The Confederations Cup has had a few surprises for us. First, it was Egypt who stunned everyone and pulled a 1-0 win over World Champions Italy, and now not only the USA has made it to its first final in its history, but also put an end to Spain's impressive unbeaten run since November 2006.

On paper, Spain were undeniably the better team, and looking at the USA performances against Brazil, Italy and Egypt you'd think those folks would have a slim chance against the Euro 2008 winners, but on the field, it was a totally different story.

Josey Altidore opened the scoring in the 27th minute and teammate Clint Dempsey added a second in the 74th minute to kill off the game. Altidore outmuscled Joan Capdevila, his fellow Villarreal teammate, to beat Real Madrid's Iker Casillas. Dempsey scored when he pounced on Landon Donovan's cross, which had bounced off Gerard Pique and the foot of Sergio Ramos.

Spain didn't give up and tried to score but U.S goalie Tim Howard was having one of his best games. One thing I also noticed was that the USA had studied the Spaniards very well and by marking Xavi very strictly they were able to disallow the Spaniards from playing their usual game. 

"We're not used to losing," Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. "We lacked a little of our usual touch. We played a very difficult rival who took us head on."

The USA were better in terms of defending and counter-attacking. The way the second goal was scored is a good way of showing how a counter-attack should be done and most importantly finished.

"It's exciting, a great team effort. To beat an amazing team like Spain and make the final, it's big," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "We played as hard as we could and that's what it took. Every guy contributed, so it's a very good feeling."

The USA team now has a chance to take revenge If Brazil manages to go through to the final if they beat hosts South Africa. The USA were thoroughly outplayed by Brazil in a 3-0 first round meeting, but now have three full days to prepare for the final

"We take a few hours to regroup, but we'll be ready," Bradley said. "We're so excited about this."

The United States had been 1-7-1 against top-ranked teams, beating Brazil in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup and tying Argentina last summer in an exhibition at Giants Stadium. When the U.S. upset Brazil, goalkeeper Kasey Keller had an outstanding game, just as Howard did.

For the U.S, a longtime soccer outsider, this ranked alongside the upset of Brazil as one of their top wins, below victories over England in the 1950 World Cup, Portugal and Mexico in the 2002 World Cup and Colombia in the 1994 World Cup.

Essam El Hadary. 36 years old. He has built his career playing for Al-Ahly with more than 500 appearances between 1996 and 2008 (he now plays for Sion in Switzerland). He's been playing for the Egypt National Team since 1997.  And this "old man" is the one who should take a lot of the credit for tonight's 1-0 win for Egypt over the (not so) World Champions Italy.

As I see it Italy has been playing lately a very old style of their football. An ultra defensive strategy even when they have a better team on paper. Against the United States Giuseppe Rossi came from the bench to rescue the Italians by adding the speed and aggressiveness of the youth and with his skills it was easy to turn the American defenders up and down but against the fast Egyptian defense he had no chances tonight.

At the 40 minute a perfect cross found Mohamed Homos (I can't help but giggle when I say his name) in the box and he jumped high to tap the ball totally out of reach for Gigi Buffon who just watched the ball hit the post and find the back of the net.

Then it was the Egyptian who proved being able to efficiently defend, or maybe it were Italy that was incompetent and didn't have the ability to create intelligent plays to get to the goal they need. And now the Italians need to get a result against Brazil to move to the semifinals of the 2009 Confederations Cup. Not a long ago the Italians got owned by Brazil on a friendly match 2-0 and they will now have to do a much, much, better job if they have any aspirations in this competition.

Egypt only depend on themselves now. A win against the United States and the African Champions and the Faraohs will prove the world that good football can be played anywhere on the planet.

See ya,

~Byron

Brazil beat the USA 3-0 in the second round of Group B in the 2009 Confederations Cup but what I don't really understand is the football presented by the USA. It's more than expected that they would lose to Brazil but being so stupid to believe that going physical against such a technical, skillful squad is a very naive coaching decision to say the least.

I could probably imagine Bob Bradley telling his midfielders to close down on the Brazilians and not to give them any space. In any intelligent football country that would mean "stay on your toes and try not to fall for their tricks. Don't commit yourself but keep them on sight at all times." but for the American Trainwreck Midfielders that means "If they have the ball go hard on them, slide tackle, kick them"... That's exactly what they did.

Instead of trying to get the ball to Landon Donovan as much as much as possible even after Brazil's first goal in the beginning of the match, the USA continued to try the long ball to Altidore - who is a decent striker but has minimum technique for international standards - and with a solid, calm and technical defense Brazil was able to get the ball back easily and then move to those who can create: Kaká and Robinho. The stars also counted on the precious help of Felipe Melo (who scored the first goal) and Ramires who sped up in a counter attack at the 20th to serve Robinho who easily scored the second goal for Brazil.

The game was over there. The United States first real threat only happened around the 50 minutes later, in the second half with a good combination in the attack that ended with Filhabber's shot exploding on the crossbar. But at that point Sacha Klejstan had already got the USA's red card of the day and Maicon had already scored Brazil's goal number 3 (at the 62th) and there was no way the USA was going to be fast and technical as Egypt was to get back at the game.

Brazil gets a deserved win with no suprises this time and the USA will have to try their luck against the good Egyptian team or else come back to North America empty handed (which probably is going to happen).

~Byron

It was not as easy as they thought. Asian champions Iraq managed to shut down most of Spain's offensive attempts and besides the Spaniards didn't show the same efficiency in putting the ball on target as they did against New Zealand. However the best team won. Thanks to David Villa's precise header and Iraq's defense snoozing, Spain can now rest the rest of their main players against South Africa and wait for their opponents in the semifinals of the 2009 Confederations Cup.

