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USMNT prepare for Columbia in landmark Copa Centenario opener

By on June 1, 2016

The United States national team trained at Avaya Stadium ahead of their Copa Centenario opener against Columbia at Levi’s Stadium. We caught up with the squad at Tuesday’s training session to get the scoop on their preparations for the biggest men’s tournament to hit American shores since the 1994 World Cup.

Tuesday afternoon training sessions at Avaya Stadium have become routine for San Jose Earthquakes captain Chris Wondolowski over the past year-and-a-half. Except this time was different. This time there were new faces in the locker room and a different training staff. Instead of making the familiar drive from his Bay Area home, Wondolowski arrived at training on the team bus from the team hotel. Wondo donned a new kit as he stepped out onto the pitch and even wore new boots.

This Tuesday evening, Wondo was training with the US Men’s National Team, an entirely different environment from club soccer.

The thirty-three-year-old joined the twenty-three-man US squad last week for friendly clashes with Ecuador and Bolivia before returning to the Bay Area on Sunday night. After a day off on Monday, they returned to training Tuesday evening to prepare for their headline clash with Colombia at Levi’s Stadium, the opening game of the landmark Copa Centenario.

Thirty or forty Colombia fans gathered outside of the stadium to glimpse their team train on the pitch adjacent from the stadium and the US squad, meanwhile, quietly slipped in through the back door. Although Copa is the biggest tournament on US soil in a generation, Red, White and Blue will still battle to create a home-field advantage.

And there’s no better way to get the nation fired up about the tournament than a victory against Colombia.

“It’s very important for us to get started on the right note,” US forward Gyasi Zardes told Football Every Day. “Colombia is a very good team and it’s important for us to take away a result.”

Nobody understands that better than United States coach Jürgen Klinsmann, whose job safety relies on the performance of his team. “We want to show the soccer world that America is ready to compete,” Klinsmann told reporters.

The German-born coach also hopes that a successful tournament can showcase the growing prominence of soccer in the United States as the US Soccer Federation hope to host a World Cup stateside in the near future.

“We obviously want to do well and get as far in the tournament as we can, but we also want to showcase our game to the rest of the world because we would love to host a World Cup again down the road,” said Klinsmann. “This is a huge opportunity for all of us to show the rest of the world that we are ready for another World Cup.”

After a poor showing at last year’s Gold Cup, Klinsmann is confident that the United States can turn it around.

“We’ve been through a learning curve that we provoked,” said Klinsmann. “The Gold Cup game at a bad time for us, we were still experimenting with our center-backs and having young players coming in. That’s not an excuse but it came at a bad time because they move it to July…that made it really difficult for our European players to transition into the Gold Cup. They went on vacation, came back and went right into the Gold Cup.”

Klinsmann is banking all on the fact that the United States can advance from Group A at Copa. Although the United States lack the firepower of teams such as Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, or Colombia for that matter, their cohesion and team unity has traditionally made them a good big-tournament team.

They lost that sense of togetherness during the Gold Cup and Klinsmann is trying to instill the same drive that led them out of the Group of Death at the 2014 World Cup.

“We have a group of players that are very, very hungry, they want to prove themselves on home soil,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity because Copa America doesn’t come along very often and they realize that. The training sessions have been high-energy, the attitudes are great and the spirit in the group is great.”

“Our players might not be playing for Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan or Real Madrid, but we’re here to win.”

One of the changes that Klinsmann has recently made was a switch to a 4-3-3 formation, allowing Michael Bradley to play in a holding midfield role that suits his passing game. Klinsmann, though, played down the importance of the changes.

“No matter what type of shape or formation you chose it leads to the same goals,” he said. “There is no end formation that we are going for, modern soccer is a fluid type of game.”

Bradley, though, is not all that concerned. He said: “I can play in slightly different roles in the midfield without it changing what I’m all about.”

Bradley’s role will change depending on the opponents, which is why the versatility of the 4-3-3 is particularly well suited to Copa, where the United States will face Colombia, then Paraguay and Costa Rica in a span of just eight days; they can press high up the pitch or sit deep defensively depending on the match situation.

Friendlies against Ecuador and Bolivia were a good test run, but Colombia will require another step up from the US.

Said Wondolowski: “Friday is going to be huge, huge test and much different than the prior two friendlies, but we’re going to be ready.

“The coaching staff is already starting to implement a game plan…and the eleven that he puts out there will be ready to go.

“Once you step out there onto the field, it’s just another soccer game: eleven versus eleven. You just have to rely on the things that you’ve always done. We’re mostly excited, there’s no real nerves in this group.”

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.