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For about 85 minutes Thursday it looked like lady luck would shine her fortune upon the underdogs for the second consecutive day at the Confederations Cup semifinals. Host South Africa was giving powerhouse Brazil all it could handle, continuously stymieing the five-time world champions all across the field in Johannesburg.Yet it all came crashing down in an instant for the determined Bafana Bafana thanks to a moment of brilliance generated off the foot of Brazil sub Dani Alves, who had only entered the match a few minutes earlier. The Barcelona back curled in a perfect free kick in the 87th minute around the South African wall to push Brazil to a 1-0 victory and a date with the United States in Sunday's final.
For most of the match, Brazil didn't look its usual free-flowing self, as South Africa cut off a lot of space inside the penalty area. Brazil seemed a bit sluggish and certainly less than incisive in the attacking part of the field.
But Alves' nice free kick from the edge of the penalty area saved Brazil any blushes.
And when you're a team with Brazil's pedigree, sometimes that's all it takes to turn an otherwise dreary day into a place in a competition final.
The timing of the goal certainly crushed South Africa and its boisterous fans. Still, the host nation can at least be spirited by its improved play as the Confederations Cup progressed. Barring a soft draw, it'll still be hard for South Africa to progress at next year's World Cup, yet holding Brazil scoreless for 86 minutes is something to build on over the next year.
Suffice to say, the U.S. will have to do its homework defending Brazil from set pieces come Sunday, as they've already scored against the U.S. in this tournament from a dead ball situation in a 3-0 beating suffered last week. Better yet, the U.S. ought to figure out a way to maintain its discipline in the defending third and not give away cheap free kick opportunities.
At least the U.S. will have an extra day of recovery to get its legs back from Wednesday's monumental 2-0 win over top-ranked Spain. U.S. coach Bob Bradley must have been hoping somehow South Africa would hang on for another three minutes, to at least make Brazil play 30 minutes of extra time.
After the win over Spain, plenty of American media outlets went out and labeled it the best win in U.S. history. In three short days, the U.S. might get a chance to rewrite its history once again.
Not to get ahead of things, or drink too much of the hype Kool Aid, but back-to-back wins over Spain and possibly Brazil wouldn't just be the best wins in U.S. history. They'd have to rank right up there with anything in recent world soccer history even if it's only the Confederations Cup.
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