What They're Saying: Jurgen Klinsmann
- by Soccer America , Jun 12, 2016
-- U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann on the approach he wants his player take into the knockout stage of the Copa Centenario. Except for wins at the 1995 Copa America and 2002 World Cup over Mexico, the USA has never won a knockout game other than in the Gold Cup. (SI.com)
Left out a big win over then-ranked #1 Spain in the semi-finals of the 2009 Confederations Cup, ending Spain's long winning streak.
Confed Cup is kind of a Mickey Mouse tournament though.
Maybe the fans don't care about it, but from the players perspective winning the Confederation's cup is a big deal.
The US didn't win the match with Mexico in the 1995 Copa America. It ended in a scoreless tie. The US advanced on the penalty shootout tiebreaker. The 2002 win was "dos a cero" against Mexico. So the 2009 win against Spain is unique.
I feel the same way, however on the world stage we are still considered underdogs. That's okay with me too. We do better in that role and in the not so distant future we will become less and less the underdog. Fingers crossed. For us we can't play like Italy yet and sit back and counter then strike. At least not consistently yet. I like the approval he's giving the team, it is what we need.
In the USA Underdog is an overachiever, not a sick puppy :)
If we can make the semi-finals, which in my opinion would be Klinsmann's best accomplishment coming from a Klinsmann critic, that would be a good result for our national team. The Confederacion's Cup is a no joke tournament.