The US celebrated qualification for the World Cup finals with a 2-0 victory over Mexico on Tuesday, but the true test of US manager Juergen Klinsmann’s team will not come until Brazil itself. As champagne flowed and official T-shirts declaring “Qualified” were snapped up by fans partying around Crew Stadium, there was a quiet word of caution from one of the team’s hardened realists.
“You’re happy. You’re going to enjoy it. People are going to have a few beers and stuff like that, but the goal is to do well in Brazil,” forward Clint Dempsey said.
Indeed, the days when the US were delighted merely to get a ticket to the party are long over, and the growth of the sport in the country brings newer and loftier expectations.
“You want to qualify for a World Cup and you want to do well,” Dempsey said. “I’ve played in two World Cups. One, I didn’t advance out of the group stage, and the other, we won the group, but lost the next game. It would be nice to do something special in a World Cup.”
The US failed to qualify for any World Cup between 1954 and 1986, but have been ever present from 1990, with their best performance a quarter-final spot in 2002 in Japan and South Korea.
In South Africa three years ago, under Klinsmann’s predecessor, Bob Bradley, a workmanlike US side scraped out of the group stage ahead of Slovenia and Algeria, then lost to Ghana in the last 16.
Since taking over in 2011, former Germany coach Klinsmann has made numerous changes behind the scenes, including more intensive training sessions, a focus on nutrition and diet, and a scouting network that seeks out qualified US players all over the world.
Klinsmann has brought through a host of new players, both from the domestic Major League Soccer and from European club soccer, and he has expanded the size of his pool — 39 players started at least one match this year.
“They know they have guys behind them in every position, so they know if they don’t give everything they have the next one comes in and steals his spot. Therefore, there is more competition than before,” Klinsmann said.
The big question is whether all those improvements are going to be visible in the end product on the field in Brazil next year.
Bradley’s teams were noted for a never-say-die attitude and a straightforward, hard-working approach to the game, but those qualities did not quite compensate for the lack of creativity and imagination of his team in South Africa.
When he was appointed, Klinsmann talked a lot about a new style, but the changes on that level have been moderate and gradual as the practical business of getting out of the CONCACAF qualifying process took precedence over tactical experiments.
However, the US midfielders, particularly the outstanding Michael Bradley, who is the son of the former coach, certainly look more comfortable on the ball than in the past, more willing to keep possession patiently and look for gaps to exploit.
Klinsmann believes his team are, at least, on their way toward the kind of approach he wants to see.
“I think that step by step, we are getting closer to taking the game to the opponents. We are not sitting back and reacting to what happens, we want to take it into their half,” he said.
“I think we made big progress in terms of technical variation, in terms of commitment, both defensively and offensively,” he added.
However, by June next year, the only progress that will matter is whether the US go from being plucky outsiders to genuine contenders in the latter stages of the tournament.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier