Tag: US

US KICK OFF

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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.

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

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The head coach of the US national football team, Jurgen Klinsmann, has said that the friendly match against Guatemala is a good opportunity for his players to get into the rhythm before the Gold Cup.

USA will take on Guatemala on Friday at Qualcomm Stadium and just a week after that, they will start their Gold Cup campaign against Belize.

When asked about that friendly game, Klinsmann said, “It’s a great chance for us to have some match practice before such a big tournament. Guatemala is a quality side and playing against them will be a good test for us.”

Guatemala hasn’t been able to qualify for the Gold Cup and the team has to face a lot of criticism for that. So, they might like to prove a point or two against USA.

When asked about the composition of Guatemala side, Klinsmann said, “They have got a lot of young players in their squad. They have a new leader as well and they don’t have anything to lose. So, they will just look to play attacking football and enjoy themselves.”

Klinsmann also warned his players that they shouldn’t be taking Belize lightly in their first match of the Gold Cup.

The American manager said, “Belize is not the strongest team in the world, but, they are very competitive. If you had seen them playing in the qualification, you would have found out that they don’t make things easy for the opposition.”

According to CONCACAF rules, the teams need to submit their preliminary squad one and half months before the start of the Gold Cup.

When asked about that rule, Klinsmann said, “I don’t think it’s a fair rule and I have made the CONCACAF officials aware of that. You don’t know when a certain player will get injured or will lose form. A lot can happen in one and half months.”