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JOHANNESBURG -- Three quick thoughts after Brazil's come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the U.S. in the Confederations Cup final:

• What a game, what a gut punch. The U.S. could taste its first title in a major international men's soccer tournament, building a shocking 2-0 lead at halftime on highlight-reel goals by Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. But the tone for the second half was set just 41 seconds in when Luís Fabiano started a remarkable three-goal Brazilian comeback. The Americans had an amazing performance, but this has to be the worst kind of pain: when you feel like you had the trophy, only to see it ripped from your hands by a deserving Brazilian rally. Now it's up to the U.S. to build on this Confederations Cup in the next 12 months before the Big One, the World Cup.

• Welcome to soccer, American mainstreamers. Yes, yes, yes, winning this game would have been an even bigger milestone in the development of U.S. soccer as a mainstream sport, but the millions of Yanks who watched this final had to come away with a sense of why the world has such a passion for this sport at the highest levels. What's more, U.S. viewers saw an American team that beat world No. 1 Spain and was fearless against the mighty Brazilians, only for Brazil to show its class in the second half. (Existential angst is also part of the game, as all the newbies no doubt learned in the second half.) In the future, this game may mark the day that the U.S. issued a shot across the bow of international soccer and won millions of new fans at home. Soccer is often a game of killer near-misses. This was one of them.

• Could the U.S. have done more to hold on? Probably. The goal the Americans will regret most has to be the goal by Luís Fabiano 41 seconds into the second half -- a goal that put the U.S. on its heels for the rest of the game. If the U.S. had held the Brazilians for just 15 or 20 minutes to start the second half, the frustration would have set in for the five-time World Cup champions. Instead, the U.S.' confidence appeared to drop, and the attacking chances that were available in the first half dwindled to a trickle. Let's be honest: For a moment or two, it was hard not to imagine the triumphant U.S. players carrying the winner's trophy around the stadium to celebrate the biggest week in the history of U.S. Soccer. Now they'll have to use its absence to motivate them for what could be a very bright future.

What were your thoughts on the game? Please post them below, and check back for more coverage later. I'm headed to the press conference.

Grant Wahl's new book, The Beckham Experiment, comes out on July 14. You can pre-order it here. You can also find him on Twitter.

JOHANNESBURG -- The main story today is the U.S. meeting Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup (2:25 p.m. ET, ESPN, Univisión), the first final in a major tournament in the history of U.S. men's soccer. But there is another developing story here.

Soccer governing body FIFA tells SI.com that it is investigating an alleged incident between U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley and referee Jorge Larrionda that took place after the U.S.'s 2-0 upset of Spain in Wednesday's semifinal, according to FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot.

Larrionda had sent off Bradley in the 87th minute for a tackle on Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso. As a result, Bradley--the son of U.S. coach Bob Bradley--is suspended for today's final.

The Spanish daily AS first reported that Bradley had allegedly confronted Larrionda in the tunnel following the game. But that report had no byline and cited no sources. This is the first time FIFA has confirmed that an investigation is taking place.

"FIFA is looking into the matter and cross-checking all available evidence," Maingot wrote to SI.com in an e-mail message. "Therefore, for the moment, we are not in a position to confirm the nature of the incident."

Maingot did confirm that Larrionda filed a match report after the game, per FIFA policy, but the FIFA spokesman added that as long as the investigation is ongoing, it would not reveal the content of the report.

"A decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee concerning a possible additional match suspension might come in a couple of days," Maingot wrote.

A U.S. Soccer Federation spokesman had no comment.

If Bradley does receive an additional suspension, it could be applied in terms of matches, days or months, according to Article 19 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. If FIFA were to apply such a suspension in terms of matches, it would be unlikely to affect Bradley's availability for the U.S.'s important World Cup qualifier against Mexico on August 12. FIFA suspensions are in effect for official FIFA games, which would include the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup. Bradley is not on the U.S.'s Gold Cup roster, but he could still serve a potential match suspension (if there is one) during those games.

Larrionda, a FIFA referee from Uruguay, also refereed the U.S.'s World Cup 2006 encounter against Italy, in which he sent off three players (including Americans Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope).

Grant Wahl’s new book, The Beckham Experiment, comes out on July 14. You can pre-order it here. You can also find him on Twitter.

Will Jozy Altidore (17) be more potent this time vs. Brazil?
Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG -- You don't get many chances to meet Brazil in the final of the world's third-biggest soccer tournament for national teams (after the World Cup and the European Championship). Which is why the U.S. has a chance to make history on Sunday in the title game of the Confederations Cup (2:25 p.m. ET, ESPN, Univisión), the first final in a major tournament in the history of American men's soccer.

