COLOGNE, Germany – Fresh off a famous win away to the Netherlands that included some encouraging displays from young attackers, US manager Jurgen Klinsmann is hoping for more of the same when the team tackles World Cup champs Germany at Cologne's RheinEnergieSTADION on Wednesday night (2:45 pm ET; Fox Sports 1, UniMas, UDN).
On Friday night in Amsterdam, the Nats got international account-opening strikes from Gyasi Zardes, Daniel Williams and Bobby Wood, while DeAndre Yedlin and Jordan Morris hopped off the bench to provide rally assists.
"We want to make another step forward in terms of experience, in terms of measuring ourself," Klinsmann told reporters during the pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon. "They know they will face another top team, but we will try to take the game to Germany, as well. We want to take some risks and score some goals here."
That may be easier said than done against Die Mannschaft, who posted four shutouts in seven World Cup matches last summer, including one against the US in both team's group finale. Nevertheless, Klinsmann says this friendly matchup is another perfect test for the USMNT and its squad full of players still in the development stage.
"In order to grow as a soccer nation, we need more consistency in results against teams that are above us," he stated. "That's why we always try to play teams that are in the top 10 in the world. We want to see where we stand. We build more belief that we can hurt the big nations if you do everything right and things go your way."
Friday's victory over the Netherlands came despite a fair amount of trouble in dealing with crosses on the defensive end. The flank-raiding Dutch were able to ship 23 centering feeds from the wing, with two of them nodded home by striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Though Klinsmann knows it's an area that needs work, he was not terribly upset about it all.
"This is exactly what we need," he said, smiling enthusiastically. "We need the Van Persies and the Huntelaars and the Götzes going at us to show us where we still make mistakes.
"These players play for the big clubs in the world and in the Champions League, and they are going to punish every little mistake. In a split second, the ball is in [the net]. We go through the video and show our players, so they eliminate those mistakes and become better players."
