Christian Pulisic Scored a smart free kick to assist United State In a 1-1 draw with Brazil In Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday evening, as the two teams prepare to play in this summer’s Copa America.
After rebounding from a 5-1 loss to Colombia last weekend, the USA snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Brazilians in a wide-open contest. The Americans are now 1-18-1 with a tie with Brazil, earning their only win in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals.
Matt Turner made 11 saves, the most by an American goalkeeper since Tim Howard made 15 saves in a 2-1 loss to Belgium in the second round of the 2014 World Cup.
Among the six guests invited to Copa America, the United States opens its campaign against Bolivia on June 23, and then plays Panama and Uruguay. Brazil, which last won the South American title in 2007, will play in the first round against Costa Rica, Paraguay and Colombia.
The match attracted a mostly pro-Brazil crowd of 60,016 to Camping World Stadium, the largest attendance for a US national team match in Florida.
Younes Moussa almost put the United States ahead in the fifth minute with a shot from 25 yards that hit the crossbar and bounced off goalkeeper Alisson’s back, but remained outside the net.
Brazil took the lead when Turner received a back pass from Tim Ream and sent the ball to Musa, who was moving away. A header towards Rafinha was intercepted by Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, who fed Rodrigio with a diagonal pass to score his sixth international goal, firing an 8-yard shot past Turner.
Pulisic was pulled down by Joao Gomez on the edge of the penalty area and curled a free-kick through the defensive wall and past Alisson’s right hand for his 29th goal in 68 international appearances.
Turner made excellent saves from 17-year-old Endrik in the 70th minute, Rodrigo in the 74th minute and Vinicius Junior in the 87th minute, and then tipped away a free-kick from Andreas Pereira in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Alisson was denied by Pulisic in the 68th minute and Brenden Aaronson in the 80th minute.
The United States once again used rainbow numbers for Pride Month, this time on shirts that were largely blue with a low white slash and a small amount of red at the bottom.
USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter made two changes from Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Colombia, bringing in striker Ricardo Pepe and Musah for Folarin Balogun and Johnny Cardoso. All 11 starters have played for European clubs – just six of the 154 spots filled by MLS players in the 14 games the full squad has been available since the 2022 World Cup, including three of the 110 since Berhalter returned as coach.
The United States has not played in the former Citrus Bowl since Berhalter made his first international start in an exhibition against Sweden on January 24, 1998.
Brazil coach Dorival Junior changed 10 of his 11 starting players after Saturday’s 3-2 win over Mexico, leaving Alisson as the only substitute.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.