The U.S. has already stunned the soccer world once this week, slaying world No. 1 Spain 2-0 on Wednesday to break the Spaniards' 15-game winning streak and 35-game streak without a loss. It may not have been the biggest win in U.S. history--I'd put it in the top five, if only because this isn't the World Cup -- but I do regard the sinking of the Spanish Armada as the most impressive U.S. win ever.

Why? Several reasons: The U.S. deserved the victory, refusing to play bunker-ball against Spain. The European champion Spaniards had their top squad here (minus only the injured Andrés Iniesta), had acquired a fearsome reputation as the world's best team and had every motivation to win (the streaks, a potential final against Brazil and the awareness that they'd have to stay for the third-place game anyway if they lost).

And yet if the U.S. were to take down Brazil in Sunday's final, I'd consider that an even more impressive victory than the Spanish conquest. If there were such a thing as world power rankings, Brazil would have been No. 2 entering this tournament behind Spain, having risen to the top of South American World Cup qualifying behind the sterling play of superstar midfielder Kaká. With Spain's loss, Brazil would now be No. 1.

What's more, the U.S. will have to face the five-time World Cup champions without starting central midfielder Michael Bradley, who picked up a devastating red card late in the game against Spain and has to sit out. Bradley, the son of coach Bob Bradley, had played a magnificent tournament as the U.S.' holding midfielder, stifling attacks and linking with the U.S.' offensive-minded players. In Bradley's absence, the challenge for the U.S. will be even bigger on Sunday than it was against Spain.

Here are three things on my mind heading into the game:

• Will the U.S. go 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1? Bob Bradley has a tough choice to make. Even the coach has acknowledged that the U.S. seems to play better in a 4-4-2 with Jozy Altidore and Charlie Davies as the two U.S. forwards. But Michael Bradley's loss means the U.S. might want more defensive cover in the midfield to deal with the wide-ranging Kaká, his wing man Ramires and withdrawn forward Robinho, to say nothing of holding midfielders Felipe Melo and Gilberto Silva. That could mean yanking Davies and asking Sacha Kljestan to play alongside Ricardo Clark in the defensive midfield behind an attacking central mid (Benny Feilhaber perhaps?) with Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan on the flanks and Altidore up top.

• Can Benny Feilhaber handle the pressure? No matter which lineup Bradley chooses, Feilhaber is the most likely new addition, and he'll have his hands full (even more so in a 4-4-2, since defense isn't exactly his strong suit). But Feilhaber has had some good moments in this tournament: His passes contributing to goals against Italy, Egypt and Spain revealed a vision that few U.S. players possess. The Brazilian-born Feilhaber seems like a better choice for central midfield than Dempsey, who struggled in that spot in Brazil's 3-0 win over the U.S. on June 18. Besides, Dempsey and Donovan have been dangerous on the flanks of late and could have some space to work with considering the attacking mindsets of Brazilian fullbacks Maicon and Andre Santos (with Dani Alves likely coming off the bench).

• Can the center still hold for the U.S.'s last lines of defense? For all the memorable performances in the Yanks' upset of Spain, the bend-but-don't-break resilience of the U.S. spine was perhaps the most remarkable thing of all. Michael Bradley and Clark barely put a foot wrong, centerbacks Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit made smart plays and last-second recoveries and Tim Howard had a giant game in goal to deny Spain's fearsome lineup of global All-Stars. Those things all have to happen again on Sunday for the U.S. to have a chance, with the added challenge that another player will be filling in for Bradley. Brazil has four primary attackers: Kaká, Robinho, Ramires and center forward Luis Fabiano. (Felipe Melo may venture forward, too.) That's a lot of speed, which means the U.S. will have to guard against Brazil's whooshing counterattacks and prevent the Brazilians from blowing past the Americans' back line.

Through-balls: After picking up three red cards in four games, the U.S. can't afford another one against Brazil, which would put any chance for an upset out the window ... Brazil didn't play great in its 1-0 win over South Africa on Thursday. In fact, Bafana Bafana was able to get some dangerous headers on set pieces, good news for U.S. aerial stalwarts Dempsey, Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra ... If Davies plays, his speed might be able to create some problems for Brazilian center backs Lúcio and Luisão (the likely starter with Juan out injured) ... Brazil's bench is just a wee bit scarier than the U.S.', with European superstars Dani Alves and Alexandre Pato and domestic-based stud forward Nilmar. But I'll be curious to see who Bob Bradley brings on. It could be Davies, Kljestan or Conor Casey, though I have a hard time envisioning DaMarcus Beasley (who had a nightmare against Brazil last week), José Francisco Torres or Freddy Adu (the latter two of which haven't played a minute in this tournament) ... I expect Bocanegra to play at left back again, which might be a good thing, considering Maicon abused Jonathan Bornstein on June 18 ... Couple things to consider: The U.S. will have one more day of rest than Brazil, which could be useful in such a compact tournament, and the temperatures will likely be near freezing (which might slightly favor the U.S.).