During the whole match one could clearly see that the Iraqis were going to set 10 players on defense and try to get something on an occasional counter attack. It almost worked out for them on the 9th minute when Alaa Abdul Zahra got a good shot to test Iker Casillas from 20 yards. 

Spain dominated every section of the pitch with a passing, intelligent ball movement but the finishing was not good today. With a wall if Iraqis planted in front of their box the Spaniards should have done a better job capitalizing their opportunities. 

74minute: David Villa is left open in the box. One defender in front of him and one defender behind on him but none of them closed down when the cross came and the (still) Valencia striker did what he does best - score goals. 

That was it. Spain got the spot in the semis. Iraq still has a chance if they beat New Zealand and South Africa loses to Spain.

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Bernard Parker scores twice for South Africa

The Red Star Belgrade forward reached his 9th international goal in 18 caps after scoring twice tonight to give South Africa a very important win over the weak horrible team of New Zealand. While the eyes were on Everton talented midfielder Steven Pienaar, it was Bernard Parker who snatched the two goals that gave South Africa hopes for a spot in the semifinals of the competition. 

Pienaar was great too. Specially in the second half. He created space, used his skills and I dare to say that every offensive play for the South Africans had his touch on the ball. However, there's is still a long way to go until we can consider South Africa a threat in World or even in the African Continent scenario. 

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Tomorrow we have the second round of matches for the Group B. 

Brazil will face the USA and then it's Italy vs. Egypt. Surprises tomorrow? Hmmm... Let's see what the Egyptians can produce against Italy. And Brazil is definetly my favourinte aginst my neighbours North Americans (sorry pals).

Follow everything here at OleOle Match Centre:

BRAZIL v USA

ITALY v EGYPT

Rossi, De Rossi, Rossi... and Italy gets their win 3-1 against the USA tonight in Pretoria in a match valid for the group B of the 2009 Confederations Cup. 

The USA started the match playing their physical (sometimes way too physical) style maybe trying to frustrate the Italians and it almost worked. Even after the red card seen by USA defender Ricado Clark the North Americans managed to scoop a penalty kick that Landon Donovan perfectly put past Gigi Buffon at the 41st minute. However, the USA stopped there.

The Azzuri came back for the second half decided to play like a World Champion. Well, an Italian world champion let's say: not a lot of creativity but great passing, good distribution and with the Americans sitting with 10 men behind the ball it took two great shots from outside the box to beat Tim Howard and put the Italians ahead of the match. USA-born Giuseppe Rossi scored first at the 58th and Daniele De Rossi the second at the 72nd. 

More fouls, harsh tackles, compaints from both sides and Rossi (who chose the right country to play his football) was still able to find the net at the 94th minute.

Italy played their game in the last 45 minutes and came on top. The North Americans paid the price of being technically weak and unable to defend with the same efficiency they did in the 2006 World Cup when they held a 1-1 draw against this same Italian team.

One last note: the so-called USA star Landon Donovan hid himself from the responsibility the whole game which is not a surprise for anyone. He's the guy who can be decisive in favour of the U.S. Team but only when he feels like. Get a grip Donovan.

See you all on Wednesday for  Spain v. Iraq and South Africa v. New Zealand

 

Five-time World Champions Brazil were supposed expected not to have problems to beat Egypt in today's match of the group B of the 2009 Confederations Cup and after a comfortable 3-1 lead in the first half it seemed that the Brazilians were on the same track as Spain for a slaughter. They just didn't count on the perseverance of the Egyptians.

The second half was a total different game. Egypt came out putting pressure on a over relaxed and complacent Brazilian defense and it paid off for the Faraohs. Two incredible goals, one after the other, and the game were even. The Egyptians then tried to slow the match as much as possible making every foul a cheap drama and irritating the Brazilians.

At the very last minute of the regular time Lúcio's attempt was saved on the goal line by Ahmed Al Muhamadi, who stretched his arm and avoided a certain goal. The only problem was that Al Muhamadi is a defender, not a goalkeeper and Brazil got the penalty kick and Al Muhamadi got a red card. Kaká put the ball in and Brazil got the three points.

Final score: Brazil 4-3 Egypt.

In short. A good match that only proves that Brazil still have a huge problem with getting complacent when facing favourable situations.

Italy and USA is coming next in about two hours and I'll bring the report on that match as well.

You can follow this match at OleOle's Match Centre: USA v. Italy

Cheers,

 ~Byron

Spain, the 2008 European Champions, proved to be still the best national team in the world not because they beat the weak side of New Zealand but mostly because they've displayed the same energy and excellent football shown in the 2008 Euro. Liverpool striker Fernando Torres picked up a hat-trick within 17 minutes and there was nothing the Kiwis could do after that. Cesc Fabregas scored the fouth goal in the 24th minute and David Villa concluded the massacre at the 48th. 

We all know that the Confederations Cup doesn't really represent much in terms of the outcome of the World Cup but it's always a good test for the big teams to see if they are in the right path to fight for a title.  Therefore, good result for the Spaniards to build confidence for a possible semifinal against Brazil or Italy. 

On the other match of the group A, hosts South Africa held a goalless draw against Asian champions Iraq. Not really much to talk about this match as I only read the reviews and they didn't really say much. 

Another good point was to see how happy the people in South Africa appeared to be. Of course the goverment in these poor countries are very good in hiding the ugly and the poor from the camera lenses but I'm not here to discuss politics so I'll stick with the beauty of the celebration of football.

Tomorrow it's time for Brazil v. Egypt and USA v. Italy. Predictions? Yeah, sure, why not? 

Brazil wins 3-0  and USA holds a draw with the Italians 1-1. But let me just remind you guys that I'm terrible at predicting match results.

Hasta luego,

 ~Byron