USA vs Brazil: Loss Proves America Is Not Ready to Compete with World's Best

The United States Men's National team didn't embarrass themselves in their 4-1 loss to Brazil, but we learned a few things from the Brazilian's dominant performance.

One of which being that the United States simply doesn't have the talent to compete with Brazil, or any other elite team for that matter.

Yesterday's match wasn't lost because Jurgen Klinsmann was afraid to attack the Brazilian goal, it was lost because the opponent's crop of players is light years ahead of the American squad.

Klinsmann had his players try to beat Brazil at their own game, and it didn't go so swimmingly. It's clear that Mano Menezes' club is full of athletes superior to those on the U.S. roster.

Even though the Americans were able to possess the ball much more than most would think they could against Brazil, guys like Neymar, Marcelo and Alexandre Pato are just too good for the U.S. defenders to cover. That much was evident in Brazil's final three goals, all of which saw unmarked attackers put the ball in the back of the net.

One of the main problems is the accuracy of the United States. The team took 15 shots, but only four were on goal.

The Brazilians were quite the opposite, unleashing 11 shots and putting eight on net. Brazil is much more technically sound, much more flashy, but most of all, much better.

Menezes used his U-23 team for the most part, and while Brazil's U-23 team could beat almost anyone in the world, this was not the full-force Selecao.

Sure, the score could have been much tighter, maybe 4-3 if the U.S. capitalized on some golden opportunities, but it's not a stretch to say the match could have ended 6-1 in favor of Brazil if not for some impressive net minding by Tim Howard.

We saw the typical mistakes that this U.S. team makes in games against the world's best. There was faulty defense, both in terms of Oguchi Onyewu's failure to communicate with his fellow defenders on the second and fourth goals.

Carlos Bocanegra showed again that his age is becoming detrimental to his ability to compete with opponents on the physical end of the game.

Look at the lack of communication from the American back line that led to Brazil's exclamation point on the match. The defense needs to be talking to each other to make sure that doesn't happen, but they failed to do so.

If Tim Howard wasn't in net, this could have been a lot worse, as he made a couple of good saves to keep the Americans in it.

I think we all know why Brazil is better. It's the same reason why the United States is the best basketball country in the world. The youth programs are better run, there's more involvement and the people of the two countries have more passion for the respective sports.

The United States will never have a player on their team like Neymar, let alone two more like Pato and Marcelo. The best the U.S. can offer is nowhere near the best that Brazil can offer. 

We shouldn't expect the Americans to be able to compete with these elite teams, but it's disheartening to see them play well offensively, only to have the defense undermine the effort. But that's what happens when a team is physically overmatched and outclassed.