How do you see this final playing out? Does the U.S. have a realistic chance to make history? Post your thoughts below, and check back on gameday before, during and after the game...

UPDATE: Check out Jonah Freedman's live blog of USA-Brazil on Sunday, which is scheduled to feature commentary from none other than Frankie Hejduk!

Grant Wahl's new book, The Beckham Experiment, comes out on July 14. You can pre-order it here. You can also find him now on Twitter.

Brazil clearly isn't used to playing in such cold weather.
AP

JOHANNESBURG -- Three thoughts after Brazil's 1-0 win over South Africa in the Confederations Cup semifinals:

• The U.S. can beat this version of Brazil. Give credit to Bafana Bafana for frustrating the Brazilians and keeping this game scoreless until the final minutes before Dani Alves' sick free-kick winner. But South Africa is a pedestrian outfit, and Brazil picked an interesting time to play its least dangerous game of this tournament. If the U.S. can keep playing with confidence (and keep 11 men on the field) in Sunday's final (2:25 p.m. ET, ESPN ESPN2), then we might see a very different game from Brazil's 3-0 beatdown of the Americans on June 18. The fact of the matter was that Aaron Mokoena should have put away his set-piece header inside the six-yard box in the 21st minute, and the U.S. has a few players (Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra) who can convert in that situation. In case you haven't noticed, it has also gotten very cold in South Africa over the last few days, and Brazil's ridiculous turtlenecks reveal a team that isn't entirely comfortable competing in these conditions.

• South Africa can take some pride from its play. For a team that has been criticized mercilessly inside its own country, Bafana Bafana made a good showing on Thursday, and it had dangerous scoring opportunities by Mokoena, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Steven Pienaar. Now that the World Cup stadiums are on the right track and there is zero danger of having the 2010 event moved to another country, the biggest concern here will probably be the quality of South Africa's soccer team. I'm still not convinced that Joel Santana's outfit has what it takes to reach the World Cup second round (as has every host in the history of the tournament), but Bafana is showing a lot more creative flashes than it was a few months ago. Nor will it hurt to have one of the eight top seeds at December's World Cup draw, thus avoiding a grouping with any of the world's (theoretically) seven best teams.

• Let's stop this talk of the U.S. getting a World Cup seed right now. As historic as the U.S.' 2-0 upset of Spain may have been on Wednesday, I don't envision any scenario in which the U.S. would be one of the eight seeded teams at the World Cup draw. The exact formula FIFA will use remains unknown, but it will involve the FIFA rankings and performances in previous World Cups, neither of which bodes well for the U.S. to be considered among the world's top seven teams. What's more, it's time to stop the confusion: There will only be eight seeded teams and no more. The rest of the teams will be grouped in pots by continent.

Do you think the U.S. can shock Brazil in Sunday's final? Post your thoughts below ...

Grant Wahl's new book, The Beckham Experiment, comes out on July 14. You can pre-order it here. You can also find him now on Twitter.

Landon Donovan's U.S. team pulled off an amazing upset.

AP

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa -- On the day the United States stunned the soccer world, forward Landon Donovan awoke to a vision of the future, courtesy of a picture from the past.

It came in an e-mail from his father, Tim. The son opened the attachment, and on his laptop screen there appeared a photograph of the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team celebrating their gold medal at the Lake Placid Olympics.

"It was cool," Donovan said. "He had a premonition."

The Spanish soccer team may not be as villainous as the Cold War-era Russians, but the world's No. 1-ranked fútbol outfit was a more fearsome athletic foe for the U.S. in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup here on Wednesday. Think about it: Spain came into the game as the European champion, a team that had a perfect record in World Cup 2010 qualifying, to say nothing of a 15-game winning streak and a world-record-tying 35-game streak without a loss.

All of which made the Americans' 2-0 upset even more remarkable. The same U.S. team that got outscored a combined 6-1 by Brazil and Italy just a week ago played like men possessed, and the result is something that would have been unthinkable just a few days ago: On Sunday, these upstart Yanks will meet Brazil or South Africa in the first final of a major FIFA tournament in the history of U.S. men's soccer.

