Post-match: USA vs. Brazil - June 12, 2024

Scally has always been strong 1v1 on D. Where he can be got, and where he was this and the last game, is tracking off the ball. Then on the ball he’s actually a decent dribbler for a big, physical, defensive type FB but his sense for buildup and combination and in the final third is not good.

 

Joe from LONG ISLAND, a subtle but important distinction.

 

Although the enduring image for me is Romario shaking Keller’s hand after he saved his point blank shot.

 

I don’t think the Copa America should be treated as a building block for 2026, necessarily, although I understand why Gregg wants to paint that picture.

But the performance and result in this friendly match, against a first team Brazil playing for form and playing hard, is definitely a building block for 2026.

 

That was the kind of performance I hope for against a good team. I was pleased with the dynamism and ball movement and balance in attack. I still don’t get why he doesn’t use Gio as a straight 10, but he defended so well that perhaps he felt he needed him a little deeper. Some folks thought Ream was good but I think we need to find another option there (Robinson?).

Scally was the Scally I expected. Wish we could get our CFs involved. Puli was fantastic. Overall, what we (or I at least) hope for every match. I’d love to know what the instructions were for these last 2 matches.

 

I agree but he was also exceptional against Arsenal when they needed it most. He had some really brilliant moments in the Champions League proper for a player so young. And those are not necessarily games where PSV is superior.

 

For the most part I appreciate this about Gregg. Sometimes though, this means we have to watch Jackson Yueill six games in a row until he finally gets dropped.

 

With a tie vs. Brazil, we can pat our own back with relief and excitement. But what about if this Brazil team is NO good — full of great talents buy didn’t perform as a unit (kind of like us). Then we may live in another disillusion that we may do something in this Copa and the next BIG CUP.

 

Just saw the ESPN player ratings, continuing ESPN’s long history of badly subpar coverage of soccer.

Phase I - mock it as not a real sport

Phase II - hire a bunch of Euro has beens and tell them their job is to teach American fans about the game and say clickable nonsense. Then watch them condescend. Every. Damn. Day.

Phase III - hire someone who is so utterly clueless as to come up with ratings that virtually no other person who saw the game would come close to. Publish those ratings as ESPN content.

Can’t wait for Phase IV. What could it be? New lead broadcasters Joey Barton and JJ Watt?

 

And what exactly all that was for? A great example of playing from the back just because. Almost lost the ball a few times in a critically dangerous area.

 

I haven't seen him too much, but he strikes me as technically not good. It's concerning when so much is asked of the fullbacks.

That said, he's clearly earned the RB spot for the Copa.

 

I love this board.

2 days ago: The USMNT sucks under Berhalter and we're going to get destroyed by Brazil 7-0!

Some posters after a 1-1 draw: Brazil must really suck

Never mind that so far this year they beat England in London, drew Spain in Madrid, and beat Mexico in Texas (which was basically Mexico for the evening). They're the #5 team in the World. That was a strong lineup they fielded. Not the best Brazil we've ever seen, but a strong group of players.

Brazil could easily be our quarterfinal opponent in Copa America. And I think last night's game should show us that we CAN get a result in a game like that. We should feel encouraged.

Berhalter and some players demanded a better mentality and better performance in this Brazil game. We got it. And we saw an actual set-piece a goal. Practically a miracle at this point!!!

I know there's a lot of Scally talk. I just remember that Joe Scally is young enough to be part of the Olympic team. He's 21. There's only one member of the USMNT team younger than Scally. That's Ricardo Pepi.

So yes, RB is a bit of a liability position with Dest out. But also, this is a REAL feet-to-the-fire opportunity for Scally. Part of his growth. We're going to hopefully come out of this with a superior player that we're more confident it. Yes, we wish we had an in-his-prime RB to take over. That guy doesn't exist. [And yes, he's younger than Araujo by a year and a half.] If things had gone the way we hoped, it could have been Reggie Cannon. But that group of guys who are 26-28 right now, didn't advance the way we wanted for the most part.

 

The team has a history of rallying from poor performances. The problem with this team has been too many weak performances in the first place.

And to flip the scrip when the US gets blasted by one of these powers, the Greggolytes cite their made-up rankings that prove absolutely the team needed to look like dogshyte.

 

Disagree - Brazil wasn't pressing very hard. We were able to control every pass (i.e. not a single one touch pass in that sequence). And once they did back off we just had a bunch of meaningless possession. Everyone's all happy again, but we'll see more big losses (or for sure more avoidable goals against) with Beerholder stubbornly sticking to playing it out of the back. I don't even want to think about playing a Bielsa coached Uruguay.

 

Agree. Announcer at the end of the game said we answered the wake up call. My problem is needing a wake up call to play well and how many wake up calls we have to have in the first place.

 

Depends whether there is a snooze button

 

im going to grossly overgeneralize here for a minute, but almost all brazil teams rely too heavily on the ability to go 70 minutes of any given match at an idle- for them- which is still usually a very high level. they can move the ball (and themselves) around so well, in addition to generally very strong on the ball players so pressing is rarely effective against them and anything other than a fully committed bunker with almost no intention for anything other than a draw is a bad idea. because one of the most prominent features of the brazilian soccer identity is the tendency and ability to "flip a switch", to come out of that idle and overwhelm opponents in just a few moments. you can go from level to down 3 before you even know its happening.

