Sports

/

ArcaMax

Christian Pulisic's goal gives USMNT historic 1-1 tie against Brazil in final Copa América warm-up game

Jonathan Tannenwald, The Philadelphia Inquirer on

Published in Soccer

Brazil’s opening goal came thanks in no small part to a rather lazy long ball by U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner. After Tim Ream passed back to him, Turner sent the ball long toward Weston McKennie in midfield, but Bruno Guimarães jumped to intercept it.

The rest just took two passes and six seconds: Guimarães’ header to Raphinha, a through ball to Rodrygo that cut the U.S. defense open, and the forward’s run and hit to Turner’s far post from 12 yards.

Pulisic’s equalizer was pretty, and it wasn’t a fluke. He earned the free kick with a cutting run that caused Jõao Gomes to take him down within an inch of the 18-yard box line.

The Hershey, Pa., native has taken some heat from U.S. fans for not being great with free kick deliveries, and that’s been merited. This time, he was inch-perfect. He shot low toward a gap in Brazil’s defensive wall, the opponents jumped, and the ball went past everyone into the net.

Controversy in the second half

Brazil made the only substitution by either team at halftime, Douglas Luiz entering for Gomes in central midfield.

 

The first headline of the second half was an unusual sight. Chris Richards was yellow-carded for tripping Rodrygo in the 51st minute, but a video review ensued. The tape showed Richards got the ball, and rescinded the card and the foul as a whole.

That isn’t supposed to happen. Video reviews are only supposed to catch red card-worthy tackles after the fact, and catch when a card should have been given to a different player. It isn’t supposed to overturn yellow cards.

Berhalter made his first substitutions in the 65th minute, sending in Balogun and Cardoso for Pepi and Gio Reyna. It had to be a good feeling for Cardoso, who was born in north Jersey to Brazilian parents and moved to that country at three months old.

Brazil made a double-substitution at the same time, bringing in two of its young phenoms: 20-year-old Sávio for Raphinha, and 17-year-old soon-to-join-Real Madrid striker Endrick for Guimarães.

...continued

swipe to next page

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus