USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter after Brazil draw: ‘We want to be able to beat teams like this’

Just 15 minutes into the U.S. men’s national team’s game against Brazil on Wednesday, a terrible feeling crept into coach Gregg Berhalter’s head.

“Here we go again.”

A loose ball from goalkeeper Matt Turner allowed Raphinha to capitalize on a close-range opportunity in the 17th minute. He walked towards goal before expertly sliding the ball to Rodrygo, who scored from close range to give the visitors the lead at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando. For the second time in four days, the USMNT fell before the 20-minute mark. That was perhaps the only thing Wednesday’s game had in common with the USA’s 5-1 defeat to Colombia on Saturday, as they drew 1-1 with Brazil in their last match before the Copa América.

In the space of four days, Berhalter went from saying his team had a “lack of respect for our opponents and the game of football” to praising their efforts and providing moments of positivity ahead of this summer’s tournament. The coach said he challenged the players to focus on the things they could control after the defeat to Colombia and praised them for sticking to that plan.

“We only asked two things of them,” Berhalter said after the draw against Brazil. “We ask for teamwork and intensity. The way we frame it are two things that are completely within their control, right? things they can control and that’s the kind of effort we saw [Thursday]. The boys certainly delivered on that and that was good… When I saw the guys in the locker room after the game, they were exhausted. They gave everything and that’s all you can ask for.”

The USMNT was the less dominant of the two teams with just 39% possession and taking 12 shots compared to Brazil’s 24, scoring 0.96 expected goals compared to the opponent’s 1.63. They had their moments, however, both in attack, when a late flurry of shots represented the possibility of the USA taking the lead, and in defense, when they stopped Brazil’s wasteful attacking rhythm.

“We feel like we took a small step,” Berhalter said. “Being able to play against an incredibly talented Brazilian team and bend but not break, and I think also cause them problems, put pressure on them… We knew we would have to be compact. We knew we would have to limit the space between them. the lines and we did it very well.”

Few players were more emblematic of Colombia’s comeback than goalkeeper Matt Turner, who played the best game of his national team career against Brazil. He made 11 saves against a top-notch Brazilian attacking unit, the most saves a USMNT goalkeeper has made since Tim Howard’s 15 saves against Belgium in the round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup. ups and downs for Turner, who lost his starting place at Nottingham Forest after making some obvious mistakes and failed to impress against Colombia. Despite the initial mistake against Brazil, the goalkeeper turned things around and was named man of the match.

“He stayed calm and that’s the most important thing,” Berhalter said of Turner’s performance. “He stayed calm. I thought he managed the game well. That was an incident that could have hurt his confidence a little bit, but he responded to it really well. Matt was a guy who wasn’t that happy with his performance in the last game and you could see he came out and played a much better game.”

The result against Brazil inspires confidence in Berhalter’s USMNT, who hope to impress at the World Cup on home soil in two years’ time and are looking to boost their schedule with games against higher-ranked opposition. However, the head coach took a measured approach in his post-game assessment, noting the areas of improvement the team still has.

“I say ‘small step’ because there are still little things we need to fix and this goal is a perfect example,” he said of Rodrygo’s 17th-minute strike. “We aim in the wrong place, we are too open, you don’t kick balls in those areas. You are too exposed. I think we lost the ball too easily in moments when we could keep it like that with these things, we need to improve and keep moving and fixing it.”

There’s also something else that clouds Berhalter’s record. They have just five wins in 19 matches against teams ranked in the top 20, four of them against Mexico and the other in the USMNT’s 1-0 victory over Iran at the 2022 World Cup. years after Berhalter was first hired to coach the team, although performance was encouraging.

The objective, sooner or later, will be to finally overcome this obstacle. This summer’s Copa América will offer a great opportunity for that, first in a group stage match against 15th-placed Uruguay and potentially in the quarterfinals, where the U.S. could face Colombia or Brazil if they advance. Berhalter appears to recognize this too, with the World Cup less than two years away.

“We didn’t get the win, right?” he joked. “We want to be able to beat teams like this.”