Brazil beats Team USA before 77,223 at Meadowlands

A full house of 77,223 gathered for Brazil's 2-0 exhibition victory over the United States last night. But just as enlightening, in terms of soccer's still burgeoning status in America, was the relatively private afternoon ceremony at the same New Meadowlands Stadium in which a handful of the sport's early New World proselytizers were inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Among those honored was Kyle Rote Jr., son of the New York Giants football hero, whose scoring exploits in the prehistoric 1970s made him the original U.S. soccer superstar. "A lot of people in Texas," where he grew up and was headline performer for the NASL's old Dallas Toronado, "couldn't understand why I'd become a communist by playing soccer over football," Rote said.

Last night, Brazil was able to field a virtual junior varsity of young talent, using only three starters who saw significant playing time in last month's World Cup, and still control the match. But, on several levels, the current U.S. national team continues to experience an environment that was unimaginable to Rote and the pioneers who Tuesday joined him in the Hall of Fame: Long Island-raised coach Bruce Arena and naturalized Yanks Thomas Dooley and Predrag Radosavljevic, known as Preki.

As recently as the 1990s, the German-born Dooley recalled, a gathering for a team meal confounded a waitress who heard players speaking Spanish, German, French and Serbian, because the best source of soccer talent was recent immigrants. "Honest to God," Dooley said the waitress at last was told, "this is the U.S. national team."

"In our day," said Kenny Cooper, Rote's old Dallas teammate, "it was immigrants coming here to play. Now we're sending players overseas. I can't think of a better year than 2010 for U.S. soccer. Yes, soccer has arrived. We have arrived."

After last night, the Yanks' still could boast only a single victory in 16 career meetings against Brazil, the sport's superpower. Though the Americans quickly got into the Brazilians' grill, with all-time leading scorer Landon Donovan flashing into the box on an early threat, the Brazilians soon turned the momentum their way.

Neymar scored on a diving header in the 28th minute and Alexandre Pato beat goalkeeper Tim Howard after running onto a nifty pass from Ramires in the 45th. There was an additional handful of near misses, including Robinho's blast off the far post in the 53rd minute.

Still, the massive crowd and U.S. soccer's recognition of its old frontiersmen were evidence of dramatic growth on these shores. Never before could a U.S. loss in the World Cup's second round be considered a disappointment, putting the future of the head coach, Bob Bradley, in limbo.

"This is an incredibly important and joyful time in American soccer," said U.S. Soccer federation president Sunil Gulati, who is heading the committee that is bidding to bring either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup to the United States. "All of us are consumed by the sport, and it's a good time to be consumed by the sport. We are finally getting a little farther than most people thought we could.

"I'm not saying we're making progress. We've been making progress for a long, long time. But you've got to feel there's something special going on when people can't get into a bar to watch a World Cup game on television. And it's all only happening because we can stand on the shoulders of these [Hall of Fame] fellows."