The 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup is still too far out to know when, or if, the U.S. women’s national team and Brazil will face off on the global stage — but it almost doesn’t matter.After what transpired on Tuesday night in Brazil’s northeastern region of Fortaleza — with one goal, eight red cards and 55,000 fans — the standard bearers of women’s football in North and South America wrote another fraught chapter to their decades-long history.Whether a preparatory international friendly or a World Cup knockout stage game, any notion of peaceful relations built on mutual respect has gone out the window between these cross-continental rivals. It is always about winning with these two, but now their clashes are a matter of pride and wrestling for control of the narrative.Who deserves to have the last word between the U.S. with four triumphant stars above its crest, and Brazil whose heart beneath beats for the beautiful game?Historically, that privilege has been awarded to the former, despite losing to Brazil 4-0 at the 2007 World Cup semifinals in China. Overall, the USWNT has a 35-5-5 record against the South American champions, but a closer look at their recent meetings — and where those meetings tend to take place — brings more parity to their relationship.The U.S. beat Brazil in Brazil for the first time since 1997 on Tuesday. (Brad Smith / Getty Images)The U.S. have long enjoyed a home field advantage against most of their opponents, but they’ve faltered against Brazil of late even when they’ve played in the U.S. Last year, the two split results in Los Angeles and San Jose, California, with the USWNT taking the first clash with a 2-0 victory before falling to Brazil in the second, a last-minute 2-1 thriller.They’ve also struggled when competing on Brazilian soil. Before this international window, they were 2-2-2 as the visiting side in Brazil, and that split remains essentially unchanged on the other side of it after the two have split results on June 6 and 9.“That’s why I keep leaning into the fact that sometimes we create too many perfect conditions,” Hayes said after the June 6 loss. “We’ve created a culture in our football world in the United States that’s, ‘Well, do we need to do as much of that? Do we do less of this?’“We have got to be tougher in lots of things, and we have got to be more durable, and we’ve got to expose ourselves to the elements of the game.”Last Saturday night, 31,336 people filled the Neo Química Arena and were entertained by a Brazilian comeback victory that was dictated by the utmost physicality and game management tactics that furrowed the eyebrows, but also beautiful moments of football.Tuesday was a different beast: it was larger and louder, courtesy of the 55,744 fans that packed the Arena Castelão for a match that devolved into something akin to a gladiator contest by the final 15 minutes.