United States kicked off the year with a 2-0 triumph against South Korea as Chris Wondolowski scored twice which helped his national team on winning their first match of 2014 as they played at the Stubhub Center in California in February.
Jurgen Klinsmann is the coach of United States and he is one of the main men in charge of preparing his countrymen for their 2014 World Cup matches as they were pitted to go against Ghana, Portugal and Germany.
Despite being placed in a tough group, Klinsmann is expecting to see his team advancing through the knockout stages of the worldwide competition as according to him, United States have matured and are going to give it all in the pitch.
“Our team has matured a lot over the last couple of years and we are going to give them a big, big fight,” he told reporters at a FIFA pre-World Cup workshop on Wednesday. We are expecting to go to the knockout stage that means Germany, Portugal and Ghana will have to fight it out for the other spot from Group G’’.
“We’ve come through a tough qualifying process where we proved our capability. We have a lot of good players,” said the former Germany coach who led his home country to third spot at the 2006 finals’’.
The 2014 World Cup has been heavily critized because of the number of trips that some squads will have to make in order to fulfill all of their scheduled matches but Klinsmann believes that it will not be a problem.
“I think that for a team to travel long distances at the World Cup is not that difficult because you are well taken care of with charter flights and road escorts. It might be more difficult for the fans to go from one place to the other’’. Klinsmann added.
The United States national team face the prospect of a very tough group at the World Cup 2014 after being drawn along with Brazil, Portugal, and Ghana. Portugal and Brazil will undoubtedly be the favourites to qualify from the group, while Ghana will be the likely dark horses. Even though United States have done well in recent major tournaments, they are unlikely to be considered as favourites to qualify for the next stage. Despite this, manager Jurgen Klinsmann has said that he is optimistic about the chances of doing well in Brazil.
Klinsmann says that there are a lot of surprises waiting for the teams in Brazil, which is a huge country. Klinsmann did well with the German national team at the 2006 World Cup, but he says that the playing field is totally different when it comes to 2014. One of the major reasons for such thoughts is the vast nature of the country itself, which will pose climate and logistical challenges for the teams. The North of the country is extremely hot during the month of June, while the south of Brazil is extremely cold.
This is expected to be a huge factor in deciding the outcome of the group stages. Hence, Klinsmann remains confident and optimistic despite the draw.
“I call this tournament the ‘World Cup of Patience’. Because of the Brazilian style of life, there will be a lot of surprises waiting. … It’s not going to be a perfect World Cup for anybody. I’m pretty sure we are going to make it through to the [knockout] round. Nothing will be laid out perfectly. There will be delays and logistical challenges with the hotels, fields, stadiums or whatever,” said the former Tottenham midfielder, who had been linked with a return to his former club after they sacked Andre Villas-Boas.
There have been several rumours over the last few weeks that US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann could take over the Switzerland role after the end of the World Cup. The former Germany manager has been in charge of the US national team for the last few years. He has helped the team qualify for the World Cup 2014 and they are expected to do well this time around. Due to the stellar work that he has done with the US team, he continues to be linked with several national and club management roles.
Switzerland are the latest to be linked with Klinsmann. They will be without the manager after the World Cup 2014 since Ottmar Hitzfeld – their current manager – has revealed that he will step down from his role at the end of the World Cup. Klinsmann has not refuse to rule out of the rumours linking him with the job. Speaking to German tabloid Bild, he has confirmed that there have been several offers on the table for his services, but he is yet to decide on his future. He has confirmed that there have been several clubs interested in bringing the former Tottenham striker to club football.
“I have been receiving several enquiries in recent months. Those enquiries were from Europe-based clubs and from several Football Associations as well. And all of them were about the time after the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” said Klinsmann, whose contract with the US national team runs out of the World Cup. Even though his work has been praised around the world, many of the Americans are not happy with his performance. Klinsmann has introduced a number of Germans into the national team squad by taking advantage of FIFA’s rules.
It is expected that he will announce his decision in the next few weeks.
Former Tottenham player Jurgen Klinsmann has said that he wants to remain as the national team coach of the United States after 2014 as well. The contract of the German comes to an end in the summer. He has been the manager for the last three years during which time he has received plenty of praise and criticism in equal measure. Klinsmann has said that he has so far been doing only the foundation work. Aspects like getting the youth to get connected and educating the coaches are being carried out right now.
He is of the opinion that the U.S. Soccer president is impressed by the work he has done so far. Hence, he has revealed his desire to stay beyond the current contract. US are struggling to qualify for the 2014 World Cup as outright winners of the group. After recent run of good form, they have only a one-point advantage over second placed Costa Rica. The upcoming World Cup qualifiers for the team in October are going to be extremely important since they will be facing Jamaica and Panama.
The recent 3-1 loss to Costa Rica allowed the second place team to close the gap, but the US bounced back straightaway after a 2-0 win over archrivals Mexico.
“A lot of the stuff we’ve done now is foundation work. It’s really just starting to connect the dots that you always talk about in the soccer landscape in the United States: Getting connected to the youth level, to coaches’ education, getting connected really well with MLS. So yeah, that is my interest to continue that work, I’d love to be measured on success. I like that. A lot of the stuff that we laid out and continue now to deepen is happening,” said the manager ahead of the match with Jamaica.
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February 21, 2014 11:34 am | 
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