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#USAvBRA Postgame Quote Sheet
U.S. Men's National Team vs. Brazil
International Friendly
Gillette Stadium - Foxborough, Mass.
Post-Game Quote Sheet
U.S. MNT head coach JURGEN KLINSMANN
On the match:
“In all aspects it’s definitely a lot to take in. The players get a sense for the tempo, their speed of play, their speed of thought and execution. It was very impressive what Brazil did tonight and for us it was a huge learning curve, a huge learning moment for all the players that were on the field and experienced that. I’m not mad at anybody. It was a completely different tempo they set and we couldn’t go that tempo. I thought after halftime we got into a good moment for five minutes there and then comes this penalty. Overall, a huge compliment to Dunga and his team – it was impressive.”
On starting Alejandro Bedoya at holding midfielder and thought process on the substitution:
“Obviously playing Ale in the center there with Jermaine and Michael in front of it is a very good option. He showed that in a couple of other games after the World Cup that he could play inside. He just never caught up with the game. He was literally running after the ball and trying to get involved somehow, but he never connected. You see it and you wait a little bit and then you say maybe it’s better to make a switch there. You explain it to him and you just cross it off then.”
On how the defeat affects the team:
“I’m not concerned, but I want them to watch that game again. We’re going to cut together all sequences of all players and we’ll send it to them so they can watch it on their phones, iPads, whatever. It’s a learning moment, and I think if they understand when to adjust to a higher tempo then there is good stuff we can take out of that lesson. It’s obviously disappointing. It’s a result you don’t want, but you have to swallow that pill.”
On what needs to improve for Mexico:
“We talked about it before the game that we want to step up, we want to close them down. Their movement off the ball is so brilliant. This is the level they play week-in and week-out in their clubs. That’s what we take with us. There’s definitely a lot of sequences that we’re going to show them, and then we have an entire week to prepare for that Mexico game when we get together there in Los Angeles and we will be sharp. By that time I think a couple of players will be in a better physical shape as well. We saw with Jozy it was difficult to repeat the Friday game. It was a heavy field, and he’s just building. Jermaine is building. We have a lot of turnovers that were not necessary. When you make turnovers against Brazil, with their counter break speak, you’re going to suffer. You’re going to suffer a lot.”
On the attack:
“We don’t have Clint Dempsey at 100 percent yet and that’s why we bring in the young players, because we need to give them a run and see where they are. Obviously Jozy in four weeks from now will hopefully be fitter, much fitter than he is now. If Clint is 100 percent, it’s a different thing all together. Then you have these two up front and they’re always a threat. I mentioned before that we desperately try to grow young forwards, but it is what it is. We help them, we give them confidence, we give them a run, but they’re not there yet. It’s definitely a sign: If Clint is not coming in, you get Jordan Morris coming from Stanford and playing Brazil. The kid is doing a wonderful job, but we’ve got to be realistic here as well.”
On his lineup for the Oct. 10 match against Mexico:
“We have a clear picture about the Mexico game. We have to hope that Clint is there, Jozy is on a different level and we have to hope that Fabian Johnson is there. There’s no doubt about it that we need Fabian Johnson as a right back. We have to hope that DaMarcus Beasley is available, even if I think Tim Ream played a very, very solid game on the left flank – a huge compliment to him – but we have a couple of key players that we need to get back on board. I’m optimistic, but I’m not in their training sessions. I follow all the games and they have four weeks time now to catch up whatever they need to catch up. The message is so far positive coming out of Monchengladbach with Fabian, but you never know.”
On why the match was so difficult for his players:
“They’re not used to that. It’s a tempo that’s played in the Champions League. It’s not only the technical tempo where they play one or two touches and then they dribble whenever they think it’s the right moment to dribble. It’s the speed of thought – they’re two thoughts ahead. It’s like you play chess and they’re two moves ahead. That’s that level. We try to catch up as much as we can, and if they turn it on and we make a couple of mistakes like we shouldn’t make, like the penalty, then you get punished.”
