Brazil v USA preview: The Seleção seek their second friendly victory in four days

It is exactly one month before Brazil begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against Copa America champions Chile. To prepare for their return to competitive action the Seleção are in Massachusetts where they will play the USA in a friendly fixture. Here is everything you need to know about the two nations before kick off […]
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sambafoot_admin
2015-09-08 15:34:00

It is exactly one month before Brazil begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against Copa America champions Chile. To prepare for their return to competitive action the Seleção are in Massachusetts where they will play the USA in a friendly fixture. Here is everything you need to know about the two nations before kick off tonight at 1am.

Brazil v USA history
The history of this fixture dates back to August 17th 1930 when the USA visited Laranjeiras in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the American team having only minimal experience of the game they contributed to a great spectacle where the Samba men ran out 4-3 winners. Preguinho struck the opening goal for the hosts while Bert Patenaude scored two goals of his own. Patenaude had gained fame earlier that year by becoming the first person to score a hat trick in the World Cup finals.

Since that game another 16 matches between the two sides have taken place with Brazil winning 14 of them and only losing once. A major nemesis to the USA team is Ronaldinho who scored goals against them during matches in 2001, 2003 and 2007. The last meeting between the two sides was on May 30th 2012 when Alexandre Pato was amongst the scorers in a 4-1 Brazil win.

The one victory that the USA can boast in this fixture is a 1-0 win in the semi finals of the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Serbian American, Predag ​​Radosalvjevic, grabbed the winner in that game as the USA eventually finished second in the tournament. Despite this Brazil have had the upper hand in their visits to America with 21 goals to USA’s 6.

Neymar to start?
Brazil fans will be extremely interested to see if star striker Neymar starts after playing only ten minutes during their 1-0 win over Costa Rica four days ago. Neymar has only recently returned from having the mumps which could explain coach Dunga’s reasoning. Despite this, Neymar himself was unhappy to find himself on the bench.
“Being on the bench is not something I’m used to and I’m not willing to get used to it,” Neymar told ESPN. “I want to play and I’m always working to be amongst the start XI.”

Another two players who will be hoping to gain more game time are the two Liverpool players Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino. Coutinho only played 25 minutes against Costa Rica while Firmino didn’t play at all. Hulk will hope he can retain his starting spot after his goal four days ago while Kaka may be given a start after his impressive cameo late on.

Dunga is expected to make some changes with Firmino, Marquinhos, Fabinho and a number of other players yet to experience any game time this week.

Don’t underestimate the USA
Despite their poor record against Brazil the USA will be extremely confident as they have improved immensely over the last two years. Coach Jürgen Klinsmann recently led his side to victory in the Gold Cup and the Americans have often caused larger teams problems under his reign.

The USA often allows the opposition to have plenty of the ball before launching quick counter attacks when they win they do win it back. This tactic has worked in their recent 2-1 win over Peru (43% possession) and their 2-1 win away at Germany in June (44% possession).