Christian Pulisic Scored with a brilliant free kick America 1-1 draw with Brazil Both teams prepare to play in this summer’s Copa America on Wednesday night in Orlando, Florida.
The U.S. ended its 11-game losing streak against the Brazilians in the wide-open tournament after last weekend’s 5-1 loss to Colombia. The Americans are now 1-18-1 against Brazil, with their only win coming against Brazil in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals.
After Tim Howard’s 15 in a 2-1 second-round win over Belgium at the 2014 World Cup, Matt Turner had 11 saves, the most by an American goalkeeper.
Among the six guests invited to the Copa America, the United States starts against Bolivia on June 23, then plays Panama and Uruguay. Brazil, who won the South American title in 2007, have played against Costa Rica, Paraguay and Colombia in the first round.
The game drew a pro-Brazilian crowd of 60,016 to Camping World Stadium, the largest attendance for a US national team game in Florida.
Younes Musa put the U.S. ahead in the fifth minute with a 25-minute shot that hit the crossbar and caught the back of goalkeeper Alisson but stayed out of the net.
Brazil went ahead when Turner took a back pass from Tim Ream and sent the ball upfield to Musa who was switching off. Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimaraes fed a cross to Rodrigo for his sixth international goal and intercepted a header towards Rafinha.
Pulisic was brought down by Joao Gomes on the edge of the penalty area and drilled a free kick through the defensive wall and past Alisson’s right hand to score his 29th goal in 68 internationals.
The 17-year-old Endric in the 70th, Rodrigo in the 74th and Vinicius Junior in the 87th all made great plays, then chased down Andreas Pereira’s free kick in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Allison denied Pulisic in the 68th and Brendan Aaronson in the 80th.
The USA used rainbow numbers again for Pride Month, this time with mostly blue on the jerseys with a low white diagonal gradient and a small amount of red on the bottom.
USMNT coach Greg Berhalder made two changes from Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Colombia, adding forwards Ricardo Pepi and Musa for Fowler Balogun and Johnny Cardoso. All 11 starters played for European clubs — including three of 110 since Berhalter returned as coach, leaving only six of the 154 starting positions for the 14 matches from the 2022 World Cup filled by Major League Soccer players.
Jan. 24, 1998 in an exhibition against Sweden, the United States had not played in the former Citrus Bowl since Berhalter made his first international start.
Brazil coach Dorival Jr. replaced 10 of 11 starters from Saturday’s 3-2 win over Mexico.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
