Jogo Bonito 3 - Soccer 2

A valiant USA team comes up short in the Confederation Cup Final.

It was simply too much to ask, wasn’t it ? After having scored one of the biggest upsets in their history against Spain, and after holding a 2-0 lead at halftime against the world’s greatest soccer team, it was implausible that the U.S. could really beat Brazil (the same Brazil that had thumped the U.S 3-0 barely 10 days ago). In history and in sport, David only gets to slay Goliath once.

Even with the U.S. up at halftime, you sensed something in the air, that a comeback was imminent, that Brazil wouldn’t let this upstart soccer nation best it at a major FIFA tournament. It’s what makes the Cariocas so great, a team that believes it can win against anyone anytime, able to overturn any disadvantage, able to overcome any opponent with their “jogo bonito.”

Playing in their first FIFA final ever, the USA got off to a flying start.
Clint Dempsey’s innocent little cross/shot found the far post past Julio Cesar’s outstretched fingertips in the 11th minute. The early goal was the tonic that the Americans needed to put the Brazilians back on their heels. The problem was that this early goal lit a fire under the South American team. Except for some havoc in front of the Brazilian goal in the 14th minute where the ball was up for grabs for any American to pounce on, Tim Howard was force to make 3 brilliant saves off of shots of Robinho, Melo, and Maicon. On the two last shots, Howard had no recourse but to knock the ball down to the ground using two hand to remove the venom from the shots.

Surely one felt it was a matter of time before Brazil equalized and the game would simply be too hard for the USA to manage. In the 28th minute, the USA gave the Brazilians a taste of their own medicine. After stopping the Brazilian attack, Donovan advanced on a perfectly weighted pass to the middle of the field, where he spotted Charlie Davies on the left. After the pass, Donovan began a steaming run straight for the middle of the Brazilian 18-yard line. It was a 2-2 and Davies’ 30 yard pass was right on the money to the streaking Donovan, who received it, flicked it to his left completely turning his man around, and the coolly slotted a low shot to Julio Cesar’s left for a 2-0 advantage.



The speed of the breakaway goal was reminiscent of Robinho’s goal against the USA in the teams’ first meeting in group stage. This “blowback” goal was a brilliant moment for the Americans, one of the best and most riveting goals I’ve ever seen a USA squad score in international competition. The blood was boiling, the South African plastic Bubuzela horns were humming, the Yanks were up 2-0 on mighty Brazil. Suddenly the impossible was probable.

As in hockey, a hot goalie can carry a team, especially one who is clearly not as talented as their rival. From that second goal until the end of the half, Howard prove to be Brazil’s foil, playing the part of the goalie who will not be beat to perfection. In the 35th minute, he once again stopped a shot from Santos. In the 38th, after the play was whistled for offside, Howard continued to pay and stopped yet another shot. Tim Howard was locked in, pure and simple. There weren’t going to be any goals, not even a freebie.

Brazil brought on the heat, desperately trying to get that symbolic and psychologically uplifting goal before halftime. But Howard and the American defense swarmed to every goal, blocked plenty of shots. Their constant pressure on the Brazlians when it counted was the key to their success. In the dying moments, a Maicon cross was barely deflected by Dempsey and thus eluded two onrushing Brazilian attackers. The halftime whistle blew, the goal had not been conceded, and things looked very promising.

Part of the American’s success was their ability to counter attack and keep the Brazilian defense off balance. Brazil had plenty of the ball, but due to Howard’s brilliance and a stout defense, they had nothing to show for their effort.

If Brazil couldn’t score that last gasp goal in the first half, they came and did the next best thing: score right away in the second. Fabiano’s wonderful trap and turn in the 46th minute finally conquered the indomitable Howard, and all of a sudden, the Brazilians had a lifeline. I knew right away this game was going to be extremely difficult for the U.S. to manage. If they could only have held on for 10-15 minutes, anything would have been possible, but to concede a second goal right away spelled trouble.

In the next 15 minutes, the U.S. held their composure, didn’t collapse, and actually continued to play Brazil even. Donovan had a beautiful back heel to a streaking Feilhaber, who tried to walk the ball into the net rather than crossing it; the Americans were ebullient with confidence and started to try to do the Brazilian thing.

In the 60th minute, a header by Kaka on the far post off of a corner kick appeared to be well inside the goal (at least Howard was well inside as he cleared it out). There was no official ruling so without instant replay, the game goes on. A huge break for the Americans. In the 65th minute, Dempsey played the ball nicely off a pass, worked it into the middle and fired a left-footed shot that Julio Cesar had to struggle to tip of the bar. In the 71th minute, Howard once again was HUGE, coming off his line to stop Fabiano’s breakaway cold. In the 72th minute, Davies, all alone on top, tried his best Ronaldo’s impersonation attempting to dribble 3 Brazilian defenders and was just barely poked away by Luisao.

