U.S. soccer heads to Brazil on winning note

SAO PAULO – The U.S. headed to Brazil with boosted faith Sunday after going undefeated in its sendoff series for the first time. Playing only its third match in nine months against a World Cup team, the U.S. defense appeared firmer in a 2-1 win over Nigeria following the decision to start both Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman in midfield. And Jozy Altidore broke a six-month scoreless streak for club and country with a pair of goals, including a flashy effort when he cut inside Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo and slotted in a right-footed shot from 12 yards. “This game gives us confidence, but the whole sendoff series should give us confidence,” defender Matt Besler said Saturday night. “It’s been a grind but at the end of the day, we accomplished everything we set out to do, and that’s to get three wins. That’s really all that matters.” The Americans were scheduled to travel from Jacksonville, Florida, to Miami on Sunday, then board a commercial flight for the roughly nine-hour trip to Sao Paulo, South America’s largest city with a population of about 11.3 million. They will base at a downtown hotel and train at Sao Paulo FC, where they tested the facilities in January. Logistically, it will be similar to their downtown stays at Seoul in 2002 and Hamburg, Germany, in 2006. But after having the shortest travel at the 2010 World Cup, where they traveled by bus from their base in Irene, South Africa, to games in Rustenburg, Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Americans have the most distance to cover in the first round – a 9,000-mile odyssey to games in the northeastern cities of Natal and Recife around a trip to the Amazon rain forest state capital of Manaus. Their opener is June 16 against Ghana, a team similar in style to African champion Nigeria. “That’s the reason why we played this game, to kind of hopefully see maybe some of the things that Ghana will do,” Altidore said. “Obviously, it won’t be the same. But we hope we take the things that we did well today to the Ghana game and try to use that to our advantage.” Going by FIFA rankings, the Americans’ Group G was the most difficult to come out of December’s draw. But in the June rankings issued last week, it became the second-toughest with Germany (No. 2), Portugal (No. 4), the U.S. (No. 13) and Ghana (No. 37) adding to 56. Group D was slightly lower at 53, with Uruguay (No. 7), Italy (No. 8), England (No. 10) and Costa Rica (No. 28).