U.S. players were convinced that the final result didn’t tell the whole story about their 4-1 loss to Brazil.
“It’s maybe a harsh scoreline, but in the locker room we knowthat it was a lot better than a 4-1 game for us,” said Landon Donovan.
U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard: “I’ve been in some games where 4-1, 4-0 andyou feel you got pasted. Tonight wasn’t one of those games. We were dangerous on set pieces, but at the end of the day we got caught a couple of times and that’s what happens.
“Yeah, there were moments that we were unlucky. We hit the post, their keeper makes some fantastic saves that on another day we put away. Look, you’ve got to call a spade a spade andhold your hands up. Clearly they’re a better team and we had spots where we could have created better opportunities when we had the momentum. But we didn’t do that and we got punished on theother end.”
U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley said, “To be fair to them, they were sharp and they scored the goals, but I think 4-1 was flattering.”