Around 43,000 people showed up to watch the game on a warm, dry late summer afternoon. The soccer pitch was in horrific shape after having endured a college football game the day before. As the players' warmed up before the match, the ball skipped and hopped along the uneven surface in a way that is not at all customary for soccer played at this level.
US Coach Bob Bradley and all his veteran players reiterated over the course of their week-long mini camp that their intent was to make it difficult for Brazil to play in the midfield and then to seize on chances to go forward when they presented themselves.
Brazil took the kickoff and set the early tempo for the game by knocking the ball back and forth along its back line. Their two central defenders, Lucio and Juan, stood thirty yards apart, knocking clean balls back and forth to shift the point of attack, or skipping longer driven balls to Maicon wide right or Gilberto wide left. The US shrunk the field defensively, their back four pressing up on Afonso, holding a line of defense only ten yards past the center line of the field.
From the press box, the view of the field showed all 22 players occupying a swathe of the field around 40-yards long. Brazil continued to swing the ball from side to side, moving the US defense and looking for openings to mount an attack. Robinho came back deep to receive the ball from Gilberto who overlapped with him. Kaka showed in the space up higher and Ronaldinho lingered in the middle of the field. Much of Brazil's early attack came from this particular movement.
It took almost five minutes before the US won possession of the ball for the first time, and once won, it was given away, forced up the line through Heath Pearce. The early part of the game was exactly as Brazil would have wanted it, with the US players looking nervous on the ball and resorting to speculative long passes forward towards Clint Dempsey and Josh Wolff. Juan looked very calm and capable chasing those balls down.
The first bit of magic from Brazil came in the 6th minute, when Ronaldinho played Robinho through in the box. Robinho shot into the side-netting at the near post, but the speed and fluidity of the inter-play showed the danger that Bocanegra and Onyewu would encounter down the center throughout the game. Dunga's team has an established mode of play, swinging the ball with deceptive speed from touch-line to touch-line and relying on Robinho and Ronaldinho to come back to receive balls and initiate attacks. After that first look forward, though, the patterns of play become extremely fluid, with Kaka, Ronaldinho and Robinho looking for one another in the belly of the defense, and the talented wingbacks Maicon and Gilberto pressing up the sides in support.
Robinho found Alfonso after a restart a minute later, and the Dutch-based debut forward toe-poked his chance squarely off the left goalpost. At that point in the match, Brazil looked in total control, but having absorbed the initial attack, the US team began to make it difficult for Brazil to play through. Donovan and Beasley played as honest wing midfielders, covering their defensive responsibilities first.
Michael Bradley upped the ante on the friendly by getting into a few fair tough challenges in the middle, eliciting reactions from Robinho and Ronaldinho.
"You don't want to let guys like Robinho and Kaka and Ronaldinho just have their way," he said after the match. "And so it's important at the times when you have to be hard, be hard, but there's other times you just have to go and set your feet and move your feet and try to get in the way of their passes."
In the 22nd minute the US mounted an attack down the left side that earned a corner kick from a confused clearance. Donovan hit an in-swinging ball with his right foot. Bradley made a hard run for it and created a vacuum in the defense. Carlos Bocanegra surged into the space and the ball bounced off his stomach into the goal past Doni. It was an ugly goal, but well-earned.
With the US leading 1-0, Brazil played with a heightened sense of urgency, plying their tactic of changing the field with more speed and intent. For its part, the US gathered itself after a nervy start and began to possess the ball better, finding Beasley and Donovan on the wings and then playing through Wolff and Dempsey up top. Bradley and Feilhaber worked tirelessly on both sides of the ball, maintaining contact with one another as they tracked the ball from side to side.
Brazil tied the game after a magnificent bit of play between Ronaldinho and Robinho. Much of the tight passing in the middle stretch of the field was complicated by the field's surface, and Brazil did better down the inside channels on either side. On this occasion Robinho gathered the ball from Gilberto near half field. Gilberto overlapped and took a defender with him. Robinho found Ronaldinho with a pass. He found Kaka. Back to Robinho. Over to Ronaldinho, who made space and slotted a perfect pass behind Onyewu to Kaka who had continued his run. Kaka should have buried the finish but he didn't strike the ball that well and Howard made a reaction save point blank. The shot rebounded off Howard into the path of Onyewu who could not stop his momentum and the ball floated over the goal line for an own goal.
Brazil's team relied heavily on Kaka's north-south running to open up gaps and seams in the defense, and he was impressive in that capacity all day long. The rest of the half was hard-fought, half-chances on either end of the field. The US began to find Michael Bradley more regularly, and he distributed extremely well, making Brazil's midfielders miss on tackles often enough to relax their pursuit.
The second half started where the first half had left off, a faster paced game with the US finding more space on the flanks as the result of establishing a presence in the middle with Bradley and Feilhaber. Donovan did not run with the ball at his feet much, and seemed too content at times to play balls into the feet of Wolff and Dempsey. Wolff worked extremely hard as a runner up top, and Dempsey played as a target player, looking for opportunities to turn on goal.
Brazil took the lead back in the 53rd minute from a corner kick. Lucio, the Bayern Munich center half, got free at the back post and nodded a brilliant header through the small window in Howard's goal at the top near corner. Howard rose to save the shot and hit the crossbar with his hand, rattling the frame of goal and dislocating his finger in the process. He was down for a few minutes as the training staff "reduced" the finger, popping it into place as Howard grimaced.
