Brazil under-20s coach Paulo Victor assesses win over the United States | OneFootball

Paulo Victor during the friendly against the United StatesCredits: Nelson Terme /CBF

Brazil’s Under-20 National Team defeated the United States 2-0 this Thursday (1st) at Pinatar Arena, in San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain. After the match, coach Paulo Victor assessed the team’s performance and divided it into two distinct moments. In the coach’s view, the Americans had more control in the first half, while Brazil managed to correct its problems at halftime and came back better to build the win.

“It was a game of two halves. The first half was completely dominated by our opponent. We created a few situations on the counterattack, but it was a game in which we couldn’t get our defensive system working in terms of pressure, pressing the opponent in their own half. We had much less of the ball than we would have liked,” he said.

Despite the United States’ superiority in possession, Paulo Victor stressed that the team managed to limit the chances created by the opponent. According to him, territorial control did not turn into particularly dangerous attacking production from the Americans.

“The opponent had the upper hand, but they also couldn’t turn that superiority in possession into shots on our goal. I think that also has to be valued,” he said.

At halftime, the coaching staff made adjustments to change the team’s behavior. Paulo Victor also made substitutions during the match, taking into account what the game showed and the limited information available about an opponent that was still little known.

“In the second half we made some adjustments, made some changes related to the game itself. When you come into this kind of match, you know very little about your opponent, you have little information about who your opponent is. Sometimes you prepare one plan and the game presents a different idea, a different plan, and adjustments need to be made along the way. That’s what we did at halftime,” he explained.

The change worked. Brazil began to control the action more in the second half and opened the scoring. In the final stretch, with the United States pushing for an equalizer, Brazil managed to withstand the pressure and found space to seal the match on a counterattack.

“We managed to come back for the second half much better, we dominated the second half, making it 1-0. In the final part of the game, the United States team pushed forward and tried to get their goal, but we also knew how to defend and managed, on a counterattack, to make it 2-0 and kill off the game,” he said.

The victory was Brazil’s second in its series of friendlies in Spain. In the opener, the team beat Denmark 4-1. For Paulo Victor, the matches have fulfilled their purpose of putting the national team up against opponents from different footballing schools and at a high competitive level.

“I think the quality of the opponents we chose to face has been proven. After a very good first game, in my view, against Denmark, today we had ups and downs during the match, especially in the first half,” he said.

The final match will be against Mexico on Sunday (4th). The opponent is the reigning Concacaf champion and, like the United States, has already qualified for the U-20 World Cup.

“It’s another high-level opponent, one that will also impose a very good tempo and intensity for us to test ourselves. They are the current Concacaf champions, already qualified for the World Cup along with the United States. So it’s another high-level game, and from now on we switch our focus to face it and finish our time here in Spain in the best way possible,” Paulo Victor concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.