Brazil’s the better friend
Young striker Neymar is the star, leading the Brazilians past the U.S. in friendly match.
BRAZIL 4, U.S. 1
LANDOVER, Md.— The list of Brazilian soccer legends began with the incomparable Pele, who as a 17year led his country to the first of five World Cups in 1958. It has continued, nearly unabated, for half a century.
Now, it’s Neymar’s star turn. The 20-year-old striker, who in his short career has made a habit of scoring goals against the U.S., lived up to his billing Wednesday night with a goal and two assists to lead Brazil to a 4-1 victory over the Americans in front of 67,619 in an international friendly at FedEx Field.
Neymar’s goal came on a penalty kick early in the first half to give Brazil a lead it would never relinquish. But it was his playmaking ability that separated Neymar from his American counterparts, and his team from a group of U.S. players looking to take another step forward under Coach Juergen Klinsmann.
A corner kick from Neymar to Thiago Silva’s head helped give the yellowshirted Brazilians a 2-0 lead.
The U.S. breathed some life back into the match and its fans in the equally divided crowd when Herculez Gomez headed in a goal in the final minute of the first half.
But Neymar set up defender Marcelo again early in the second half to move Brazil back up by two goals.
Taking a neat pass on the end line from Hulk, Neymar made an even more deft feed to a streaking Marcelo to give Brazil a 3-1 lead in the 52nd minute.
Brazil nearly pushed its lead to three goals when Neymar found reserve striker Alexandre Pato in front of defenseless goalkeeper Tim Howard, who had gone to cover the near post against Neymar. But Pato’s shot banged off the same post and was pushed out by the Americans.
The U.S. had another chance when two close-in shots, one by Gomez, and a rebound by Terrence Boyd, were deflected.
Brazil dashed any thought of a late U.S. comeback in the 87th minute when Marcelo lifted a cross to Pato, who this time blasted a low laser past Howard.
Brazil had the first legitimate scoring chance — and quickly scored the first goal.
After Howard went airborne in the seventh minute of the match to stop a 20yard blast from Brazilian striker Hulk, Oguchi Onyewu blocked a point-blank shot inside the box by Leandro Damiao with more than 11minutes gone.
Unfortunately, Onyewu couldn’t get his left elbow out of the way.
The Americans protested that his arm wasn’t extended, but Brazil was awarded a penalty kick. Neymar put the ball into back left corner of the goal as Howard dived to his right.
Twice failing to clear the ball out of the defensive zone, the U.S. watched Brazil nearly score on its first corner kick and then score on its second — a perfectly placed ball from Neymar to the head of Brazil captain Silva, who went unmarked five yards from the American goal. Silva’s header in the 26th minute gave Brazil a 2-0 lead.