World champions Italy joined Brazil at the top of Group B after coming from behind to beat 10-man United States 3-1 in an electric Confederations Cup encounter here on Monday.
Landon Donovan put the States into a first half lead only for the Azzurri to hit back after the break with goals from New York-born substitute Giuseppe Rossi and Daniele De Rossi.
USA coach Bob Bradley naturally pointed to Ricardo Clark's red card eight minutes before half-time as a turning point.
"The sending off seemed harsh, for me it was more yellow. To have to play so long down a man was difficult," he said before reflecting on the irony of Rossi's' American connection.
"I've known the Rossi family a long time, Giuseppe's dad coached high school soccer in New Jersey. I certainly hoped that he would have played for us but he made his decision."
Italy coach Marcello Lippi too dwelled on his star substitute's birthplace, smiling: "I was certainly happy tonight Giuseppe was Italian and not American!"
He added: Even though they went a man down it wasn't that easy, they are a strong team but once we found our peace of mind we played with greater lucidity and won, but it wasn't easy.
"Rossi's contribution was significant, he obviously scored a goal seconds after coming on and that helped our mental state."
The state capital's 45,000-seater Loftus Versfeld stadium was three-quarters full with the Tricolor comfortably outnumbering the Stars and Stripes off the pitch and, after Clark's dismissal, on it too.
Lippi was without injured World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, but back on national duty was another World Cup winner, Gennaro Gattuso, fit after a knee injury that had kept him sidelined since Christmas.
Six of Bradley's CONCACAF Gold Cup winners were veterans of the bruising 1-1 draw with Italy at the World Cup in which two US and one Italian were sent off.
Italy, who hadn't lost to the States for 75 years, had the early run of play.
On eight minutes Gianluca Zambrotta lobbed a long ball for Vincenzo Iaquinta to head into the path of Alberto Gilardino only for the Florentina forward's shot to fall safely into the hands of Tim Howard.
Nicola Legrottaglie's diving header in the 20th minute would have posed a greater threat if it hadn't gone wide of the Everton stopper's right post.
Gianluigi Buffon had his first taste of action when Michael Bradley, the US coach's son, burst into the box only for Legrottaglie to take the punch out of his angled shot.
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The US's lone striker, Jozy Altidore, then came calling on the Italian captain but his slide rule pass from the left failed to make it to the waiting Benny Felhaber.
The States went a man down in the 32nd minute after Clark was sent off, arguably harshly, by Chilean referee Pablo Pozo, for a foul on Gattuso triggering heated protests from the men in white.
Soon after the Italians had the ball in the back of the net thanks to US defender Jonathan Bornstein's boot, only for Mauro Camoranesi to be ruled offisde.
The Americans took the lead in the 41st minute when Altidore was felled by Juventus defender Giorgio Chielleni in the box with Pozo pointing immediately to the penalty spot.
Donovan stepped up to do the honours, his country's all-time top scorer slotting home his 40th international goal on his 111th cap.
With their numerical superiority Italy came out for the second half intent on restoring world order against a team ranked 10 places below them in FIFA's rankings.
Lippi brought on striker Rossi for Gattuso and Ricardo Montolivo for Mauro Camoranesi on 57 minutes and seconds later Rossi let loose a 30 metre cannonball which flew past Howard's fingernails to land in the top left hand corner of his net.
Howard had to look lively to punch away a shot from Andrea Pirlo but he had no answer when De Rossi, in the 72nd minute, struck with his right foot from 20 metres, the ball bouncing once on its journey into the bottom right corner.
Rossi rounded off the night with Italy's third in the fourth minute of injury time.
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