Summer warm-ups for battles ahead

After their heroics in the Confederations Cup, the USA hosted the Gold Cup and were brought down to earth in a 2-2 draw with Haiti, but reached the final where they were thrashed 5-0 by Mexico. In the same competition Guadeloupe celebrated a 2-1 victory over Panama, and in group A El Salvador shocked Costa Rica with a 2-1 win, but finished bottom of the group which was won surprisingly by Canada.
Just over a month later Costa Rica suffered another setback losing 4-0 away to Honduras in a World Cup qualifier. Norway enjoyed the same result as they trampled ten-man Scotland in Oslo, and Croatia picked up 3 points with a 3-1 win in Belarus.
In friendly internationals the Republic of Ireland suffered their heaviest home defeat under Trapattoni losing 3-0 to Australia, and Mali were victorious by the same score-line against Burkina Faso in France. Webo scored both goals of the match for Cameroon in Austria while Uruguay lost 1-0 in Algeria. The Cypriot’s visit to Albania ended in a 6-1 defeat while Turkey enjoyed a 3-0 win in Ukraine, and Iran came from behind with late goals to win 3-2 away to Bosnia & Herzegovina. Chile continued to enjoy their lofty position in the football rankings after their 2-1 win in Denmark. September 5th-9th will be a vital period for teams still with a chance of qualifying for next year’s World Cup.

Watch goals from Gold Cup final

Brazil top of the pile

Brazil moved to the top of rankfootball.com after winning the Confederations Cup in South Africa. The opening match that will be remembered for a bizarre miss by the hosts ended with Iraq earning a 0-0 draw, while in the same group Torres bagged a hat-trick as Spain demolished New Zealand 5-0. On the 2nd day Brazil started brightly but Egypt matched them for goals until a last minute penalty scored by Kaka left Egypt with no time to reply and Brazil with a 4-3 victory. Italy laboured to a 3-1 win against USA who were down to 10 men for a large portion of the match. On day 3 a single goal for Spain against a defensive Iraq was enough to see them through, and South Africa got off the mark with 2 goals against New Zealand. Brazil eased past the Americans wit 3 goals on day 4, while Egypt celebrated a 1-0 triumph over world champions Italy. A goalless draw between Iraq and New Zealand saw both teams eliminated from group a, while South Africa joined Spain in the next round despite losing to them by 2-0. On the last day of the group matches an amazing turn of events saw Italy and Egypt head home after The Italians lost 3-0 to Brazil, and Egypt lost by the same score to the plucky Americans. In the semi-final matches USA pulled off a huge shock by defeating Spain 2-0 to reach the final where they would meet Brazil who ended South Africa’s hopes with a goal 2 minutes from time. Spain claimed 3rd place with a win over their hosts in extra time, and Brazil were given a first-half shock by the Americans but came from 2 down to score 3 times in the second half and win the Confederations Cup.
Full reports on all the Confederations Cup matches can be read at footballreporter.co.uk

Watch goals from final in Portuguese.