YES WE CAN!
U.S. coach says team can beat Belgium & go on to capture Cup
We have absolutely no fear at all. ... We have the foundation to beat them. Can we do it? Yes we can. I told all the guys, all their flights are to be booked after July 13th.
JURGEN KLINSMANN
aimed at veterans on the team such as Jermaine Jones, Tim Howard, Brad Davis, Kyle Beckerman and Clint Dempsey.
“Especially the players beyond 30, 31, 32,” Klinsmann said. “This might be their last moment in the World Cup. If I’m in that age, I’ve got to say to myself, this is it now. I want them to realize that now. I don’t want them to come up to me afterward and say, ‘Well, you could have told me.’ ”
Klinsmann himself is basking in the glow of relative success, advancement into the second round. Already, there are reports that Galatasaray, a top Turkish side, has an interest in hiring him away from the U.S. job. With a club team like that, Klinsmann might make more money than his current $2.5 million salary, plus bonuses. But he is firmly based in California with his American wife and unlikely to make such a move.
Asked on Friday whether he has been contacted by Galatasaray, Klinsmann dismissed such rumors with a simple “no.” He can’t be sorry that his name is being linked to such happy talk. Twice in the past 16 months he has faced considerable criticism, by American standards.
In February of 2013, after the U.S. was defeated by Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, a report surfaced about possible dissension on the team and resentment by some players of Klinsmann’s methods. Then last month, he stuck his neck way out there by cutting Landon Donovan, a decision that still grates on a lot of fans.
“It’s absolutely no big deal getting criticized, it’s part of the environment,” Klinsmann said. “In Germany, every day you get hammered there. There’s far more respect here.”
Klinsmann is surely right about that — although as soccer’s popularity continues to increase, so will the pressures and condemnations. For now, he is the right coach in the right place. Still the magic man.
He picked inexperienced John Brooks for this roster, against all common wisdom. Then Brooks came off the bench for the winning header against Ghana, the most important play of the first round.
“It’s almost like he can see into the future,” said Beckerman, one of Klinsmann’s biggest supporters on the team.
Right now, Klinsmann sees victory over Belgium, a lengthy stay in Brazil, plane reservations for July 13. And if things go awry? “You can always change your flights,”
he said.