Ten-man USA come up short against Kaka and co

Brazil cruised to a 3-0 win over the United States, who for the second game running finished with 10 men, here on Thursday to all but seal their place in the Confederations Cup semi-finals.

Felipe Melo, Robinho and Maicon secured the three points that lift Dunga’s men to the top of Group B with Italy, in action against Egypt in Thursday’s other game, to come on Saturday.

Dunga made four changes to the side that edged Egypt 4-3 in their opener, with defenders Daniel Alves, Juan and Kleber making way for Andre Santos, Maicon and Miranda and in midfield Ramires coming in for Elano.

On the US front, midfielders Marcus DaBeasley and Sacha Kljestan were called up by coach Bob Bradley in place of Ricardo Clark, red-carded in the 3-1 loss to Italy, and Benny Feilhaber.

The clash of champions from the Americas was only seven minutes old when Brazil went ahead.

Maicon floated a perfectly weighted 35-yard free-kick into the box for Melo who out-jumped his marker, West Ham United defender Jonathan Spector, to head past Tim Howard.

Kaka then had what seemed like most of North America on his tail as he set sail for the US goal-line with the ball glued to his feet only for his dash towards Howard’s end to come to nothing as he shot into the side netting.

Down at the other end, US captain Landon Donovan, who scored the penalty against Italy, tapped a corner to DaBeasley but the Rangers midfielder quickly lost possession.

Brazil turned defence into attack in the blink of an eye, with newly-signed Benfica midfielder Ramires bursting through the heart of the US defence and outfoxing Spector before squaring for Robinho to sweep home.

To celebrate the Manchester City striker, perhaps in a world first, cheekily ran over to the advertising hoarding to give a brief interview to a Brazilian television crew – a question of shoot first, answer questions later.

With the US almost in a daze from the Latin onslaught Dunga’s army attacked seemingly at will as Robinho again, Luis Fabiano and Kaka all took pot shots at Howard.

The US came out for the second period only to be subjected to more of the same with Howard forced to pull off a quick reflex save to tip a Kaka shot wide on 56 minutes.

Bradley’s men were finding the going tough but they made it even tougher when Kljestan was sent off for a reckless tackle on Ramires, leaving the CONCACAF Gold Cup winners a man down for the last half hour.

Maicon then got onto the scoresheet after a thrilling four-man move started and ended by the Inter Milan man, who charged in from the right and chipped the ball into the top-left corner via a slight deflection after a couple of subtle touches from Kaka and Ramires had set him free.

Kaka received a standing ovation from the near full Loftus Versfeld stadium when he was replaced by Julio Baptista.

Dunga also took off Luis Fabiano, who appeared annoyed as he had vowed to score a goal in every game here.

The US’s best chances came late on with substitute Feilhaber hitting the underside of Julio Cesar’s crossbar and a Conor Casey header following suit.