Jurgen Klinsmann: 'I'm 1,000 percent sure' U.S. soccer will reach World Cup
But will the Americans reach the World Cup with Klinsmann at the helm?
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1 min read
U.S. men's soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann is full of confidence despite a rough run. He remains confident in what his team can do, and he is convinced the team will reach its goal of making the next World Cup.
Speaking to Reuters, Klinsmann said he is "1,000 percent sure" the team will qualify after a rough start to the hexagonal round of World Cup qualifying. Really, it couldn't have started worse for the Americans, losing to Mexico and Costa Rica. The loss against Mexico was the first WCQ defeat on home soil since 2001, and the 4-0 loss at Costa Rica was just flat-out embarrassing, leaving the team in the cellar of the standings.
But Klinsmann, who is under some serious pressure, has turned the page and has the same expectations.
"It's important to put this in the right perspective," Klinsmann said. "We lost the two opening games and played the two best teams right away. We have eight more games to get the points needed to qualify. We've always reacted strongly when things were nerve-wracking.
"This team is always capable of reacting. We'll correct this with the two games in March [against Honduras and Panama] and we'll take one game at a time from there to get our points. I'm 1,000 percent sure we'll qualify."
There are reasons to believe that. It's so early, and for the 2014 World Cup, Mexico won just two games in the hex and ended up in Brazil for the Cup. The United States will surely win more than two of the remaining matches and should be in good shape.
And just like he said, this team always reacts. Not many expected the team to escape the group at the 2014 World Cup, and it did. A semifinal showing at this past summer's Copa America seemed like a longshot, but they did it.
This team has fought back when needed, and Klinsmann is expecting it to happen again, and there is no shortage in confidence.
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