Hello!!!! Here are my notes on the match. There are a couple things I will talk about, but will primarily harp on one thing.

Overall, I think the match went well. We saw some new faces, which I love, by the way. Spread the love! and we saw new improved tactics by the U.S.. The U.S. did struggle at times, but overall I think we did alright.

Okay. The big thing I want to harp on: the defensive mistake during the 24th minute, which almost resulted in a Brazil goal. That mistake was Sonnett and Tullis-Joyce colliding when defending against a Brazilian striker…. The same thing happened in the USA vs Japan game in the SheBelieves Cup, except during that game, Japan capitalized on this defensive mistake and scored a goal (Japan’s first goal of that match). We are lucky that the Brazilian striker was incapacitated by this exchange or else it could have been a goal scoring chance for Brazil…

What I wanted to say (and harp on) is that U.S. defenders have to better coordinate their defensive strategy with U.S. goalies. Right now these two positions are not playing together and rather seem to be playing at odds, instead of coordinating and playing off one another. I feel like U.S. defense has a tendency to enter ‘panic mode’ where U.S. defenders and goalies lose all rational thinking and just decide to throw the kitchen sink at the opposing team. I think this specifically happens in situations where an opposing striker is making towards the U.S. goal and the U.S. defense is thin, e.g., only one defender, or only the goalie is between the striker and a shot on goal. I think this is the area that the U.S. has to focus on for the future; coordinating that “last line of defense” so our team doesn’t inadvertently create a goal scoring chance for the other team, e.g., what we almost saw during the 24th minute of this game and what we definitely saw in the game against Japan.

Overall, though I thought U.S. defense performed fairly well. There was good coordination between the defense overall, save for that one mishap during the 24th minute. By the way, as always, Dunn is awesome and McKeown did well too. The newbie who came in at the 80th minute was great too (it was her first USWNT appearance).

Regarding other points. I thought Alyssa Thomspon did well. I thought her passing, vision, and creativity were overall great and I wish the rest of the team was as consistent as she with regard to passing, vision, and ‘pre-planning’. I think the U.S.’s passing and focus waned after scoring their first goal. There were many moment of sloppy passing, or rather errant passes that were not intentional or well thought out. The U.S. also looked kind of tired and also like they were surprised to have received the ball, in moments. Maybe that’s because the Brazilian press was tough and maybe it’s also because of the terrible, dangerous refereeing. Regardless, if the U.S. can up its consistency and focus, especially as the game goes on, that would be excellent.

The refereeing. I’ve said this before, but a yellow card offense is a yellow card offense, regardless of when it occurs in the game, e.g., the first minute or the last minute. I don’t know if refs have been instructed to dismiss penalties early in the match, but that is dangerous and also wrong. Cheating that goes unpunished, e.g., yellow or red card offenses, does affect the match. We really need better refereeing; either through updated training, or updated guidance from U.S. Soccer/ FIFA, or through use of disincentives that punish bad refereeing. Additionally, while I’m glad VAR was used during this International Friendly, “where was the VAR!?” Was it just there for posterity’s sake? Jeez, man. Both sides would have seen benefits from appropriate VAR use, or once again, is there some kind of guidance that’s been given to disparage the appropriate and effective use of VAR? Smh…

Lastly, a bright spot from this match was the U.S.’s use hold up play. Yes!!! I love it!! Cat was great, and it was great to see the U.S. use this strategy effectively. I think we do need more people than just Cat who can use hold up play, as the Brazilians started to be able to anticipate Cat being targeted to get the ball and hold it up for the rest of the team. We need more forwards and midfielders who are able to receive the ball under pressure and hold it for the team and or pivot with the ball, like Cat can do. This would give us more variety and capacity to bring the ball forward into the attacking third, which we struggled with.

Anyway, that’s it! As always, go Team!! and good luck with the next match!!