Brazil 4 US 2 Moral victory???

anytime you give up 4 goals it is not any kind of victory

The ref was horrible. The announcers smartly trashed him. All the calls went against USA, I usually dont blame refs but in this match it was evident he did not like the American team for whatever reason.

Ronaldinho said the US has made great progress in soccer. In fact many believe the score was really 3-2 for the reason you mentioned. The US coach is probably trying to prepare the US for the world cup by actually playing top world cup teams.

wawawiwa wrote:

anytime you give up 4 goals it is not any kind of victory

If you scored 5 goals then I think that would be some kind of victory.

Who was the marketing genius who scheduled this game on the same day as NFL's opening day?

I understand your point but soccer has to stand on its own and quit running from the major sports.

In the days of Kyle Rote Jr the score would have been 6-0. Of coarse that is hardly the point. The US soccer federation wants the US to win the world cup by 2020. Right now the US is happy to be in the FIFA top 15-20. At least we are CONCACAFE champions. Beating Mexico is no small feat. Brazil is just another class altogether. If the bad ref was taken out of the equation the score was really 3-2.

The US national teams best rankings since 1990

2006

Highest - 5th

1993

Lowest - 33rd

Current Ranking - 17th

US soccer fans still have to wait until our team makes it to the next level. The US team is like a talented 3:53 miler that still needs development to chase down Lagat and Webb. Sorry, for the mile analogy. I could not help myself.

If you are the winner then you must be the loser!

i assume you weren't watching the brazilian broadcast

the us wont win shit as long as it has its best players play in mediocre (at best) european clubs

[quote]Dr. Wookie wrote:

A moral victory does not show up in the win and loss column. quote]

How was this a moral victory? Did the US choose not to do something immoral and that choice cost them the game?

Somebody on ESPN did call it a moral victory against Brazil. In the high stakes game of international soccer there is no such thing as a moral victory.

also, about the ref, he missed a penalty call for wolf, when he was clearly fouled, but 10 minutes later called a PK for brazil, a less severe foul

"The referee Benito Armando Archundia. It's annoying to talk about incompetent officiating since it takes away from the game, but there's no question that Archundia had a horrible game. He badly botched the decision not to give the U.S. a penalty when Josh Wolff was hauled down with an open goal in sight and gave a questionable free kick that led to Ronaldinho's goal and Brazil's third. You could even argue that he missed a possible handball call on Carlos Bocanegra's goal as well. This is just the latest travesty of a performance by Archundia, who made a couple of unbelievable decisions over the summer in both the Gold Cup (disallowing Canada's goal against the U.S.) and the Copa America (turning down a blatant penalty for Peru against Venezuela). If there's currently a worse referee than Archundia anywhere on the top level not named Rob Styles, I have yet to see him. "

- Jen Chang ESPN Soccernet

So it basically sounds as if the US really lost 3-2 to Brazil. Not a bad result for the US, but still the fifth loss in a row. This loss makes it the longest US losing streak since 1994. The reason the US ranking is 17th is because they did beat Mexico in the Gold Cup final and started the season 10-1. The five teams they lost to are among the world's very best. Remember the three games they lost in the Copa Cup was the result of the US sending its reserve squad to the tournament.

U.S. Men’s National Team Game Report --

Match-up: USA vs. Brazil

Date: September 9, 2007

Competition: International Friendly

Venue: Soldier Field – Chicago, Illinois

Kickoff: 3 p.m. CT

Attendance: 43,543

Weather: Clear, 76 degrees

Scoring Summary:

1 2 F

USA 1 1 2

BRA 1 3 4

Scoring:

USA – Carlos Bocanegra (Landon Donovan) 21st minute.

BRA – Oguchi Onyewu (own goal) 33.

BRA – Lucio (Ronaldinho) 53.

USA – Clint Dempsey (Steve Cherundolo) 73

BRA – Ronaldinho (unassisted) 75

BRA – Elano (penalty kick) 92+

Kyle Rote Jr wrote:

The ref was horrible. The announcers smartly trashed him. All the calls went against USA, I usually dont blame refs but in this match it was evident he did not like the American team for whatever reason.

Thats only going to continue if the US is horrible to everyone else.

The US is now good at soccer. They are just not great - yet.