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That was slick. I think he had 3-4 guys go up too early, had plenty of room to slide it under.
Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl)5/30/12 7:25 PMBrazil lineup: Rafael Cabral; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Juan, Marcelo; Sandro, Rômulo, Oscar; Neymar, Hulk, Leandro Damião.
WEAK.
Herculez 1 Hulk 0Has there been a comic on this yet?That Hulk guy is a big dude.
Honestly, Gooch, Torres, and Edu all look lost. Gooch looks terrible in every way. Torres almost seems like he doesn't realize they are pressing high but I just think that's the way he plays. Looks great when we have time and space but he is a real liability in games like this. He may end up with another fantastic pass % but he's played the simple ball pretty much every single time and in doing so into a high press has been putting others under enormous pressure over and over. Don't have the chalkboard or anything but it wouldn't entirely shock me if I was told he hasn't played a single forward pass. Certainly he hasn't played one in any sort of creative way. Edu....wtf? I have no idea what role he's trying to play. It appears he's playing a bit higher than Jones/Bradley but he's neither helping on defense nor is he holding or creating anything up top. Think if we are going to play a 1-2 vs a 2-1 in the middle, someone else clearly needs to play that one. I imagine Klinnsman put him there bc he isn't great at holding and it avoids him getting pressured off in the middle but he's useless right now.
The Brazilian keeper must feel great. About as good a debut as you can hope for.
Never really saw him play before. I could not be more impressed. He dominated every phase of the game.
Dirty, dirty player.
He's a great player at both ends, but he is certifiable. The ball he kicked at Cherundolo would be the tip of the iceberg.Nice pressure from the US at the end there, but to be honest the score was pretty fair. US didn't handle the pressure well when it was a game and only when Brazil let off the throttle did we start to find some time and space.'NewlyRetired said:
This is nothing new in soccer. Some of the all time greats have had a screw or two loose. (Gascoigne, Best, Cantona, Stoichkov, Maradona etc).
And I was cursing him at every turn.'NewlyRetired said:
It was as dominant as game by a left back as I have seen in a long time. The guy was every where and totally shut down the right side of the US attack and was involved in a ton of attacks.
I hope so...always been a fan.
Brazil as the home team should and probably will be the prohibitive favorite.After watching this game I'd like to ask that we hire a second coach who knows what the #### a defense is. Offensively they certainly have some flair and should have gotten more than 1 (the Brazil keeper was absolutely superb). I couldn't imagine a worse defensive performance, though. Generally clueless, Gooch holding players on, an almost uncountable number of turnovers in the defensive half. Truly awful. They deserved to get 4 posted on them.
They will have no value there
yeah, probably right.
current odds for the top 10 at Sportsbook:
The pressure on Brazil will be massive.
'prefontaine said:
I mentioned this about Torres against Scotland- he plays the little 2 yard ball that doesn't put his team-mates or his team in better situations way too much. Against Scotland, they had acres of space so it didn't matter the way it did tonight. Obviously, tonight that pass means the guy recieving it has not just his own defender on him, but now Torres' too. I actually like the short-short passing game, but it has to have a purpose- the occasional, or hopefully, regular mid to longer ball into dangerous space helps open it up- otherwise it's far too easy to defend and ends up being completely toothless... and maybe that goes towards what you're saying.
Completely agree with this- unless you're being sarcastic?As a team, the US tried to play the ball- which means to me they're trying to win, not just to not lose. I've seen all of these players have better touch than they did tonight... but obviously all it takes is one missed trap or pass and a high-pressuring team like Brazil is going to hurt you.'PIK95 said:
Some of those guys also seem like complete #####. Which is what I'd call Marcello- crazy, yeah- but an absolute ####### too.
Totally agree Andy.Gooch.
So strange to see him and Boca not on the same page after all these years. But aside from that, it seemed like a pretty typical Gooch performance. Not a lot of skill with the ball at feet, decent tactically (although not really on the night), good in the air and decent tackling. The touch was a bit worse than usual, but other than that 
.And Dolo... I'm a registered fan-boy but either he got very tired very early, or he stopped trying to defend what seemed to me pretty obvious movement from Neymar. How many times did he or Marcello give the ball and go a few yards without getting picked up? Not good.I just talked about Edu- but again, without a first touch, the rest of his game was going to be in trouble. I'm not used to seeing him lack control as badly as he did tonight, so I'm not writing him off at all. A bad game yes, but I still believe in the formation with him sweeping behind Jones and MB. I don't see anybody else that's going to play that... other than speedy-gonzalez-Beckerman.Johnson has been fantastic the last two games. Jones tired, but continues to show his quality- work-rate, consistently good touch, vision and tactical positioning... and steel. MB had an off night but still looked like he belonged on the same field as anybody... just needed somebody to combine with- which started to click when Dempsey came in.And Gomez! Wow... I've not been a fan of his at all in and for the US. But he made consistently great runs all night- and kept making them, even after chasing back on defense- great timing and sense of the field. Fought for balls in the air, did an ok job holding the ball and occasionally trying to take a guy on. For me at least, his performance was a revelation.eta: whoa. hucksy.. is that you? sorry- I read something I agreed with and immediately assumed it was somebody else.
It's tough to see them going down given how young they are and being at home. But there isn't much value there. Euro books have them at +300-+350.Spain or Netherlands are better value IMO, even being far from home.
