Despite being separated by 54 places in the FIFA World Ranking, Canada twice fought back from a goal down before valiantly going down to a 3-2 defeat to Brazil in an international friendly on Saturday evening at Qwest Field.
Featuring three MLS stars in their starting lineup -- goalkeeper Pat Onstad and forward Dwayne De Rosario of the Houston Dynamo and defender Adrian Serioux of FC Dallas -- Canada, which hasn't been to a World Cup since 1986, gave the five-time world champions all they could handle.
"Any time you get an international game, you have to raise your level up," said De Rosario. "The environment demands it, your team demands it and your countrymen demand it."
The first two minutes alone were demanding and had two great chances. First, Canada's Rob Friend broke through the Brazilian defense and was wide open on goal only to be thwarted by the linesman's flag. Seconds later a beautiful diving chest pass from Robinho found Fabiano open in the area, but the Brazilian's first touch let him down.
But it was as early as the fourth minute when Brazil struck. A beautiful move from Robinho split the Canadian defense at the left of the box, and his pass found Diego, who drilled low past Onstad in the Canadian goal.
The Canadian goal came under siege with an overlapping from Maicon. The cross to the far post was nodded wide by Fabiano who really should have done better.
But Canada were not to be perturbed. Almost immediately, Julian de Guzman found Tomasz Radzinski on the left wing. He curled a 30-yard pass over the Brazilian defense to Friend who nodded over Julio Cesar to tie the game at 1-1 in the ninth minute.
The main threat from Brazil continued to come down the flanks, through Maicon on the left and Gilberto on the right.
Serioux was a rock in the center of the Canadian defense, playing as a sweeper as Canada switched to a 3-4-3 when they had the ball, and closing down Fabiano and Robinho when they didn't. De Rosario played behind the towering Rob Friend, and took the role of harassing the Brazilian midfield.
Canada should have taken the lead in the 23rd when Friend found Issey Nakajima-Farran with a through ball that beat the offside trap. Nakajima-Farran had only the goalkeeper to beat, but he chipped over and wide with a miss that will likely give him nightmares for years to come.
De Rosario was involved in one of the best moves of the game in the 32nd as he jinked around the Brazilian left back to find Friend, who dropped the ball back to the wide open de Guzman. But his shot was stopped by Julio Cesar's hand.
"The 'keeper was kind of on top of it already," said a visibly disappointed De Rosario, "I tried to just get a toe and chip it or something, but unfortunately it hit his elbow. These things happen."
A few minutes before halftime, De Rosario broke through the Brazilian defense, picking up a short pass from Friend, only to be thwarted by Julio Cesar.
On the stroke of halftime Brazil broke the deadlock when a cross from Gilberto was met with a thundering header from Luis Fabiano which Onstad could only parry, and the ball spun over the line to make it 2-1.
"I was disappointed," said Onstad. "We gave the ball away, and then they had a good ball in from the right. It was point blank, off my chest. I thought I could get to the rebound but then the player [Fabiano] slid into me and I just couldn't get up and get the second ball."
In the 55th minute, de Guzman tied it at 2-2, with a goal that was worthy of Brazil's best. Friend found him with a pass from the left, before de Guzman beat two players and fired a 25-yard blast into the top left corner.
Moments later, Brazil thought they had recaptured the lead after a nice move left Fabiano open in the middle of the Canadian box. The Brazilian forward found goal but was called offside.
De Guzman turned from hero to villain for Canada in the 64th as he was caught under pressure and sent a poor back pass that Robinho picked up on. The Brazilian faked Onstad to his right with a world-class move and slid the ball past Serioux who tried to clear it off the line.
In the 79th minute De Rosario again had a golden opportunity to tie the score, as he was found open at the top of the box, only to shoot over and wide.
"I thought this was my best chance," he said, "but the surface gave way under me. The surface was very soft, it was picking up in some areas, but both teams played on it, so I'm not going to give that as an excuse."
Clearly showing signs of fatigue, he was immediately substituted for Jamie Peters.
Onstad saved Canada from having the deficit doubled in the 81st. Superstar wundkerkind Alexandre Pato of AC Milan broke through the defense, but Onstad stopped him with a low save.
Despite the defeat Canada were upbeat.
"The thing we're most afraid of," coach Dale Mitchell said, "is that after being up like this, that we aren't ready for our World Cup game [against St. Vincent and the Grenadines]."
"We performed well" said De Rosario. "We could have done better and gotten a win. The way we played was very refreshing."
Added Onstad: "It was fun watching them [Brazil] play for 90 minutes. They're a very talented team, but when we got the ball and went forward, we looked dangerous. We created a lot of opportunities.
"Week in, week out I face MLS strikers, but the difference with this team was the movement. The strikers aren't that much different, but the movement [from Brazil] was phenomenal. It creates a lot of problems defensively for everyone."
Laurence Moroney is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
