US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann came under fire for his squad’s struggles to advance to the Hexagonal in World Cup qualifying, but he appears to talking tough about the team’s prospects for reaching the World Cup.
Appearing on FOX Soccer’s Goals on Sunday, Klinsmann assured the US will be one of the three CONCACAF sides to qualify for Brazil in 2014.
“Once we get through these difficult qualifiers — and we will get there, definitely — and then it’s really up to the team how far they want to suffer in the tournament,” Klinsmann said.
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But just getting to the tournament may not be the end all, be all for Klinsmann, who, of course, won the 1990 World Cup with West Germany. He also opined on what is maybe keeping the US from doing great things at the World Cup.
“You have to have a mentality within your group of players that is ready to suffer and go through a lot of pain,” he said. “Not just play one good game, but play five, and possibly one day play seven games.
“This is a mental approach. This is something that we don’t have yet in the United States,” he added. “We don’t have that belief yet to say we can make it really far in the World Cup. Everybody wants it but actually inside of me I don’t have that belief yet. And that belief is just coming from your gut, and you have to go through the pain.”
