Brazil's young star Neymar has scored one goal and assisted on another as Brazil has taken a 2-1 halftime lead over the U.S. at FedEx Field.

The five-time world champions went ahead in the 11th minute after Oguchi Onyewu was adjudged to have committed handball after deflecting a shot with his arm while standing in the penalty area. The 20-year-old Santos winger took the resulting penalty and beat Tim Howard low to the goalkeeper's left to put Brazil ahead 1-0.

Brazil doubled its advantage 15 minutes later, and again Neymar was prominent in the scoring, as he provided the cross from a left-wing corner to Thiago Silva, who converted an easy header past Howard from close range.

The U.S. cut their deficit in half just before the 45-minute mark of the first half, as Herculez Gomez nodded a deflected cross from Fabian Johnson into the net from close range.

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