U.S. coach Bruce Arena and goalscorer Clint Mathis from the U.S. locker room after the 2-1 loss to Brazil at the Rose Bowl: U.S. coach Bruce Arena: “I thought that this was a good game today. We were a little undermanned, losing Jeff Agoos this morning to a viral infection and we had to move some players around. But I thought we played a pretty good first half, but fatigue set in. If we could have passed the ball a little better today, we could have given them a better game. Overall I’m very pleased with our effort. It’s been a great week for us, and today it was capped off with a good game and good experience for our players. We played a bunch of young guys, so it is an invaluable experience for us and hopefully it will help us get better.” “We had a lot of players who weren’t available today. We sent about eight of European players home on Thursday. We had some guys injured and others not available because of club commitments, but that is no excuse. We put a competitive team on the field.” On 17-year-old Bobby Convey “He’s a 17-year-old kid. I thought he played well against one of the best right backs in the world in Cafu, and I thought he held his own. Cafu is obviously a great player. I thought Bobby played well for his second international match.” On Landon Donovan “I think Landon learned a little bit today what it is like to play against the big boys. He had a little bit of a tough afternoon, but at times he did well. Their center backs dominated him a little bit physically. He took a knock in the first half, but we couldn’t take him out because we came into the game with only three reserves. He hung in there and for the most part did well. For players like he and Bobby Convey this a great experience.” On Clint Mathis “Mathis playing behind the two front runners did well. It told him at times I think he could have made some better decisions in running with the ball or distributing a little quicker. Overall it was a solid game, a good goal and certainly it has been a good week for Clint.” On lessons from the game “I think playing a little quicker, getting in position a little sooner. Thinking faster. It is very simple, I told them after the game, if we could have passed a little better today we would have been a little more dangerous today. And passing is a component of players moving off the ball and players seeing things a little earlier. I think speed of play you learn in games like this. There aren’t many better players in the world than the ones we faced today, and it was a good experience. … We aren’t stepping out on the field to be a punching bag for Brazil. We are here to compete and give them a hard game.” On the second Brazil goal “Frankie got caught on the touchline there, and the ball got passed him. Wolff got caught tracking that player and Meola came out. I didn’t have a great view from the bench, but Frankie being taken out of the play hurt us, and once he was eliminated it opened up a huge hole on the left side of the field and they took advantage it. And Tony came out and he has to either stand up the player or get a piece of the ball, so once he got the ball across the six-yard box we were in trouble.” Clint Mathis: “It was very enjoyable to come back to the Rose Bowl. I enjoyed my time here with the Galaxy and you couldn’t ask to play a better team in coming back and getting a chance to play against Brazil.” On his goal “Luck. I happened to get through on a pass from Armas. I looked up and saw the goalkeeper at the near post and tried to keep it low and hard to the back post, and I think the heavy grass helped me out a bit by slowing it up and it just tucked into the back post.” “I took a couple of knocks and the legs got a little heavy after playing Mexico a couple of days ago. I definitely was getting tired toward the end of the second half.” On what he learned from playing Brazil “You learn a lot about yourself. We played pretty well, and was a better game than some might have expected. You get a lot of experience from it. … You look at some of the players you are playing against and know that they are playing for some of the top teams in the world. If you are able to get on the field and compete with them, it says a lot about yourself and how much the U.S. is progressing in soccer and that we can compete with the rest of the world.”