Brazil 4 USA 2

I didn't pay quite as much attention to the USA/Brazil game today as I normally would since we had football on the other TV but I think I still got a pretty decent feel for what was going on. Here are some player ratings. Tim Howard - 7.0 - for a team that gave up 4 goals, he actually played pretty damn well. He actually made a very good save on the first goal, only for it to deflect off Onyewu and in. On the second, he couldn't do much, and the 4th was a PK. He does get docked points for the 3rd goal, Ronaldinho's freekick. While it was well-placed, Howard was awfully slow to react. He's a good keeper though, we're lucky to have him. Steve Cherundolo - 8.0 - I thought he had an excellent game. Robinho did do him up once in the corner (absolutely disgusting move to get out of a double team, then Robinho had Onyewu beat with a stepover but was tripped/dove) but other than that he did pretty well defensively. He also made a very nice run and cutback that set up Dempsey's goal - it was especially nice to see an American lift his head and actually look up before he played a cross for once. I think Brazil is the type of team Cherundolo excels against - they keep it on the ground and their strengths are their passing, speed, and technical ability. He can hold his own against even the best team like that whereas against a team like Sweden that overpowers you physically, he struggles because he's so small. Oguchi Onweyu - 2.0 - obviously a tough matchup but he was pretty terrible. Own goal, was (very poorly) marking Lucio on the 2nd goal, and could've given up a PK to Robinho. But oh well, better players than him have looked completely overmatched against the likes of Ronnie, Kaka, and Robinho. Carlos Bocanegra - 5.0 - his lack of speed was glaring at times but he didn't have his worst game. He did well to just run the ball into the net for our first goal - it would seem like, since he's such a physical presence, that Onweyu would be the more dangerous player on set pieces, but Bocanegra continues to show that he's extremely valuable in these situations. Boca actually scored 5 goals for Fulham last year in only 25 or 30 games. Don't feel like looking it up but I'd be willing to bet that was in the top 2 or 3 for goals by defenders in the entire EPL. Anyways, I'm still conflicted on him, I see him as a pretty average defender but he's now been made captain for both USA and Fulham, so he must be doing something right. Heath Pearce - 6.0 - I honestly didn't notice him much, which for a defender is normally an ok thing - means he didn't make any glaring mistakes. He also had a nice long range shot that should've set up Wolff for a rebound goal (or should've been a PK, never got to see a great replay). DaMarcus Beasley - 4.0 - he's looked good recently but never looked dangerous today and wasted several potentially dangerous set pieces. I cringe every time we have a dead ball in a good position and it's Beasley getting ready to strike it. I just know it's either going to be floated 20 yards past everyone or not clear the first defender, there's really no in between. On the positive side, as usual, he did some good defensive work today. Benny Feilhaber - 3.0 - pretty invisible for most of the game, can't really remember him doing much of anything. Michael Bradley - 7.5 - in my opinion, this was the best I've seen Bradley play. He made several good tackles in the midfield, especially on Kaka, his distribution was not great but not bad either, and he even had a nice strike on goal from 20-25 yards out. He did stupidly give away a PK but I'm willing to forgive that since he had such a good game otherwise. Landon Donovan - 5.0 - I almost gave him another low rating but figured I was being unfair to him - after all, he did play a huge part in both our goals, hitting the corner that Boca finished and assisting the assist on the 2nd (great ball that sent Cherundolo into open space down the sideline). Still he is incredibly frustrating with his lack of aggression. Does the following situation sound familiar: Landon has the ball in space on a wing, 1 on 1 with a defender, Landon takes a few steps towards the defender and perhaps even feints one way like he's going to make a move, only to think better of it and quickly drop the ball back to a midfielder behind him (normally Feilhaber or Bradley). Landon, you're the best fucking player we've got, when you have a chance to attack the defense, do it for god's sake! I can't remember the last time we've scored a goal against a credible opponent from a long build-up where we're controlling possession in the other team's half. So when our best player, who by the way is quite explosive, has a chance to take someone on 1 on 1 and make something happen, he needs to do it. Josh Wolff - 1.0 - Just when I had finally begun to relax because we'd passed the 15 game mark under Bob Bradley and it seemed like the Josh Wolff era had finally, mercifully, come to a close, we call him back up for a goddamn game against Brazil. Think of every cuss word you can and then colorfully use them in combination - now you're probably close to what I was saying when I saw this fucker was starting today. He tries hard... there's the comprehensive list of Josh Wolff's footballing strengths. I swear the only way I'd be madder than if he plays for the US again would be if we were about to play Spain or France and called Jeff Agoos into the squad. Clint Dempsey - 6.0 - took the only real chance he had well. While I still like him more as a midfielder, after watching his last game for Fulham (goal, 2 assists against Spurs) and his last few US games, I'm becoming more confident that he can be more than serviceable as a forward. He's especially shown improvement as a target player. I still consider Landon our best player, but Dempsey is gaining ground quickly. I'm not going to bother rating our subs because they really didn't do a whole lot. Overall, I was pleased with our performance, we played with them and even took control of the match for a 15 minute span there when we were down 2-1. And even though we did give up 4 goals, in my opinion, our back 4 looked much more solid in this game than they did against Sweden. Brazil really only had a handful of chances the entire match from the run of play (though we do need to really work on our defending on set pieces, it's godawful and has been for years when playing against good competition - only goals against us by Germany in '02 WC quarterfinal and by Italy in '06 WC were off set pieces). If a few calls go the other way (we get the PK when Wolff went down, they don't get the freekick on what looked like not much of a foul on Ronnie that set up his freekick for the 3rd goal) and it could've easily ended up a draw. This losing streak is however getting pretty annoying. That's now 5 consecutive losses since winning the Gold Cup and our next match, against what will almost definitely be a full strength Swiss squad in Basel is going to be very tough as well. But whatever, at least we're playing quality teams now, I'd rather lose a competitive match against Brazil or Sweden than pound Guatemala 5-0.