South American champions Brazil and their North American counterpart the Untied States came out the Group B survivers making the semifinals of the FIFA Confederations Cup after twin wins of 3-0 on Sunday.
Brazil trashed World Cup winners Italy in Pretoria, while the U.S. beat Egypt in the central South African mining city of Rustenburg.
Egypt, with three points ahead of Sunday's match, made a historic breakthrough on Thursday by upsetting Italy 1-0 in the second round of group matches in the South African economic hub of Johannesburg.
They also staged high-profile performance against Brazil though a penalty at the end of the second half helped Brazil survive in the 4-3 victory on June 15.
Compared with the glory of Egypt, the United States had suffered two consecutive defeats thus far, losing 1-3 to Italy and 0-3 to Brazil.
As U.S. player Landon Donovan had said before the match "soccer is a funny game, anything can happen", The game,however, turned into a stage for the U.S. to showcase their quality at the intercontinental level.
Charlie Davies opened the scoring for the United States in the 21st minute.
After the interval, coach Bob Bradley's son Michael Bradley shot a Clint Dempsey's pass into the far corner of the net in the 63rd minute.
The decisive goal came eight minutes later as Dempsey scored with a pinpoint downward header from a delivery out on the right wing, sending the Egyptians out of the competition despite their strive and fantastic coordination among the players.
Donovan's words were also proved in the match between Brazil and Italy.
Apart from the expectation that it would be a heated match, Brazil produced a stunning display of their prowess by enjoying better possession of the ball in the first half while the Azzurri showed a porous defense from the outset.
In the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, Brazil's blitz of eight minutes was spurred by Luis Fabiano in the 37th minute. The Sevilla striker intercepted a low shot from Maicon on the left and slided the ball into the bottom corner.
Fabiano's second chance came six minutes later. He slot the ball home at the far post after an excellent build-up from Robinho and Kaka.
The third goal was a mistake by Italian defender Andrea Dossena who put the ball past his own goalkeeper when trying to cut out a cross.
Althouth the Azzurri recovered a little in the second half, their efforts to score were all foiled by the saves of Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar in time.
It was a repetition of Brazil's habit of beating Itay. The Selecao Brasileira won their two FIFA World Cup final fuels in 1970 and 1994.
The United States will meet Spain in the semifinals on Wednesday in the central South African city of Bloemfontein, while Brazil will face hosts South Africa in Johannesburg on Thursday.
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2009)
