Confederations Cup: U.S. Soccer Loses to Brazil Despite Dominant First Half

What a disappointment!

Sunday's 2-3 loss at the hands of Brazil in the Confederations Cup final shows exactly why the U.S. men's national team is not yet a dominant player in the soccer world. They don't know how to maintain tempo for an entire game.

They completely dominated in the first half, going up on two beautiful goals. They were possessing the ball well and appeared to have the game well in hand. They were diving in front of balls, making the extra pass, and essentially playing the way they did to beat Spain in the semifinals. 

The second half would prove very, very different.

Brazil came out and showed what it means to be a world soccer power.

They promptly put a goal on the board that totally changed the tide. After that first Brazil goal, the U.S. seemed completely deflated. They weren't running for loose balls, they weren't marking their men, and they showed no sacrifice for the win. 

Give all the credit in the world to Brazilians, who came out and completely dominated the second half. They deserved to win this game, and very few people were surprised that they won. 

But after the first half, there is no way they should have won.

The U.S. players seem to play the way that their fans feel, which is a problem. I like soccer probably more than the next guy, but most people in the states only care about soccer for a month once every four years or so. 

However, when the U.S. wins a game or two that they are not expected to win, all of a sudden they get some attention. ESPN starts talking about them, all of the news programs cover them, and a bashing courtesy of Jim Rome shows that he cares enough to say something.

But then, they let up. America's "we are better than everyone" attitude sets in, and we stop playing hard. There was simply no fight in the U.S. side in the second half. 

For two and a half games (Egypt, Spain, and Sunday's first half), they were pressing the issue, diving in front of balls, and surprise, surprise we were winning. For whatever reason, the Americans stopped doing that.

Even the commentators exhibited this attitude.

After Brazil got their third goal they immediately started talking about how it wasn't a big deal that we lost. The coaches were able to evaluate players, they got to play in the World Cup venues, they BLAH BLAH BLAH!

That is not the type of attitude that will ever win a major event of any kind. Tomorrow you can talk about the good that came out of this eventual loss, not DURING the game!

Let me be very clear: YOU PLAY TO WIN!

If you have any other reasons for showing up on the pitch, you have no business representing my country on the world stage. If you want to take your foot off the gas when you are dominating an admittedly better team, then sit down and let someone else get on the field.

I will say that Landon Donovan has played brilliantly these last few games, and Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard also had great tournaments, but this is a team sport.

As long as this attitude that "nobody expects the US to play well in soccer" resides in the minds of U.S. players, coaches, and even commentators, then we will never stand at the top of the soccer world.