Brazil beat Haiti 3-0 in Philadelphia with Matheus Cunha scoring twice and Vinicius Junior adding a third. The win lifts Carlo Ancelotti's side to the top of Group C and confirms Haiti as the first team out of the World Cup.
Brazil beat Haiti 3-0 in Philadelphia with Matheus Cunha scoring twice and Vinicius Junior adding a third. The win lifts Carlo Ancelotti's side to the top of Group C and confirms Haiti as the first team out of the World Cup.
The opener, on 23 minutes, was not one for the highlight reels. Vinícius drove a shot that Johny Placide could only push out, and Cunha was quickest to the loose ball, bundling it over the line from close range. Scruffy, but they all count.
The second was anything but. Thirteen minutes later, Vinícius threaded Cunha in behind, and the striker met it on his left foot, the finish flashing high past Placide almost before the goalkeeper had set himself. By then Haiti were chasing shadows. Vinícius made it three when he ran onto Lucas Paquetá's lofted pass and slipped the ball through Placide's legs, and the contest, such as it was, was over in the first half.
Haiti did have their moment. Ricardo Adé rose to meet a cross and glanced a header goalward that had a corner of the net in its sights, only for Alisson to throw out a hand and turn it away. It would have been their first World Cup goal in 52 years — since Emmanuel Sanon stunned Italy in 1974. It stayed, agonisingly, at zero.
Ancelotti had promised changes after a flat 1-1 opening draw with Morocco. He brought Cunha in for Igor Thiago and replaced Roger Ibanez with Danilo at right-back. Both calls were vindicated inside the first half.
The Italian had spent the build-up preaching grit over style. "For a team, being resilient is better than being perfect," he said before the game. "It has to be resilient. So, you have to be resilient when things don't go well; you must not give up when things don't go well."
He had also warned that reputations would count for little this summer. "I think that the stars aren't going to determine this World Cup," Ancelotti said. "I've seen underdog teams that play football very well, a high-intensity style of football, and I think it's going to be a World Cup of high-intensity football."
Haiti coach Sebastien Migne had urged his players to embrace the occasion. With 77 places between the nations in the FIFA rankings, the gap showed quickly.
The win moves Brazil to four points and to the summit of Group C, edging Morocco on goal difference. Finish first and they would meet the Group F runners-up in the last 32, likely to be the Netherlands, Japan or Sweden.
For Haiti it is over. A second straight defeat, following a 1-0 loss to Scotland, makes them the first nation eliminated from this tournament. They came close to a first World Cup goal in 52 years through Ade's header, but the chance went begging.
Neymar did not travel as he recovers from an injury, prompting Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva to joke that the forward was "working remotely". Raphinha thought he had opened the scoring early, only to be flagged offside, and later went off injured. Ancelotti turned to 19-year-old Endrick from the bench, whose own goal was ruled out for offside.
Brazil close the group against Scotland in Miami on 24 June. Haiti's tournament ends the same day against Morocco in Atlanta, with only pride at stake.
