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The United States enters the 2016 Copa America Centenario with the support of an entire nation behind them, but realistic expectations call for a quarterfinal showing at best. For US manager Jurgen Klinsmann, this tournament represents a glorious opportunity to defy the odds and reach the tournament semifinals.
Standing in the way of the US includes a difficult group containing Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay and a potential quarterfinal matchup against either Brazil or Ecuador.
Such is the quality of the opposition at the Copa America that Jurgen Klinsmann, who won the European Championship with Germany as a player in 1996, declared the tournament of a higher standard than the Euros.
“If you compare this Copa America with these 16 nations, compared to the 24 going into the Euros, then I almost think you have more quality in this Copa America than you have in this diluted, 24-team version of the European Championship,” Klinsmann said.
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This hasn’t stopped Klinsmann from trumpeting his confidence in the squad he’s assembled for the tournament.
“The goal, then, is really to get to the final four,” Klinsmann said. “We want to get to the final four. It’s the biggest tournament since the 1994 World Cup in the United States, and I think as a player you want to jump on that one. You want to make an impression. You want to make it your tournament.”
The postmortem following the 2014 World Cup for the US and Jurgen Klinsmann has been anything but positive. Tempering the feel-good factor surrounding the squad after their Round of 16 defeat to Belgium has been a 2015 Gold Cup elimination at the hand’s of Panama and a disastrous loss to Mexico at the subsequent CONCACAF Cup, eliminating the US from contending the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.
Klinsmann spoke briefly on how major international tournaments affect young players, particularly the spotlight of a World Cup.
“I think all of the players — there are very, very few exceptions probably — all of them had an emotional roller coaster following the World Cup in Brazil,” Klinsmann said. “You get a lot of compliments for what you achieved there, a lot of reactions in your home country. That took a while for a lot of the players to digest and put into perspective going forward again.”
Klinsmann may well have been referencing 2014 World Cup starlets like DeAndre Yedlin, Fabian Johnson, Alejandro Bedoya and Graham Zusi. Each of these players has been selected for the 2016 Copa, and each will be asked to play a vital role in the squad.
Others, like Julian Green and Omar Gonzalez, have been dropped by Klinsmann as he attempts to make an indelible mark upon US soccer this summer.
(H/T: MLS)
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