FRISCO, Tex. – Soccer-inspired euphoria is sweeping the nation, thanks to the US women's national team's dominating performance in the Women's World Cup final. It's been just two days since the USWNT lifted the World Cup trophy, and tonight the US men's national team kicks off its own international tournament run in the Gold Cup.
But despite the USWNT's meteoric ascent, USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann hopes his squad charts a different path to success as the Americans open their tournament against Honduras on Tuesday night (9:30 pm ET; Fox Sports 1, UniMas, UDN in the US; Sportsnet World in Canada).
First off, though, in a press conference on Monday night, Klinsmann offered some effusive praise for the women's team.
“It was absolutely fantastic to see how they went through the first difficult obstacles, and then they picked it up more and more,” Klinsmann said. “We saw a team growing that played amazing, amazing soccer in the last couple of occasions. And then what they did last night was just unbelievable. You’ve got to give them the biggest compliment in the world for what they achieved and how they achieved it.”
But there was a subtle message in Klinsmann's words as well – peak form doesn't come from day one, as the USWNT did what was needed to advance before turning on the jets to throttle Japan 5-2 in the final. Klinsmann would rather see his team start with that kind of momentum, rather than searching for it throughout the group stage.
“I think it’s crucial in a tournament that you start on the right foot and get a good result right away, because you want to build on that,” he said. “Therefore, the first game is always very, very important. We don’t have a group of death right now like we did in Brazil, but you want to get started with three points. There’s no doubt about it.”
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With that in mind, Klinsmann hopes his team can ride the USWNT-bolstered soccer frenzy gripping the United States. He said he believes the sport has been growing rapidly in America over the last two decades thanks to the growth of MLS, but hopes U.S. Soccer can push the beautiful game even farther.
“The locomotive of the game is always, for both the female and male side, the national team,” he said. “If the national team is doing well, it attracts all the youngsters to hopefully go kick the ball around and play."
As far as the 2015 Gold Cup is concerned, the American men are looking to write their own story, though they hope it ends the same way as their female counterparts.
“We start tomorrow our journey, and we want to finish it off on [July 26] in Philadelphia,” Klinsmann said. “And we’re going to do it our way.”
