The United States opened a new World Cup cycle with a 2-0 loss to Brazil at MetLife Stadium Friday night.
Matt Lichenstadter
A new World Cup cycle opened Friday night at MetLife Stadium with a familiar result: the United States Men’s National Team on the short end of the scoreline against a more talented team. First half goals from Roberto Firmino and Neymar lifted Brazil to a 2-0 win Friday night in front of an announced crowd of 32,489 clad mostly in Brazil’s famed yellow and blue.
Under Dave Sarachan, the focus for the new look US Men’s National Team has been integrating the future. For all the talent and the promise, there is inexperience, and where there is inexperience, there will be moments where it shows. And while there were plenty of promising moments, they don’t count for much against Brazil. Moral victories can only do so much.
There were promising moments of pressing, passing and individual moments of skill, but in the end Friday night at MetLife Stadium, the gulf of class showed when Brazil in second gear was still able to generate enough chances to punish the US more than once.
“This was a great game for us to play,” said head coach Dave Sarachan. “I think these kinds of games playing against a team like Brazil who is one of the best teams on the planet, it challenges you in ways that will help this group as we move forward.”
Sarachan added that he didn’t think his team was afraid though they had their nervy moments in the first half, but the fact that they have to learn from being punished by a better team is why playing games like this will be helpful in the long run, and it’s easy to understand his perspective.
Wil Trapp and Tyler Adams battle Neymar for the ball Friday night at MetLife Stadium.
The flashes of something bigger were there, from Wil Trapp having one of his best games for the US as the deepest midfielder, to John Brooks’s return offering solidity and a possession-outlet for the US at the back that isn’t often there when he’s absent. Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams both flashed their promise on multiple occasions when pressing Brazil, and when trying to create combinations during their few decent forays forward.
“In CONCACAF we’re not going to be playing against Brazil but still it’s good to play against the best players and best teams in the world and that will really help us in terms our development when the times are tough,” said Wil Trapp. “Giving the ball away at times was an issue, but that’s something that we can address and get better at.”
It wasn’t just a lack of precision in possession that doomed the U.S. Inexperience and poor positional defense also cost the US on the Brazil goals, when Antonee Robinson was beaten clean down the wing by Douglas Costa on Roberto Firmino’s tap in, and later, with the US coming back into the game, Wil Trapp was baited into a challenge on Fabinho which gave Brazil a penalty.
US inexperience also showed in the more static movement for the US when in possession, despite a fairly good workrate off the ball when they didn’t have it. When the US did have their chances, such as early good set piece looks for Brooks and Miazga aerially in the firsthalf and two excellent chances for McKennie off set pieces in the second half, they didn’t take them.
Early in a World Cup cycle, moral victories and chances to play elite teams like Brazil may have some value, especially for young players who haven’t been tested in this way on the international level consistently and will be over the next two months. If this young group is going to reach its potential, whether it be in the Gold Cup next summer, World Cup qualifying or beyond, positive moments against Brazil are not a bad foundation from which to build on. The US nearly equaled Brazil in shots and in quality chances.
“In the first half we didn’t defend or press as a team; it was one at a time. When you press a team like Brazil one at a time, they play out of the back. We have to be compact for as a team for 90 minutes,” said John Brooks, who would wear the captain’s armband for the first time as an international late in the game when Wil Trapp was substituted.
“It’s good to shake some off early mistakes and keep plugging away,” Matt Miazga added. “It shows our resilience, our attitude and our mentality that we have to keep pushing.”
Brazil’s class despite being largely in second gear for most of the night shows just how far this young team has to go.
The Americans still don’t have a full-time manager, or a concrete identity of how to play. Those come with a manager, system, time and reps, and at most, the game against Brazil began the process of getting those reps. Time is not always a friend to building teams in this sport, but the US has the luxury of a little time. They made decent use of it Friday night against one of the best teams in the world, but the result and the balance of play shows just how much longer there is to go.
Still, there is something to build on.
“We’re earning stripes man,” said Trapp. “This is a game where lessons are learned and learned harshly because a team like (Brazil) can punish you and they did. Understanding that we’re only going to get better and improve from playing difficult opponents is important for us.”
“You want to challenge yourself against the best competition in the world, and in the games coming up we’re going to have some big challenges,” said Sarachan. “It forces all of us to look at the player pool, analyze how we can be better, learn from mistakes in these types of games that put you on the back foot rather than the front foot. I’d rather be playing these games than playing a weak team where we’ll get away with our mistakes.”
“There are lessons in losing,” Trapp said. “There are lessons in winning but lessons in losing.”
These young Yanks will be learning plenty in losing to Brazil, and how they build from this will determine their staying power in future games, when the going will certainly be even tougher. They’ll get another shot Tuesday night in Nashville, against rival Mexico.
Matt Lichtenstadter is a freelance journalist based in Philadelphia. He writes special to TYAC. Follow him on Twitter @MattsMusings1.