Textos Mastigados: USA 2-3 Brazil

Tempo de leitura: menos de 1 minuto

Ulisses Wehby de Carvalho

O Brasil ganhou dos Estados Unidos por 3 a 2 e venceu, pela terceira vez, a Copa das Confederações da FIFA. Disso você provavelmente já sabia. O que você talvez ainda não saiba é que, ao usar a língua inglesa para obter informação sobre um assunto de seu interesse, você aumenta muito as chances de aprimorar seus conhecimentos em um processo natural e indolor. Já escrevi sobre esse assunto em “Com prazer fica bem melhor” e em “Exposição“.

Leia com atenção o texto da BBC abaixo, que relata lance a lance tudo o que aconteceu na final de domingo. Boa leitura e bom divertimento!

by Phil Dawkes

Brazil denied the USA another shock victory by coming back from two goals down to win the Confederations Cup.

A Clint Dempsey flick [toque, desvio] and a Landon Donovan strike [tiro, arremate] on the counter [no contra-ataque] put the USA into a surprise 2-0 half-time [intervalo] lead [vantagem].

Luis Fabiano pulled one back [descontou] for Brazil before Kaka was denied an equaliser [(gol de) empate] when his header [cabeçada] was wrongly judged not to have crossed the line.

Luis Fabiano’s headed second levelled matters [empatou] before, five minutes from time [a cinco minutos do final], Lucio nodded [cabeceou, testou, cumprimentou (inf.)] in a corner to win it.

After upsetting the odds [contrariar as expectativas] so spectacularly with their 2-0 semi-final victory over Spain, the USA almost tore up the script [aprontou (inf.); rasgou o roteiro (lit.)] again, against opponents who had beaten them 3-0 in the group stage of the competition.

Predictably, favourites Brazil had the lion’s share [a parte do leão] of possession [posse (de bola)], but the incisive football was played by the American underdogs [zebra] throughout the first half.

Indeed, with their first attack the USA scored.

Jonathan Spector launched a cross [cruzamento] from deep at Dempsey, whose swinging volley [giro, voleio] made the faintest of touches [toque sutil] to direct the ball past Julio Cesar.

Even at such an early stage, it was clear that Brazil were waiting for one of their leading lights [expoentes, astros] to create something from nothing [criar algo num passe de mágica, num lance de criatividade] as opposed to taking collective responsibility.

Three times their star-turn Kaka created chances for others, firstly Robinho, then Felipe Melo and finally Maicon, but each time American goalkeeper Tim Howard was equal [defendeu, esteve à altura (lit.)] to the final shot.

After 25 minutes, Brazil were made to pay for their profligacy [prodigalidade, extravagância] as the USA launched a superb counter-attack which resulted in a superb second goal.

Donovan found Charlie Davies on the left wing [ponta esquerda], whose incisive return pass found Donovan in space and bearing down on [se aproximando] goal but still with plenty to do.

The striker‘s [atacante] touch took him away from the covering Ramires and his next touch was a perfectly placed side-foot shot past Cesar.

With seconds remaining in the half Brazil almost clawed back [conseguiu descontar] what would have been a barely [pouco; mal] merited goal when Maicon got round the back of the American defence, but his cross was deflected away [desviado] from the lurking [que esperava; à espreita (lit.)] Fabiano by Carlos Bocanegra.

Barely a minute into the second half, the dynamic of the game changed as Felipe Melo fed [tocou, deu um passe; alimentou (lit.)] Luis Fabiano, who swivelled sharply [girou rapidamente] and shot past Howard.

With the momentum now in their favour, Brazil attacked with regularity and were mistakenly denied parity [empate; paridade (lit.)] on the hour [aos 15 min do segundo tempo] as Kaka’s far post [segunda trave; segundo pau] header from an Andre Santos cross was pushed clear by Howard, but replays showed that the ball had crossed the line.

Luis Fabiano had a chance to equalise when he was played in on goal [foi deixado na cara do gol] by substitute Elano – and played onside by Oguchi Onyewu [Oguchi Onyewu dava condições de jogo] – but Howard was quick off his line [saiu do gol rapidamente] to smother [abafar] the ball before the striker could shoot.

With 15 minutes to go Luis Fabiano did pull his side level [conseguiu o empate para sua equipe].

Kaka drove in [penetrou] from the left and crossed for Robinho whose shot hit the underside of the bar [travessão] but bounced nicely [sobrou] for Luis Fabiano who made no mistake in nodding the ball past the diving [que saltava] Howard.

With Brazil now in the ascendancy, the USA were unable to hold out [segurar o ímpeto (do Brasil)], and five minutes from time the turnaround [virada] was complete.

Elano’s outswinging [com efeito, com curva] corner was met by the unmarked [desmarcado] Lucio and his powerful header struck the inside of Howard’s right-hand post [trave direita] on its way in to break American hearts.