Granted, the Confederations Cup is not the World Cup, but it is a competitive tournament featuring some of the world's best teams with all (or nearly all) of their top players. In the annals of American men's soccer, I would rank this victory in the all-time top five:

1. USA beats Mexico 2-0 in second round of 2002 World Cup.

2. USA beats England 1-0 in first round of 1950 World Cup.

3. USA beats Portugal 3-2 in first round of 2002 World Cup.

4. USA beats Colombia 2-1 in first round of 1994 World Cup.

5. USA beats Spain 2-0 in semifinal of 2009 Confederations Cup.

How did the U.S. pull off this historic win? By combining a smart game plan with nearly flawless execution. The Yanks kept Xavi, Spain's peerless playmaker, from sending his usual devastating passes through the U.S. defense. And the U.S. stayed compact defensively, daring the Spaniards to beat them with crosses from the flanks. Meanwhile, the speedy American attackers took their chances with confidence, pushing upfield when they could to keep Spain on its heels.

"We made a special point of trying to close down Xavi as best as we could," said U.S. coach Bob Bradley, "knowing that he gets the ball all the time, and trying to make him play the ball square and backward as much as possible so he couldn't be playing all penetrating passes. We really felt strongly that when we got the ball we needed to be aggressive … We needed to have he confidence that we could keep the ball and move it."

"We did do a very good job of sealing down the middle of the field," Bradley continued. "Most of what they could get would then come through the flanks, but I thought our back line did very well in the center."

Spain had more scoring chances on the night, but it was forward Jozy Altidore who gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute, taking a pass from Man of the Match Clint Dempsey and beating Joan Capdevila (his teammate at Villarreal) before shooting past goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Altidore has Haitian roots, and it was hard not to see a parallel with a historic goal scored by another Haitian-American, Joe Gaetjens, whose goal sunk England 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup--a game still viewed as one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.

"I know that he was a dishwasher and he was going to school part-time, just trying to make it," said Altidore when asked if he knew anything about Gaetjens. "Those are my roots right there."

The U.S. kept its composure after Altidore's strike, too, holding Spain's attack at bay while angling for a second goal. It finally came in the 74th minute, when Dempsey outhustled Sergio Ramos to a ball in the penalty box and put the U.S. up 2-0.

Dempsey had looked exhausted at the start of this tournament and in the Americans' two recent World Cup qualifiers, but in the past two games he has discovered a second wind. And when Dempsey is in form, the U.S. is far more dangerous going forward.

"My body has been a little bit tired since I came back," Dempsey said, "but I'm just trying to fight through it. Now we have a chance to do something special, so you've got to suck it up and dig deep."

"He's been fantastic," Donovan said of Dempsey. "In the two qualifiers he looked a little worn down, and getting here and having some time to rest and not be playing a game for a few days helped him a lot."

At the same time, the U.S. defense was sensational. In his first game of the tournament after recovering from a hamstring injury, Carlos Bocanegra played all 90 minutes at left back. Right back Jonathan Spector had another solid game, and centerbacks Jay DeMerit and Oguchi Onyewu were a tower of strength. Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clark played their best games of the tournament, clogging the central midfield, even though Bradley's late red card means he'll be out for Sunday's final.

"Their defense was fantastic," said Spain's Fernando Torres. "But we created a lot of chances. The difference between them and Spain is they scored two goals and Spain couldn't score with 10 shots on target. So congratulations to them, and we hope the best for them in the final."

Torres acted classier than the rest most of his Spanish teammates did on the field after the final whistle. None Few of the Spanish players stuck around to trade jerseys afterward. "They just walked off the field," said Donovan, who's used to such displays from Mexico. "Whatever. It's not my worry. They're upset. They're going to the third-place game, and they're not used to losing. So I can see why they would be frustrated, but I lose a little respect for them for that."

The question now is whether the U.S. takedown of the world's top-ranked team might cause expectations to change for next year's World Cup. This is the kind of victory, after all, that will draw the attention of mainstream U.S. sports fans, not just soccer fans.

At the same time, don't look for the U.S. players to change the way they view themselves. Not long after he took over the team in 2006, Bob Bradley talked to his players privately about the 1980 U.S. hockey team, noting that none of them were superstars before they made sports history in the Olympics.

It's the kind of approach that Bradley hopes his players will take to the 2010 World Cup. For now, though, it looks like they got a one-year head start. On Sunday, the U.S. has a chance to raise a big golden trophy in a major FIFA final--and to provide its own lasting images of a championship against all the odds.

Why stop with Spain?

Grant Wahl's new book, The Beckham Experiment, comes out on July 14. You can pre-order it here. You can also find him now on Twitter.