Canada vs USA: Players Who Must Recover from Poor Showing Against Brazil

While the United States showed promise against Brazil, losing 4-1 is never a positive result. But with Canada up next on the friendly schedule, the team should rebound from the loss in a big way.

Well, they should rebound if several players improve upon their poor performances in the Brazil match, that is.

While any back line will struggle against a team of Brazil's stature, several players in the United States defensive third looked particularly overmatched. And one prominent forward wasn't all that great, either.

Let's take a look at the players who need to step it up.

Oguchi Onyewu

While the prominent error of the night for Onyewu was his handball in the box that led to a Neymar goal on a penalty kick, he had a rough night in general, often finding himself out of position and allowing the Brazilians a far too easy entry into the box.

Onyewu can be terribly inconsistent at times and is as prone to a major stinker as he is a solid performance. He won't be under nearly as much pressure against Canada as he was against Brazil, but he needs to step up his play regardless.

Carlos Bocanegra

Fabian Johnson was once of the United States' best players at left-back, and Steve Cherundolo was steady if unspectacular on the right.

But Onyewu and Bocanegra in the middle were a problem.

While Bocanegra is normally a steady presence for the United States team, he and Onyewu simply left too many men unmarked on Brazilian scoring plays. The pair must improve against Canada and, more importantly, as World Cup qualifying begins.

Landon Donovan

Donovan played several beautiful crosses and put his free and corner kicks on the mark for the United States, setting up excellent scoring chances for the United States against Brazil.

Other than that, he was a complete non-factor in the game.

Brazil's left-back, Marcelo, shut out Donovan for the majority of the game and won the one-on-one battles at the edge of the box and out on the wing. Donovan has allowed a mediocre effort every now and again, but he's generally the United States' most consistent player and did net a hat trick in a friendly against Scotland.

That mediocre effort should be behind Donovan now, and he'll need to pick up his game against Canada tonight.

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