play more towards the left side of midfield. Alex to play in the more central, attacking mid spot that Ricardinho played (yeah, right) against Cameroon. Article says that CAP recognizes that his team lacked much creativity. Duh. A CAP midfield high on bureaucratic tidiness and low on creativity and imagination. Who would've predicted that? It also says that the mood of the delegation is much more serious than it was a couple of days ago. Estados Unidos apostam na experiência, O Estado de São Paulo:
Re: Re: USA - Brazil Pre-Game Thread there have been many posts about how poor Brazil performed, but i didn't actually get to watch the game until tonight. i'm not sure what everyone is talking about. i mean they didn't win, and i suppose by maybe the "Brazilian" standard there is work to do, but they looked pretty good to me, and WAY better than the US did against Turkey. I hope we play well, and know we have a chance to finish our opportunities. so anything is possible. any, yes, maybe we'll be fortunate and brazil will rest some of their better players. but these guys play some attractive soccer. don't fool yourselves. if they play the way they did against Cameroon, we'll more than have our hands full. if they play better, we're in big, big trouble.
We have to. Counter Attack is for teams that cannot dominate the midfield play. Look at what Argentina did to us. I'm sort of expecting a similar game. I think the US shouldl play a game sort of similar to Germany though. We should attack with more numbers and often. I think that Brazil will be expecting us to sit back and if we can catch them by surprise, we might get lucky. Who knows. The US team's performance is so inconsistant. Maybe since we played poorly against Turkey we'll come back and play great against Brazil.
yea but O'Brien and Reyna completly dominated the midfield in that match, leaving Donovan to make his various runs and stuff. But you right about attacking and suprising them. Its just that we have to pick our spots when to attack. And we've been pretty good in timing those forays
Good luck to the US team against Brazil. They just need to turn back on the style and spirit they showed last summer. A big problem they seemed to have in the Turkey game, judging by the player's faces and sluggish performance was motivation. I am sure they will stand up to the occasion against Brazil. Let's hope guys like Matthis, Donovan and Beasley tear up the Brazilian back line. They certainly looked very dangerous against Turkey. (especially after Kirovski was gone). But this time they are going to need a better midfield to feed those dudes with some throughballs. I don't know who on this team can fill Reyna's shoes. (I am thinking someone the same caliber as Turkey's Volkan or Tugay is what the US really needs to put out there).
Online Coverage Does anyone have any links for some live online sources of media for this match? It doesn't matter, either audio or video.
Re: Online Coverage http://www.socceraudio.com Go there, click on the "Listen Live" Icon thats next to the EuroSport logo. You'll need Real Player, and if you go there now you can listen to Cameroon - Turkey. USA - Brazil will follow directly.