BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — Kaka converted a controversial 90th-minute penalty kick, and Brazil opened its defense of the Confederations Cup with a 4-3 victory over Egypt on Monday.

The South American champions opened a 3-1 lead on goals by Kaka in the fifth minute, Luis Fabiano in the 12th and Juan in the 37th, overcoming a fifth-minute goal by Mohamed Zidan. But Egypt beat goalkeeper Julio Cesar twice in a minute, tying the score on goals by Mohamed Shawky in the 54th and Zidan in the 55th.
Ahmed Al Muhamadi was ejected for using his arm to block Lucio’s shot on the goal line, and Kaka made the penalty kick. Egypt assistant coach Chawki Gharib said a protest will be filed to FIFA over the decision by English referee Howard Webb’s to award the penalty kick. The Egyptians think Webb made the decision only after the fourth official watched a replay.
“The referee didn’t see the penalty and the linesman didn’t see it either,” Luis Fabiano said. “It looks like the fourth official told him over the radio.”
Zidan was angry.
“We deserved a point today,” he said. “It’s a big shame that we gave the game away in the last two minutes on a penalty.”
Brazil, a five-time World Cup champion, next plays Thursday against the United States, which opened later Monday against Italy.
“Our team is really, really, very tired,” said Brazil coach Dunga, whose team won World Cup qualifiers at Uruguay on June 6 and at home against Paraguay four days later. “With our technical quality we were able to overcome it.”
Brazil, ranked fifth in the world, largely coasted against an opponent 35 places below it.