USA’S KLINSMANN WANTS FOCUS ON CUP, THEN COPA
Jurgen Klinsmann has urged his U.S. players to secure safe passage to the next round of World Cup qualifying over the next week to ensure their preparations for the 2018 tournament are not thrown off track.
The coach is determined to claim two wins from the team’s back-to-back games against Guatemala, in Guatemala City on Friday and a home clash in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday.
“We badly want to get the job done,” Klinsmann said.
The coach’s thinking is sound. This summer the USA will host Copa America, a 16-team tournament that includes the strongest teams from South America, such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and the leading lights from the CONCACAF region incorporating North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Copa America, to be staged in the USA as part of the event’s centenary celebrations, is considered one of the most important and competitive tournaments Klinsmann’s team will take part in outside of the World Cup. Booking a place in the next phase of World Cup qualifying before Copa America kicks off in June is paramount.
“I think that it’s hugely important for everyone coming into these Guatemala games to understand this is the last time we meet before Copa America,” Klinsmann said. “This is now the time where you have to show how good you are in terms of you want to make a statement to be on the roster for Copa America. So this is big.
“The competition will be intense. We want them to make their marks, and what better way than six points against Guatemala? This is the message to the players: Show us what you have, because this is about building your case for the Copa America.”
Things have gotten tricky for Klinsmann in regard to the Copa, with the USA being drawn into one of the most difficult groups it could have faced, with matches against Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay in Group A.
Two wins against Guatemala would guarantee another step of progress toward the World Cup in Russia and be enough to place the Americans in the Hex, the CON- CACAF region’s final six-team qualifying round beginning this year.
Clint Dempsey is back with the U.S. squad for the first time in 2016, and Mexico-based duo Edgar Castillo and Omar Gonzalez also have returned to the fold.