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Soccer

Let's Keep Perspective on US-Brazil Final

Posted Jun 27, 2009 5:57PM By Brian Straus (RSS feed)

Filed Under: U.S. Men's National Team

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The U.S. national team's unexpected victory over top-ranked Spain in Wednesday's Confederations Cup semifinal set off a predictable, but still annoying, flurry of pontification about the growth and relevance of soccer in America.

Mainstream journalists who watch a game or two every four years, political types who wonder if soccer is consistent with American values and sports anchors who asked if a victory in Sunday's final against Brazil would install us as World Cup favorites, all turned up suddenly to offer their well-informed opinions and pile a bit more pressure on Bob Bradley's boys.

The coach and several players admitted they came out "tentative" in the 3-0 group-stage loss to Brazil. Imagine how much more frightened they'd be if they felt the sport's future depended on a single result? Thankfully, the U.S. showed against Egypt and Spain that it can play both aggressively and intelligently while ignoring external distractions and someone else's big picture. A similar approach Sunday could yield a trophy.

"Against Brazil we started the match tentatively, and it led to set pieces and we fell behind. In the last two matches against Egypt and Spain, you saw we started with more energy and more aggressively," Bradley said. "It's important when you step on the field that that balance between positive energy, aggressiveness and intelligence is all there. We've learned from that experience, and now we have a wonderful opportunity to start over against Brazil and make sure that this time the beginning of the match is right for us and we put ourselves in position over the course of the game to come out as champions."

Certainly, the opportunity presented on Sunday in Johannesburg is historic. Never before has a U.S. men's or boys team played in the final of a FIFA competition (excluding futsal). The world will be watching. It offers another crack at Brazil, the sport's masters, who "were already kicking balls in their mothers' tummies," according to their coach and former captain Dunga.

But whether the medals the players bring home are gold or silver, the sport will face the same issues in the U.S. on Monday. Player development, marketing, TV ratings and coaching will continue to lag. MLS clubs will continue to work on building competitive and commercial roots and the current crop of national teamers will continue to work on improving their situations abroad. The haters will still hate and the game will still have a long way to go. A win on Sunday and a poor showing in next summer's World Cup, or vice versa, will give everyone whiplash if they assume that soccer's place in this country depends on any single game, tournament or team. This is a long haul.

"We need to keep it in perspective," said 19-year-old Jozy Altidore of the semifinal upset of Spain. "It is a big win for us. I think anytime, in any sport, when you beat the number one team you get some sort of recognition. But at the same time, we're a humble group, and we know there's still a ways to go in terms of raising our profile in the states."

Said goalkeeper Tim Howard, on what the team has learned in the Confederations Cup: "We can take away the fact that on any given night we have the ability to play with the best team in the world, so long as we stick to what we're good at. That's a vital lesson. It's a vital lesson for the final and for moving forward and playing in other big games."

A win Sunday will not vault us to the sport's upper echelon. Soccer didn't boom after 2002 or die after 1998 or 2006. But as Howard said, the team has, hopefully, learned what it has to do in the meantime to compete on a given day. The U.S. still may be decades from regularly producing world-class players. It has though, after about 25 years of taking the sport seriously, produced the players that could beat Brazil if everything goes exactly right.

Everything went wrong on June 18 when the two teams met in a Group B contest. The Selecao were ahead by two after just 20 minutes, and up a man after an hour. But many of the mistakes that led to those disadvantages are correctable. Felipe Melo's 7th-minute opener came following a questionable refereeing decision and some missed marking on a free kick, while Robinho's 20th-minute dagger followed DaMarcus Beasley's stunning misplay. The U.S. didn't make those mistakes against Spain or Egypt, and also hit the crossbar twice. It is difficult to hold your nerve for 90 minutes and play mistake free against a more talented team. But we now know it's possible.

The loss of Michael Bradley, red carded in the dying minutes against Spain, will hurt. He and Ricardo Clark were outstanding in central midfield and appeared to have developed some chemistry. Bob Bradley said this week that Benny Feilhaber, so instrumental in setting up Clint Dempsey's goal in the semifinal, is the likely replacement. The U.S. will have to replicate the resolute defending it demonstrated on Wednesday -- "We need to close the ball down better, stay tighter and stay more compact. What South Africa did the other night was very good and we can probably learn some lessons from that," Howard said -- but may not be as strong in possession as Bafana Bafana was. Still, possession can be overrated. The U.S. was far more effective attacking at speed against the forward-looking Spaniards than they will be if allowed to keep the ball by a team with time to set up defensively.

"Firstly, we need pure energy. We need to come out and we need to make sure that we make Brazil's jobs difficult," defender Jay DeMerit said. "If you let a team like Brazil play, if you give them time and an opportunity to express themselves, they'll hurt you because that's what they thrive off of. As a unit, like we showed [against Spain] our foundations need to start with making their lives difficult. Then we can express ourselves and we did that against Spain and we definitely need to do that again on Sunday."

And if they do, they could make history. But a win or loss will not define the future. ESPN will cover baseball, NFL players' weightlifting regimens and poker next week. There are qualifiers in the fall, a World Cup next year, and plenty of initiatives both big and small that will continue to chart the sport's course in this country. If the U.S. can focus on Kaka, on each pass and tackle, and not on the big picture, they might be celebrating Sunday night.

Tags: Bob+Bradley, Confederations+Cup, Jozy+Altidore, Tim+Howard, U.S.+national+team

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