Nothing says more about the current state of U.S. Soccer than the fact that Friday’s game against lowly St. Vincent and the Grenadines now looms as an important test.
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Klinsmann is now at the nadir of his time with the USMNT, with the team winning just one of its last six games. However, to truly right the ship and rebuild the team’s flagging confidence, the US will need a dominant victory over a country ranked 129th in the world by Federation Internationale de Football Association and one the Americans, ranked 33rd, have never played.
If Jurgen Klinsmann is going to be the head coach of the USMNT at the next World Cup, he needs to show improvement – and immediately.
“You have to water the seeds and watch them grow”, Klinsmann said. “We’ve been bringing these guys along for the a year ago as part of the transition period, and it’s time for them to prove their point”.
“Even with our country’s elections coming up, the people in St. Vincent are more excited for this single game”, said Anderson, who had four goals in 16 matches for S2 in its inaugural season.
“It’s no secret, we know the results haven’t been great for us”, said Guzan. Come Friday night, we win and if we win on Tuesday, all of a sudden everyone is talking a different game an everyone is saying how great we are.
While players refuted the notion that the negative results had any impact on preparation this week, the losses certainly seem to have influenced the player pool called by Klinsmann for the start of the semifinal round, which opens Friday and continues Tuesday on the road against Trinidad and Tobago. We know what it’s like to qualify for World Cups; no one does it better.
The 25-year-old Nagbe is a midfielder for Portland and became a US citizen in September. And if there was any hangover from the poor results, players said this week, it has been filed away and compartmentalized ahead of Friday’s game against St. Vincent and the Grenadines in St. Louis.
Miazga said teammates have been very welcoming for the short time since he arrived.
“I definitely feel like I’ve matured as a player”, he said. Its definitely a step up when you have a bunch of top players around. Klinsmann also left veterans Omar Gonzalez and Clint Dempsey home in favor of younger options, including forwards Bobby Wood and Jordan Morris.
Fabian Johnson is on the roster despite a flap with Klinsmann, who sent the defender back to Germany before an exhibition against Costa Rica last month.
Howard was the American’s starting goalkeeper for seven years through the 2014 World Cup, but then he chose to take a year off from global soccer to rest and spend time with his family.
The US will be facing St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the first time. With qualifying, its a new cycle and a chance to put things right.
Just as Lewis and Clark started here, so does the national team, though the national team’s journey figures to include more airplanes, fewer boats and will cover more miles than Lewis and Clark could have imagined.
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The foul poles were removed to much fanfare earlier in the week, improving sight lines for about 3,000 fans.
