With the US national team’s annual January camp in the rearview mirror, head coach Jurgen Klinsmann said it’s time for his group to set their sights on bigger and better things.
Friendlies against European stalwarts Denmark and Switzerland just more than a month away, CONCACAF Gold Cup later this year, Copa America in 2016, qualifying for 2017’s FIFA Confederations Cup; they’re all on Klinsmann’s radar as the USMNT look to completely close the book on last summer’s World Cup.
And, most of all, Klinsmann expects his team to pull out of their post-Brazil funk that manifested in the form of just two wins in their last 10 matches after splitting friendlies with a loss to Chile and win over Panama from the recently completed camp.
“There was a natural drop by a lot of players because the World Cup, this biggest thing you can play in your career,” Klinsmann said in video provided by U.S. Soccer. “So for whatever reason we had a drop in many areas and paid some results for that. I think we’re going to kind of come out of that little valley and pick it back up because obviously now we have another goal on the horizon with winning the Gold Cup, qualifying for the Confederations Cup in Russia in 2017 this is huge. … And with the fact that we’re going to host Copa America in 2016.”
Overall, Klinsmann said there were “a lot, a lot” of positives from the camp, which included a mostly MLS-based group with a mixture of youngsters who are readying for Olympic qualifying. He said there were also a handful of players who put themselves in the senior-team conversation moving forward.
Now, he said, it will be about convening with only the best players for the remainder of 2015, with European and Mexican league players back in the mix, as the Denmark and Switzerland friendlies approach.
“You can pull your best team,” Klinsmann said. “Now going forward for the rest of the year, I have that freedom to pull the best players and call them and really start to get things fine tuned because we want to win the Gold Cup.”
Specifically, Klinsmann said he will be able to get his “regular back four” back together. Against Chile and throughout the camp, Klinsmann experimented with a three-man backline anchored by converted New England Revolution midfielder Jermaine Jones.
“You know, get them games together and fine tune things and get your hierarchy together,” he said. “That’s what all the other nations in the world always do. When the national team meets, it’s only the best of the best that come in. It’s not the extended portion of their program. So that’s really the positive side now looking forward and having the best guys coming into Denmark and into Switzerland.”
As for next year’s January camp, Klinsmann reinforced comments made earlier that he foresees it changing to one that features the program’s younger players rather than a mix.
“I see it was an Olympic team national camp; I don’t see it as a senior team national camp because hopefully we qualify and get the job done so we should give the younger group higher priority,” he said.
