Sunday, June 28, 2009

Brazil Wins FIFA Confederations Cup

A valiant effort from the U.S. eventually fell just short as a 2-0 lead became a 3-2 halftime loss... Brazil scored in the 46th, 74th and 85th minutes in their come-from-behind effort in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The U.S., however, still took its best-ever finish in a major international championship, finishing in second place.

We will of course have much, much more from South Africa, so stay tuned here, at ussoccer.com and at twitter.com/ussoccer for more from the USA

24 comments:

aquagirl:) said...

What did Italy get? Nothing. What did Spain get? 3rd. What did we get? 2nd.

Guys, that's amazing. Don't be ashamed at all. I am sooo proud to be an American right now. :)

Kate said...

It hurts, but we're so proud of you guys! Great work in South Africa!!!!

mcadaal said...

Awesome first half. You had it and let it slip.

We ended up playing without any energy in the second half. We needed better passes. Kljestan will just not do that for us. Torres is more skilled with penetrating passes. Why take out Altidore? uggh...it's over.

Get to the World Cup and let's see if you guys can keep up THIS LEVEL of play. You have made everyone excited for the World Cup!

shannon said...

i am so very proud of our team!!! they gave it their all after, lets face it, 2 horrible first games. they showed that we have talent over here and are competitors. are we gunna win the wc, probably not, but we should give it one hell of a go!!!! and dont cry clint, we all love you!!!! again, im just so proud of all of you!!!!! thank you

Unknown said...

Dang, you all started out so well, but sorry, Jozy - chase after the BALL!
That was such a heartbreaker, but you guys played your hearts out!
Tim Howard - YOU ARE SO AWESOME!
Thanks for playing so hard and will definitely keep following your run to the 2010 World Cup.
Play hard in the tourney coming up!!!!!

TJX said...

Bob: Let's see, I'm up 2-0 against BRAZIL so I'll just tell them to sit back and defend and have the occasional counter-attack.


THEN when the crap hits the fan and it's 2-2 I'll put in Kljestan and Bornstein, the Sacha one is so inept but I'll put him in anyway!


It's now 3-2! CONOR CASEY!!!!!



I'm proud of the players'....first half performance, but the 2nd half was a disgrace. Donovan was invisible and Spector got turned inside out so many times. We have no ability to close down attacks on the wings.


This should've been a win. It definitely stings.



I will give my full congrats to Dempsey and Howard, who earned their money these last couple of games. I also give a lot of thanks to Onyewu, who should get a lot more respect than he does. Amazing center back.


Charlie Davies can be a fantastic forward and he has a bright future.



Lastly, Freddy Adu should move back to Ghana and Torres must go back to Mexico. They obviously won't be allowed to do anything other than play against the likes of Grenada so why put them in the full squad at all when Kljestan gets to play?

Anonymous said...

A good effort by our guys. We're proud of you. thanks for a thrilling first half... we were jumping around on our couches!

cb3fan said...

We Are SO Proud Of You Guys! Ya'll Should Hold Your Heads Up High, CAUSE YOU ALL PLAYED AN AWESOME GAME! WE LOVE YOU! See You Again July & in August! Congrats To Clint & Timmy!

Julio said...

Mixed feelings...Very upset and very happy.

Upset because we were actually wining 2-0 and we did not know what to do in the 2nd half. Brazil is Brazil and I think the US team was not emotionally prepared to end the first half by that score.

I am happy, because just being in a final for such a tournament it was a big achievement. We did not start playing good in this tournament, well we have not been playing very good since the last 2 game of the world cup qualifiers either, but we got better and better. I know we want results, but we got the attention of the soccer fans around the world on this cup.

I have to say that Brazil got lucky to score as soon as the 2nd half started. Nobody’s fault on that goal.
There is still a lot to learn. I think the guys ran out of gas and technically we could approach in a different way on the 2nd half. However, still very proud of this team; we love you guys, we love this game and we suffer and cry with you all…

Now, let’s cry for a few days and then move on and try to win the Gold Cup again, to keep going to this kind of tournaments. We almost got it….unfortunately “almost” is never enough. So, we have to get it next time.

