The United States men’s soccer team may be all but mathematically through to the final round of World Cup qualifying, but coach Jurgen Klinsmann insists his players will be going all out to beat Trinidad and Tobago in Jacksonville on Tuesday.
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There is a chance, albeit a very remote one, the U.S. national team might not advance to the Hexagonal, CONCACAF’s final round of World Cup qualifying. “We want to finish first in our group in order to get straight into a big one in the Hexagonal”.
Forward Clint Dempsey remains sidelined while undergoing tests for an irregular heartbeat, leaving Bobby Wood to start alongside Jozy Altidore. The U.S. holds an 11-1-2 record against Trinidad in World Cup Qualifying, with the only loss coming in 2008 when the MNT had already advanced to the semifinal round.
“We badly want to win this game”, Klinsmann said.
Tim Howard started in goal, making his 32nd World Cup qualifying appearance and moving past Kasey Keller for the most among American goalkeepers.
With center back Matt Besler heading home from camp to meet his new daughter and right back DeAndre Yedlin serving a one-match suspension after picking up his second yellow card of the semifinal round on Friday at St. Vincent, MNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann will switch things up in defense.
“I tried to pin back Guatemala by bringing on attacking players … and we should have killed off the game”.
Trinidad and Tobago secured its qualification for the Hexagonal with a 2-2 draw at home to Guatemala on Friday.
Pulisic likely will be one of the first players off the bench, a role he welcomes for now. I dont want to change things extensively because I would like to keep some sort of balance but yes youll see some changes. He continued, I think whats more important is to have a good performance on their own personal levels and a good, collective performance as a team because like I said this is sort of the building towards the hex. We have to look at October first. Following Dortmund’s summer additions, Pulisic figures to have even more competition for playing time.
Klinsmann does make a good point when he says that the U.S. doesn’t know if Pulisic will be able to go the full 90 minutes.
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After falling 2-0 to a Jurgen Klinsmann-led Germany side at the opening match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the US exacted some revenge the following February as German-based players Jovan Kirovski, Tony Sanneh and Claudio Reyna all scored first-half goals to earn an emphatic 3-0 victory against Die Mannschaft. Kljestan passed to Pulisic on a give-and-go and the youngster found his teammate on the far post with a well-placed cross that Altidore merely had to tap home for a 3-0 lead. He scored his first professional goal in the Bundesliga in April and then became the USA team’s youngest goal-scorer in the modern era in May. “What you all see is what we see up close on a daily basis”.
