Football - Brazil won Confederations Cup after Beating USA

The five-time World Cup champion, Brazil, beat USA in an incredible way, after being down 2-0 in the first half. However, the experienced team of Brazil came back with all they got to even the game and then obtained the victory in the final minutes. 

Both teams were criticized for their lack of performance in different parts of the tournament; first it was USA which had a very poor start in the cup, losing the first two matches, and many didn’t even though that they could reach the final. However, they proved everyone that they could compete with the big teams when they beat the European champion Spain in the semifinals. For its part, the defending champion Brazil had a very good start, but then had a very poor game against South Africa in the semifinals, being outplayed by the host team and barely earning the pass to the final with a late goal for a 1-0.

In the final, at the beginning of the match Brazil did not have opportunities in the offense due to the great defense that USA was approaching with the help of his great goalkeeper Tim Howard, whereas USA, in hands of Landon Donovan, got several opportunities to score. At minute 10, a good play of Jonathan Spector, who ran into the right side and sent a low cross into the area which Clint Dempsey accurately touched with his right leg to send the ball straight to the goal, opening the score for USA.

The Brazilians kept trying to find the way to their offense but they didn’t seem to find them. Just 17 minutes later from the opener goal,  the Americans astonished their opponents again when the midfielder Landon Donovan got the ball, ran up the middle, passed to Charlie Davies and then asked the ball back from his teammate to beat the Brazilian goalkeeper and put the score 2-0.

Everyone was surprised for the supremacy of the Americans in the first half, but in the second half things completely changed for them.

The Brazilians entered with aggressiveness and confidence and in the first minute of the second half Luis Fabiano opened the score after turning and shooting in great way with a pass of Ramires.  After that, Brazil kept pushing to get another goal, whereas USA kept fighting in defense and even Howard got to work hard to save some close opportunities from the Samba boys.

Nevertheless at minute 74th, Luis Fabiano scored again after a rebounded kick in the crossbar by Robinho to tie the game 2-2. The game continued in the same pace; Brazil attacking and USA defending but a corner kick for Brazil with just 6 minutes left, gave the Brazilians the victory after captain Lucio headed the ball, beating goalkeeper Tim Howard.

After that goal, the Brazilians just waited for the referee to announce the end of match to celebrate, jumping with joy knowing that they were once again champions of the Confederations Cup and their comeback in the game was a delight. On the other hand, the Americans looked very disappointed and they couldn’t believe that their effort wasn’t enough for the victory.

Landon Donovan expressed his frustration for losing after being so close, but he also recognized the value of his team’s achievement. “This is a massive learning experience. You always hope to do the most learning when you win, but you probably learn more by losing. If we're smart and we take what we should from this game, we can progress. And that's what we're trying to do," said Donovan.

Moreover for Brazil this means a great step to return as a force in the world football and they (the players, coaches and followers) hope they can get better by learning from some of the mistakes committed during this tournament, so they can be ready for the World Cup tournament next year.

The best of lucks for these two countries in their qualification games and we hope they could bring great football to the biggest event of all, the South Africa World Cup 2010.