(generalization that most of us know already over)

im not sure how good, or bad (relatively) this brazil group is- i get the sense that, if anything, they are in a race against time to close a gap between some very good keepers/defenders/central mids on the older side and incredible attacking potential that isnt quite there yet. it could be a lull before a "great" team emerges, or some of the older guys could drop off before the wc and it just never comes together at a "right" time. but what that means for right now is they arent quite able to consistently produce those quintessential brazilian performances/results, "coasting" and then flipping that switch when its time.

as for us, i think that the more we sit with this match objectively the high will wear off quite a bit. ive seen a couple of comments on how this match felt like "more than a friendly", it was a "much higher level", more intense and hard fought and id agree...for us.

everyone is riding high- and rightfully so- but all the "friendlies dont matter", "its just about getting guys reps", "we wouldnt have done this or that in a real match" missing here, from our perspective? it all very much applied to brazil last night.

they had very little interest in defending- though our early volleys poked them enough to give us their attention, if not a "real match" effort. they were content to idle, cover enough and then when they got into the attacking third try to get a little brazil-y on us. they didnt press at all, the front three werent putting any effort into winning the ball. this was very much a walkthough for brazil.

what was notable even in that context for them was that revving it up past an idle never came. i kept waiting for that concerted effort to kick in, for them to get bored and pissed off or their biological brazilian soccer clocks to start ticking but it never happened. there were a few more pointed attacks that we dealt with but that effort to step up petered right out again.

im not saying this to downplay our effort and/or performance, but if i were a brazil supporter "the" story of this match would be that they just rolled over and took it. they never decided to turn it on.

yes, it got frantic at the end but that was due to mass changes and our differing goals, not brazil giving us everything they had while we valiantly withstood their advances. we were dropping all 11 to our box- ready to bleed like "real" american soccer players- while they were still at a pretty low idle of being too cute. which is how/why we were also getting better chances than they did over that last 10-15 minutes on counters. i just didnt see that they ever turned it up to 10, much less 11.

i think this was a disappointing friendly performance from brazils perspective, one where they really didnt put up a lot of fight- even at a friendly level. id be a little pissed if i were one of their fans (though i would also dry my tears on a spare world cup). i think we played like our lives depended on it, with the intensity and fight of a ko match- all the tropes about friendlies didnt apply to us/our effort last night. and thats ok- as ive said multiple times the need for a response to the colombia loss was immense and and we got it.

but i think now, the literal morning after, and going forward we will recognize more and more how silly it is to talk about this as a "historic result". its like our goal- its not our fault that alisson set up a "wall" that was a direct lane to the bottom corner (like those kid-bumpers in a bowling alley) before not even covering it. puli still had to, and did, bury it. but we gave the match huge importance while it was just a friendly (and a pretty unimpressive one at that) for brazil.

the one huge exception to all that was our selections and subs- thats where gregg inarguably got this all the way right. not in exactly who played, when and where, but he started and subbed last night like a friendly. full credit, unequivocally- in terms of picking 11 guys to execute a "gameplan", while still liberally using his bench in more than a timely matter while trying to spread minutes around independent of simply holding onto a result? no notes.

though i will note that i probably shouldnt have quoted you, ghost. i really was directly addressing you for at least a minute there towards the beginning.

 

Seems like GGG often likes Gio as a more holding midfielder these days. Last night I think he got it right with him. He was used basically to double team Vini Jr and help facilitate the build out of the back, help make sure we didn't crap our pants in a really bad spot. He led the break in a couple of instances but it was mostly in slow motion LOL. I'd like to see his heat map but I don't think he spent much, if any, time in Brazil's box. Gregg pulled the trigger on him at the right time I thought. He was getting gassed and when Johnny came in he brought back a bit of athleticism and was more goal focused.

But yeah, seems like we need the dude in a more attacking role. In Gregg's system though it might be more of what we saw tonight with Gio against good teams. Probably more of an attacking role against weak teams but against the big boys a holding mid. We will see.

 

a) its not.

and b) not "totally" (or even much at all), but we did make a concerted effort to get forward early (and specifically get shots on goal, however speculatively). thats not, and hasnt been, our template.

the two big tactical differences/corrections from the colombia match were keeping our shape and balancing our attack in terms of using both sides of the pitch. thats where we got back "on script". i think the early emphasis on not sitting back was a sort of signal of intent/palate cleanser combo.

a job well done all around, imo.

 

They were initially but they changed it to 26. Though I’m not really sure why.

 

I mean it’s still just a friendly so I wouldn’t read too much into it. Other than it’s good we didn’t get completely outclassed.

 

This is the 1st result against Brasil since '98. This is a big accomplishment to get a result against their A team. They have been beatable of late, but so were Germany who had thrashed the US.

 

For me the games that matter are the ones at the Copa America. I never put a lot of stock into friendlies, whether they are good or bad.

 

I have tickets for Grupo Niche, July 19, Boston. If we get rocked by Colombia again, and the wrong in-law decides to bust my chops, there could very well be a meltdown.

 

Totally disagree. Matches against major teams don't come around often enough for friendlies against those teams not to be important.