On Aron Johannsson and Geoff Cameron:
“Aron was a bit beaten up when he came into camp in Washington. It took him a couple days to catch up and that’s why he wasn’t on the field as much. With Geoff, we can all watch the game again, I think we have center backs that we really believe in. John Brooks couldn’t make it because suddenly he had a muscle issue there coming out of the Peru game. We didn’t want to risk anything, because that’s not the time to risk a guy getting injured again. I think Geoff had a very good second half against Peru and today he had a little bit of trouble.”
U.S. MNT captain MICHAEL BRADLEY
On the result:
“It’s disappointing, there’s no two ways about it. It wasn’t our best night by any means. Obviously when you play against a good team, they make you pay in all the little ways. We’ll look at it and obviously make sure we understand the ways it wasn’t good enough, but we have bigger things and bigger games to come. We’ll move on pretty quickly and get ourselves ready for a big game against Mexico and two big qualifiers.”
“We didn’t think we were the best team in the world when we beat the Netherlands and Germany this year, and we don’t think we’re the worst team in the world now. You always have to maintain a level head and be able to look at things in a reasonable way.”
On being back with the team after missing the Peru game:
“To represent the United States, to play for the National Team never gets old. I don’t ever take it for granted. To have the opportunity on a night like this to put on this jersey is special for sure.”
U.S. MNT goalkeeper BRAD GUZAN
On his thoughts on the match:
“Plain and simple we gave them way too much time on the ball. We never got close to them, we couldn’t close them down, and we couldn’t tackle. The second goal probably finished us, in that sense that when you play a team like Brazil you’ve got to make it hard for them and we never did that from minute one.”
On how the second goal affected the team:
“It’s hard enough when you’re fighting a team like Brazil and you’re playing against a team with their quality. When you go down 2-0, I think the natural reaction is to be disappointed. You have to find a way to carry on because there’s still soccer to be played. You have to find a way to finish the game strong.”
On how the result carries over to the Mexico game:
“I think you guys probably put more of an emphasis on that than we do. I think we’ll probably talk about it tonight, but we’ll move on rather quickly. We have to. It’s not about dwelling on this result. The good thing is it’s a so-called friendly, but it’s disappointing when you lose any game. We have to put this behind us, move on and get ready for October.”
On what the players need to do leading into the Mexico game:
“In terms of what we’re going to want to do in that game, making sure we’re on the same page, that’s going to be important. Understanding what that game means and how massive that is, so that for 90 minutes we can fight and compete and battle and after 90 minutes we can walk off the field and know that we’ve left everything out there. If it goes our way great, and if it doesn’t we can walk away with our heads held high in the sense that we fought until the end.”
On putting things together for October 10 vs. Mexico:
“We’re always confident. We’re confident in our abilities as a team. We have quality individuals. Tonight’s a tough night. You play one of the best teams in world football, and to a certain extent they taught us a lesson. It’s not what we wanted, but we’ll be ready for sure come October.”
U.S. MNT midfielder DANNY WILLIAMS
On the 4-1 defeat to Brazil:
“It was a tough result tonight. I think we couldn’t match with the speed they had up front. We couldn’t deal with it so well. We knew about their players as individuals. They are world-class players. The problem for us is that we conceded a goal in the early stages after 10 minutes. It’s hard to play against a team like Brazil in that situation.”
On his goal in second-half stoppage time:
“I saw it open up and Tim Ream had the ball. I’m delighted to score, especially against Brazil and my first on U.S. soil, but the result I can’t be happy with. We have to analyze what went wrong today, but I think we can take some positives that I saw from the game. We just have to play with a bit more confidence. I think at times we had a bit too much respect for them as well and then you can’t win.”
“Everybody has to be professional. Recovery is going to be key, and we have to analyze the game on what we did wrong today and go from there. Mexico is a very similar team – they have very quick players that are technically gifted and we have to give them a tough game. I think there will be a sold-out crowd at The Rose Bowl, so I’m looking forward to that game. We have to be on top from the first minute, but we also have to do our homework with our clubs, because that’s the most important thing. We have to stay fit, we have to stay healthy and then we can look forward to Mexico.”
