USMNT head into Copa América with first-ever draw against Brazil
Christian Pulisic’s free-kick offset Rodrygo’s 17th-minute opener and the United States played out a gritty 1-1 draw against Brazil on Wednesday night in the final warm-up for both teams ahead of the Copa América.
After a humiliating 5-1 loss to Colombia last weekend, the US halted its 11-match losing streak against the Brazilians in a wide-open match. The Americans are now 1-1-18 against Brazil after the draw. Their only win against the Brazilians came in the semi-final of the Concacaf Gold Cup in 1998. The Seleção had 61% possession, beating the USA 24–12 and had a 9–0 advantage in corners.
Matt Turner made 11 saves, the most by an American goalkeeper since Tim Howard’s 15 in the 2-1 last-16 loss to Belgium at the 2014 World Cup.
“It’s obviously a huge rebounding performance for us,” Turner said. “We really faced the setbacks and were able to bounce back a few days later. And in tournaments that is so important, because not every result, not every call goes your way and you have to be able to put things behind you.”
Yunus Musah nearly put the US ahead in the fifth minute with a 25-yard shot that hit the crossbar and ricocheted off goalkeeper Alisson’s back and away from the goal.
Brazil went ahead when Turner’s poor clearance was intercepted by Bruno Guimarães. So Raphinha fed Rodrygo for his sixth international goala smart finish to Turner’s left.
The equalizer came when Pulisic was brought down by João Gomes on the edge of the penalty area and he slid his free-kick through the wall and past Alisson’s right hand for his 29th goal in 68 international appearances.
Turner made up for his mistake in the build-up to the Brazilian goal with excellent stops from Endrick in the 70th, Rodrygo in the 74th and Vinícius Júnior in the 87th. He then punched away Andreas Pereira’s free kick in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Alisson denied Pulisic in the 68th and Brenden Aaronson in the 80th.
USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter made two changes from Saturday’s loss to Colombia, bringing in Ricardo Pepi and Musah for Folarin Balogun and Johnny Cardoso. All eleven starters play for European clubs. Only six of the 154 starting positions have been filled with Major League Soccer players for the 14 games in which the full pool has been available since the 2022 World Cup, including three of the 110 since Berhalter returned as coach.
“We feel like we’ve taken a small step. It’s not a big step, but it’s a small step to be able to play against an incredibly talented team from Brazil and bend but not break and I think they’re going to have problems as well,” Berhalter said.
The US will host this year’s Copa América, opening their campaign against Bolivia on June 23 before playing Panama and Uruguay. Brazil, which last became national champion in 2007, plays group matches against Costa Rica, Paraguay and Colombia.
Wednesday’s match drew a mostly pro-Brazilian crowd of 60,016 to Camping World Stadium, the largest attendance for a U.S. national team match in Florida.