The turnaround came in minute 74, when Kaka finally was able to shake off a tired looking Spector to cross a lethal ball into the goal mouth. Fabiano pounced on the loose ball and headed past a diving Howard for the tying goal.

In the next 10 minutes, Brazil relentlessly pursued the game and dominated possession. In the 85th minute, they were finally rewarded off of a set piece when Lucio’s header off of a corner was simply too well placed even for the stellar Howard to deny. The Brazilians celebrated mightly. The U.S. would have one more chance off of a corner but Oneywu’s point-blank header went high.

The Americans played valiantly and almost pulled off their greatest victory every. They were a composed team, even if the face of the Brazillian artillery attack. What’s most impressive is their psychological turnaround in a tournament that saw them start off horribly and end up almost pulling off a second stunning result in as many games.

In the end, Brazil was simply too good, talented, and powerful. Great teams find ways to score in multiple ways, whether it’s off of individual or collective brilliance, or from set pieces, or from just sheer hard work. The predominant myth about Brazil is that they’re simply built on the talent of their individual players, and that somehow the individuals are greater than the sum of their parts. This could be no further from the truth. The Brazilians are undoubtedly technically extremely gifted individual players, but they also are a well oiled machine who pour in as much sweat equity into their game as any other team in the world. They work hard, they do the simple things, and of course, they also perform magic when required. But it is their extraordinary effort, fueled by their sheer love of the game, that is the true source of their magic, the essence of the “jogo bonito.”

USA shocks Spain

“Soccer” beats “Futbol”
An opportunistic USA team continues its road to redemption at the 2009 Confederation Cup.

The hardest thing in soccer is scoring that first goal. Soccer history is littered with games in which a vastly superior team attacks relentlessly, outshoots its opponent, has more corner kicks, greater possession, and still doesn’t manage to win the game. In the case of the USA versus Spain in the 2009 Confederation Cup semifinal, this spelled one of the greatest wins in US soccer history.

Coming in to this game, Spain hadn’t lost a game since a friendly in 2006. It carried a 35 game unbeaten streak and a 15 game winning streak, almost unheard of in this sport. Spain, soccer’s eternal underachievers for years, finally had gotten the monkey off their back by winning the European championships in 2008.

At this years edition of this tournament, they were put into a cream-puff group featuring the likes of New Zealand, Iraq, and South Africa. They won every game handily even if the score didn’t reflect it against Iraq and licked their chops when they were told they’d be facing the Americans in the semi-final.

The USA’s journey to the semi-final was antithetical to Spain’s stroll through the garden. Placed in the group of death (Italy, Brasil, and Egypt joined them), the US did horribly in their first two games, losing by an aggregate of 1-6. Fortunately for them, that lone goal against Italy (scored by Donovan off of a PK) turned to be the mathematical pivot point they could leverage off of going into the final game of the group stage. Needing a combination of a Brasil win by a differential of 3 and their own 3 goal difference against Egypt, the Yanks somehow managed to keep their end of the bargain as they destroyed a physically depleted Egyptian team 3-0 in the final game. (Egypt had played quite well in the first two games gaining 3 points and only needed a win or a tie against the US coupled with an Italy loss to advance.)

Now really, what were the chances that Brasil would beat Italy by 3 to allow the US to sneak in through ? I flipped between both games nervously (they were played simultaneously), and my hopes were elevated with every goal scored. At one point, I needed the equivalent of a soccer sllde-rule to keep track of goal differential and total goals for all teams except Brazil. When both games were at 3-0 at or near the 90th minute, the impossible was suddenly probable. Sure Egypt or Italy could still score to spoil the Yanks magical run, but this most plausible of scenarios simply never occurred.

We have come full circle to the major theme of our story: neither Egypt nor Italy could score that first goal to keep the US out of the semis, and Spain couldn’t score that first goal that would certainly have led to an avalanche of goals for Spain. Even though they were down by 2 at the 74th minute, Spain could have scored that first goal in the 85th and I think they could have still won the game. It’s that mysterious, unattainable first goal that torments soccer teams’ minds.

Spain was clearly the better team this night. They outshot the Americans, had more corner kicks, more chances on goal, the lion’s share os possession, forced Howard into multiple saves. Yet they still lost. Spain’s wunderkids Villa, Torres, Ramos, Xavi, et al were outdone by Donovan, Specter, Altidore, and Dempsey. Spain was the world’s top ranked team, but as Lou Holtz once famously said: “You don’t have to be the best team in the world, just the best team in the stadium.” In soccer that logic is turned upside down. The USA was certainly not better than Spain but they just happened to beat Spain. Only in soccer is such silliness possible.

