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| USA v Brazil: international friendly – live! | USA v Brazil: international friendly – live! |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 12.44am BST00:44 | |
| PreambleGood evening and welcome to USA vs Brazil — aka “a wonderful benchmark” (© Jürgen Klinsmann). | |
| Klinsmann’s USA team made a start on repairing its reputation after the Gold Cup with a 2-1 win over Peru on Friday night, and now, with the Mexico playoff for the Confederations Cup spot looming next month, the US take on a Brazil team on something of a reconstruction mission of their own. | |
| Brazil may be the only team with a more embarrassing fourth place tournament finish than the USA in recent memory, and they have not exactly set the world on fire in trying to recover from the World Cup debacle. They did beat Costa Rica 1-0 at Red Bull Arena at the weekend though, and while that scoreline might suggest it wasn’t scintillating fare, Brazil did outshoot the Ticos 16-1 on the night, to slightly alter the reputation for dour pragmatism under head coach Dunga. | |
| Brazil do look a little more solid defensively these days, though if they fancy “benchmarking” themselves against the USA team in that regard they might feel positively upbeat — Klinsmann is still tinkering with a backline that currently lacks experience and favored personnel, and the Peru game showed some mixed results in that regard. Both sides may feel attack is the best form of defense tonight — let’s hope so. I like typing things in bold, such as GOAL!, PENALTY! and LUIZPERM! | |
| The US have a few personnel changes even since Friday night — with perhaps the most noteworthy being the return of Michael Bradley from club duty. How he slots in alongside Jermaine Jones, probably at the base of the midfield, should set a lot of the tone for the USA’s performance this evening. Jones grew into Friday’s game while still showing some signs of ring-rustiness after his injury layoff, but this will be a much sterner test. | |
| Anyway, I’ll be back with a little more build up and team news shortly. In the meantime send your tweets to @KidWeil, your emails to graham.parker@theguardian.com, and your air conditioners c/o The Guardian, with predictions, musings, and appropriate benchmarks for overheated liveblogs. | |
| 5.21pm BST17:21 | 5.21pm BST17:21 |
| Graham will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s news of a worthy cause in football: | Graham will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s news of a worthy cause in football: |
| The Roma president, Jim Pallotta, first saw the photo that moved the world on the front of his newspaper last week and his heart dropped. | The Roma president, Jim Pallotta, first saw the photo that moved the world on the front of his newspaper last week and his heart dropped. |
| “To see a three-year-old boy lying [dead] on the beach you just say ‘enough is enough,’” Pallotta said on Tuesday morning from his office in Boston. “If you can’t get affected by that then you can’t get affected by anything.” | “To see a three-year-old boy lying [dead] on the beach you just say ‘enough is enough,’” Pallotta said on Tuesday morning from his office in Boston. “If you can’t get affected by that then you can’t get affected by anything.” |
| Instantly he knew Roma needed to do something to help as refugees fled war in the Middle East, seeking safety in Europe. Discussions with team officials led to an idea: What if football could unite to bring money and support to people arriving in Europe with nothing? They put together a global fundraising effort called “Football Cares” which they hope can bring football teams and leagues into a single organization to collect money for charities working directly with refugees. | Instantly he knew Roma needed to do something to help as refugees fled war in the Middle East, seeking safety in Europe. Discussions with team officials led to an idea: What if football could unite to bring money and support to people arriving in Europe with nothing? They put together a global fundraising effort called “Football Cares” which they hope can bring football teams and leagues into a single organization to collect money for charities working directly with refugees. |
| Click here for the full story. | Click here for the full story. |