U.S. Tries To Explain Itself After Brazil Loss

• USSoccer.com , Friday, June 19, 2009 2:45 PM

U.S. coach Bob Bradley and his players assesed their 3-0 Confederations Cup loss to Brazil on Thursday. Obviously, they lamented the early goal conceded and Sasha Kljestan's ejection, but Landon Donovan pointed out Brazil's overall advantage:

"They pass the ball very well. Athletically, even if you do get a chance to get around them and win a ball, they have players who can make plays to get out of situations, and the next thing you know you are chasing them again. As you saw tonight, there's a reason why they are some of the most expensive players in the world."

Coach Bradley said, "We had a very nervous, tentative start to the game. An early goal off a set piece really put us in a difficult situation right from the start. In that regard, Brazil is a difficult team to play against always. But when you go down a goal early, when in some ways you follow that up with a bad play on the corner, and they put a counter together, you've really created as hard a situation as you can have. I certainly still felt that in the second half the chance was there. The start of the second half was better, more lively and more determined. Again, a red card in the second match in a row is very disappointing. At times players are trying to push harder, but in the end make a rash decision and it ends up hurting the team for the rest of the game."

Goalkeeper Tim Howard: "It was a very tough night for us. As you can imagine, I'm disappointed. They are always going to be the better team. For us, it was about trying to come out and give a good showing of ourselves. The best team doesn't always win. Today it did. We were going into tonight with a positive attitude, trying to lick our wounds and pick ourselves up from the Italy game. I think we were overpowered. Sometimes you come up against Goliath, and David doesn't win. That's just the simple facts."

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