Greg Seltzer said...

Harsh. Great effort, boys.

Unknown said...

Brazil is a technically superior team and showed that they wouldn't let it go down 2-0. The US could have won on power, performance and strategy, but ultimately made a couple of mistakes that Brazil took advantage of.

The US had finally arrived! Here we come Gold Cup. And the World Cup is anyone's game at this point.

Feel proud guys, you totally rocked this tourney!!!!!!!

shubbz said...

We are so proud for what you guys did in this tournament guys! Thank you. A few things need to be worked on for the World Cup but Im sure we are going to do great then too. Tim Howard rocks!! So does Gooch, Dempsey, Landon and all you guys!!! Great Tournament! thanks for making us proud!!!!!!Love ya! USA!!USA!!

YA said...

Very proud of you guys. Keep your heads up! Thanks for your effort.

Anonymous said...

Guys, that was AMAZING. From beginning this tournament with two horrible losses to coming out of it in second is awesome! I am so proud of you right now, proud to be an American. This is just a warm up for the World Cup, there are a few glitches that need to be fixed before then but AWESOME indeed. Keep up the great work!

THANK YOU. :)

AdamTheRed said...

This sucks.

BUT

It means we are progressing if US fans are mad we didn't win a final.

AdamTheRed said...

BUT

that said.

Did anyone else think our subs were stupid.

COME ON!

i know kljestan was amazing against Brazil lat thursday.

Unknown said...

U guys played well, but come on, we earned it ;). Anyway you really surprised everyone with your teams performance... Good luck on the World Cup.

Greetz from Brazil.

Unknown said...

We did awesome and the game seemed to slip from our grasp!!!! I am extremely proud to be an American because over the last three games you have shown the fight and tenacity that you had been feeling and had it translate directly into your play. I am extremely proud of all of you right now but focusing on getting better is a must. Go USA!!!

Krill said...

Well done fellas. Yes, it must sting, similar to the sting Germany gave us in the 2002 World Cup Quarterfinals, but as a team, you guys are getting so close. We're almost there where we can not only compete, but we can beat the top teams in the world. No one looks forward to playing us. My hope is these performances will carry over to the CONCACAF qualifiers and we'll dominate teams like El Salvador.

Learn and improve for our next matches.

Army of Dad said...

Thank you for fighting hard and turning around the tournament.

Funny, but if someone had told me we would finish second and lose by one goal to Brazil in the final I would have happily taken that, but now it seems like we let a golden oppotunity slip through our grasp.

Thanks for the ride guys-lets do it again next summer!!!

Teddy Efendy said...

good play from brazil,. for US is not your time to be a champion,.. good luck for the later championsip

KoKo said...

Oh how close we came. I am starting to wonder how much we missed M. Bradley in the second half. Just think how the game would have been if we brought in Feilhaber instead of Kljestan.
Maybe we as fans should start looking into the fact that there were 4 red cards in the entire tournament, one was Egypt with the hand ball on the goal line( No question Red Card) and the other three to the US (all questionable slide tackles!!!!)
Is it FIFA's position that there were no other hard slide tackles in the tournament. This happens far to often to the US MNT. Look back at our last major tournament the World Cup 2006 when we finished the game aginst Italia with only 9 men on the field! Again Pablo M was shown a direct red for his tackle and Pope two yellows for his open field tackle. I think we the fans should start some asking questions about.

Unknown said...

guys,

no one would have expected for this team to get past the group stage. no one would have possibly expected us to beat spain, to hold spain scoreless, to beat spain by multiple goals. no one would have expected us to come out and score two goals against brazil before halftime while leaving them scoreless and both goals in such a beautiful way. but you guys did it.

so many ups and downs. great first half against italy then 3 straight horrible halves. then 3 straight amazing halves that got the attention of more sports fans than maybe ever before. finishing with a disappointing half again one of the best teams ever in a fifa world tournament is disappointing. but you made lots of people believe that the USA can win.

i believe.

Juanito said...

There is a football god and he is Brazilian!!!