Brazil played with a different sense of freedom with a goal advantage, and Ronaldinho began to make his imprint on the match, finding touches wherever he could. He and Robinho played with great freedom because Gilberto Silva and Mineiro held position deliberately behind them. The key to Dunga's team is the way he balances the freedom of Robinho and Ronaldinho with the work-rate and discipline of the central holding midfielders. The success of the formation relies heavily on the excellence of the wing defenders, Maicon and Gilberto, to dominate their tracks on the pitch. Gilberto, based at Hertha Berlin, was extremely impressive in the way he took his opportunities to go forward. He and Robinho worked well together throughout the match.
Brazil substituted Juan out of the back at half-time, giving Edu Dracena a chance to show. The US mounted a fluid attack down the right side of the field and Steve Cherundolo, whose work-rate and play on the right were extremely solid, victimized Dracena first with his run behind him and then cutting the ball back and finding Clint Dempsey free around the penalty spot. Dempsey had checked his run intelligently and he buried the finish far post. The game was 2-2 with 73 minutes gone.
The next two minutes of the game were two of the proudest in the history of the game in this country. Having leveled with Brazil, the players did not look satisfied. The field had opened up, in part due to the heat, and the US was able to possess the ball patiently, using Bradley and Feilhaber to change the point of attack, allowing Donovan and Beasley to receive balls in more advanced positions. The US launched another attack that developed on the left side of the field this time and produced a good hard shot at Doni that the Brazilian keeper could not hold. The first player to the rebound was Josh Wolff, and he appeared to be pushed off the ball from behind, a foul that would have resulted in a penalty. The referee did not blow his whistle and play shifted quickly to the other end of the field.
Then lighting struck. Dani Alves, who came in on the right for Maicon, flopped on a one-two with Ronaldinho at the top of the US penalty area and the referee Armando Archundia awarded a free kick. Carlos Bocanegra, who was called for the foul, wondered about the call after the game.
"I think just because I was on the ref's butt about the first call, the non-call against Josh on the penalty kick... I don't know if he was mad at me or what but the guy fell down and screamed and he decided to blow the whistle. The more opportunities you give Ronaldinho from there, he's gonna hurt you."
Ronaldinho is so dangerous from that area. The US protected the near side with its wall. Brazil left two players on the end of the wall toward the far post, to screen Howard's view of the strike. Everybody in the stadium must have expected Ronaldinho to curl the ball over the wall and inside the near post, and that is probably why he aimed a low bending ball to Howard's side of the goal. Two players jumped out of the way of the ball, which bounced awkwardly in front of the diving keeper and skipped past him into the net. It was not Howard's best save, but in fairness, the call was awful and it was a horrible blow to the US team that had battled so hard to get back square.
Eddie Johnson and Bobby Convey had come on for the US and both players found space in the last twenty minutes of the game. Convey wasted a few efforts. Johnson looked much more intentional about his movement, and his speed and power helped the US keep its attacking shape as the game came to a conclusion.
"Speed is a strength of mine and I knew the guys would be tired because it was so hot," Johnson said. "When your confidence is high and you're working well day in and day out, you can't help but to play with confidence. All you can do when you come into the game is try and make a difference. We were down 2-1 and I was part of the build up so I can say I added some energy to the game. I want to build from that and work my way back into being a regular at this level."
Dunga played Wagner Love and Baptista up front and brought on Elano in the middle. Brazil scored its final goal from the penalty spot. The US failed to clear a ball sufficiently, and Julio Baptista gathered the clearance at the top of the box. Michael Bradley tried to close down the shot and Baptista took a good touch away from him and was brought down. Elano finished from the spot and it was 4-2.
The US players and coaches were extremely disappointed after the match, but all of them had a glow of pride in their eyes. US captain Carlos Bocanegra didn't think it was a fair score line for the run of play.
"The thing that kind of stinks is that they beat us on dead balls today. We're usually pretty good at defending those. I thought everybody did a good job with our team defense today. I don't think the score line represents that game. It's frustrating when we did play that well that we didn't get something out of that game."
US Coach Bob Bradley, summed the team's attitude up matter-of-factly, "We're pleased with the way we played but we're not happy with the result."
It was the first time the US team has maintained a high level of play for a full 90 minutes against a world-class opponent since the game against Ghana in the World Cup. I thought the man of the match for the US was Michael Bradley. His efforts, partnered by Feilhaber, in the center of the field made it possible for the US to maintain a level of control over the game that they rarely enjoy against teams like Brazil.
As for the world's best soccer team, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and Robinho all looked very good at times on a field that was not an ideal surface to play on. Giberto and Juan were fantastic. The Brazilian media mentioned that many of the players were not at all thrilled by the inclusion of Afonso on the team, and, in truth, the one noticeable lack for Brazil was a true-front runner to stay busy around the goal as the inter-play in the midfield unfolded.
For the US the game should be considered a hard lesson learned about taking care of the details in and around the box on the defensive side. The match was a high-level friendly, and I expect that next time the US plays a good team, their experience against Brazil will go a long way towards establishing their expectation to win.
"Our ability to continue to raise our levels across the board is a big part of how we will improve," Bradley said. "We don't leave today pleased about the result. There's a point in the game where we're playing in the United States, the game is 2-2, and we have a little bit of momentum. So at that point I felt like that game could have been ours or it could have ended 2-2 but it didn't."
The US and Brazil met on Sunday at Soldier Field in a friendly match billed as "The Clash of Champions," a title that glossed the discrepancy in soccer quality between CONCACAF and CONFEMEBOL. Having won 