Real Disaster

Liverpool destroys Merengues 4-0

The promise of this game was too great to pass up a chance to spark up the old blog. Are you kidding me, Liverpool against Real Madrid in second leg with the Reds’ holding a 1-0 advantage on an away goal ? Real Madrid visiting Anfield for the first time in 50 years. As it that wasn’t enough, here some more truly delectable goodies:
• Real Madrid was voted the best club of the 20th century.
• Liverpool has been the top ranked club by UEFA for the last 5 years.
• Liverpool’s manager, Javier Benitez, spent 15 years as player and coach with the Merengues.
• Real Madrid, the Spanish club, have 1 fewer Spanish players than Liverpool, the English side.

Unfortunately the promise of this game as a classic for the ages pretty much ended as the whistle blew. From the opening moments, it was clear that Liverpool were intent on making sure that Real Madrid’s first visit to Anfield would not be one to remember, would not be one for the history books, not at least in terms of a classic game between two of Europe’s most legendary and decorated teams. No. From the get go, this was a massacre on English soil that the Spanish haven’t experienced since their naval defeat of their supposedly invincible Armada back in 1588 (check date).

Ironically enough, it was the young Spaniard Fernando Torres who set the tone with what was so aptly described by the ESPN play-by-play man as a “moment of genius” when he self-back-heeled a pass from Gerrard in the third minute, leaving Fabio Cannavaro in the dust, before rifling a shot to the near post that required a leg kick save from Iker Casillas. Casillas is only one of the finest goalkeepers of the world, but on this night, despite a handful of masterful saves, he would not be enough to hold down the fort of what only be described as an Anglo-Spanish assault on Real Madrid.

A scant 30 seconds later, Casillas would have to make another dazzling save, parrying Mascherano’s well placed left-volley off the crossbar. In the eight minute, a low and hard Steve Gerrard free kick was easily handled by Casillas but only because it was right at him.

Liverpool’s intensity was evidently superior to Real’s in those first fifteen minutes. They ran circles around the Madrid defense, made long crisp passes from one end of the pitch to the other, easily stripped the ball from the Madrid players as they tried to play the fine continental possession game. This would not be one of those soccer games where one teams knocks and knocks on the door but simply can’t score a goal to save themselves. Real’s defense was just too atrocious in the face of the Reds’ advance.

In the 15th minute, the Spanish comedy of errors began in earnest. Playing a bit against the run of play, there was a pass into the left side of Casilla’s goal. Cannavaro dived at it wildly and rendered himself useless. This left Real’s Pepe to try to clear the ball as he found himself sandwiched between Kuyt and Torres. His kick was as woeful as Cannavaros, and Kuyt collected the ball and cross neatly back to Torres, who toe poked the ball in for the first goal of the ensuing massacre. At this juncture, the game was 2-0 on aggregate, and Madrid knew all along that they would need to score two goals anyway to advance.

In the 22nd, Skrtel’s header forced Casillas to yet another diving save. In the 23rd, after some more dazzling work by Torres on the edge of the penalty box he found Gerrard with a cross that Steven hit with a sliding volley, forcing Casillas to make yet another save. Less than halfway to the break and Iker’s was already working on his 6th quality save.

In the 27th mminute, faced with the constant pressure, Real’s left back, Gabriel Heinze’s was victimized by a terrible hand-ball call inside the box (it clearly hit his shoulder), giving Liverpool a PK. Gerrard made no mistake and buried it. It was a very harsh call but not the kind of injustice that would prove to swing the game. Minutes later, Real had their best attempt off of a long range shot by Wesley Sneijder, forcing Pepe Reina to make his first and what would be his only real save of the night.

Near the end of the half, Raul had a couple of chances that symbolized Real’s futile attempts at goal. He headed over on one and then tried to volley a cross that he should have tried to head. Raul has been a great player for Madrid, but all of the ESPN commentators could talk about tonight was his great performance at Old Trattford 8 years back. Raul’s futility was symbolic of Real’s inability to crack a very stout Liverpool defense (where the hell was van Nistelroy whenh you needed him ?).

The game was sealed for real at the start of the second half. After easily dispossessing the Merengues of the ball, Babel made a cross into the box that Gerrard converted into Liverpool’s third goal. This was not an easy goal to convert but it was classic Gerrard. With the ball taking an awkard hop, Gerrard jumped and contorted his body to be able to short-hop it and root if into the goal past a hapless Casillas. This was the definite knock-out punch with still nearly 45 minutes left to play.

Nearly 30 years ago, when I first discovered soccer while living in Spain, I saw a Barcelona team led by the legendary Johan Cruyff destroy Real Madrid 5-0 at the Nou Camp. It was about as perfect a demonstration of a dismantling of a team as I have ever watched. Tonight, unfortunately for Real Madrid, Liverpool matched that Barcelona effort by totally outclassing the Merengues.