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Klinsmann previews Colombia test for USA

By on June 2, 2016

Jurgen Klinsmann sat down for a pre-match press conference to discuss the United States’ Copa Centenario opener against Columbia on Friday night.  Here’s what he had to say:

Opening Statement:

Hello everybody, especially our guests from Colombia. Tomorrow is a big moment for us, we’re one day away from opening this very special Copa America. We are very excited not only to host this amazing competition but to be part of it and play against many of the best teams in the world. Having the opportunity to open up the competition with a game against Colombia, one of the best teams in the world, is a real pleasure. It’s something that excites us, it’s a nice challenge and for us, a way to benchmark how good we are and give them a real tough game. Our goal is to get through this group and then take it from there and get as far as we can. Everybody will enjoy tomorrow night and obviously, we’re excited to have a sellout crowd. We can’t wait to kick it off.

On Michael Bradley’s positioning:

It’s definitely a version that you could see in this tournament. For us, it’s important to know that we have different systems that we can play with, to have different variations so that we can challenge the opponent.

Michael looked very good in that role in these past two friendly matches and it depends on the opponent a little bit. If you have a team like Colombia, a very good team with good players, it’s challenging.

It’s a short period of preparation for all the teams but we are making progress. We are fine tuning elements of our game and we feel confident. We can’t wait to challenge the big teams in South America.

On how to stop Colombia:

When you face a team with that talent that they have up front with James [Rodriguez], [Carlos] Bacca, [Juan] Cuadrado, they’re all different makers. But they’re bearable; every team has they’re strengths and weaknesses. We’ve learned a lot over the past couple years playing big teams and coming up with solutions to beat them, whether it’s overseas in Europe or somewhere else we’ve managed to get very good results.

Colombia deserves a lot of respect but on the other side, we have no fear. We have a team that is very hungry and players that can match up theirs. It’s a big stage for Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Jermain Jones, that’s what they want to play. Now that they have the opportunity they need to go out and play at that level.

On how Darlington Nagbe and DeAndrea Yedlin have progressed:

It’s exciting for us to see the growth of some players over the past two years. Especially for DeAndre from being a substitute in Brazil to becoming a regular starter. He’s become more stable, confident and stronger, both physically and mentally. He had a big learning curve over the past year in the Premier League.

Darlington is growing every time he’s called up, he’s not a youngster anymore. We had to wait for him a long time until he got the Amercian citizenship and it’s exciting to see him coming through.

Same with Bobby Wood, just look at how far he has come from where he was two years ago. He’s going to be playing for a big club in Europe next season!

John Brooks was also a substitute player in Brazil, he came in for one game, played forty-five minutes and scored a goal against Ghana. Now he’s a starter, a young player coming through in Germany that is gunning for Champions League experience.

It’s exciting, it’s a normal path. Young players can only go if you give them time to play, they can only learn if they can fail. So the Gold Cup last year was a learning curve for some of them and it’s normal. If they don’t get these opportunities to get minutes they will never grow.

They are on a different level now so this Copa America is huge for us. It’s a good opportunity to benchmark themselves against big names that come from South America and it’s going to be fun for them.

On the pressure:

We have our own expectations, absolutely. I had a learning curve in Brazil, we managed to make it out of the group of death. We left Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo behind, we left Ghana behind and we finally hit the wall with Belgium in extra-time.

We’re not only looking at our goal of making it out of the group here but also how we can go further in the knockout stages. The knockout stages are a completely new tournament, once the group stage is done a new tournament begins.

What we want to do now is get through the group stage, which is not easy, but then we want to challenge the next level. These are our expectations. We want to grow as a soccer nation and send stronger signals out to South America and Europe that we’re learning.

We know that we still have a lot of learning in front of us but we’re very ambitious. Americans don’t like to be behind.

On the opportunities he will give to younger players:

The [younger players] have to fight for their playing time. Nothing is given for free because they’re young.

This is about getting results at Copa America now. This is not about what is in two years when we are hopefully qualified for Russia.

Over the past two years, they’ve been given a lot of opportunities to grow and we are fully behind them, but this is now about the best team representing our team in order to get results. Whoever we think will get the best job done for the team will play. We are not giving away any kind of favors here. If it’s necessary to bring a veteran in to get a result, that guy will come in. This is about winning.

On what he expects from Columbia:

We’ve been doing our homework [on Columbia]. We watched all their previous games and have been following them over the years. I’m a big admirer of coach [Jose] Pekerman.

We know how fast they can transition from defense into attack. They can exploit space within a couple of seconds *snap* and get four or five players forward. That’s why they’re so dangerous.

We’ve talked to our players about mitigating their strengths and hopefully we can also take advantage of the weaknesses they have in behind as well.

On the favorites for the tournament:

There [are always favorites in big tournaments like this]. When you talk about Copa America, everybody will name Brazil and Argentina as the favorites and Colombia also deserve to be up there considering where they are right now. Uruguay also has a wonderful team and Chile won it last year. Mexico is also very strong. It will be a fascinating tournament, there will be some surprises like always but when you name favorites you always go with the big guns first.

On Bobby Wood:

Bobby’s learning curve is similar to that of Yedlin, it’s a normal growing phase. For a striker it is a lot to do with confidence, getting more mature and scoring goals. As a striker, the biggest recipe for confidence is scoring goals. When you’re scoring goals, you get a lot of confidence and are stronger in everything you do. It’s nice to see how he has broken through and he fought himself out of a very difficult situation.

Two years ago, he seemed kind of lost at 1860 Munich and wasn’t getting playing time, At the end of the year he moved on to another second division team and now he has broken through and is getting even hungrier. He made a big jump to [Hamburg] and the job for us is to keep him going and to guide him to the next stage.

The international level is a different level. So this is fun. If I were Bobby seeing Columbia’s lineup, I wouldn’t be able to sleep because I want to get the game started.

He just has to go for it. This is the next level, you want to play against these fantastic players at big European clubs and he’s capable of doing that.

On criticism and how big Copa a test is for him personally:

Criticism is no problem at all, it comes with the job.

This is a big tournament for our program, this is a big benchmark to see where we are between the two World Cups. It is a gift to us that CONCACAF and CONMEBOL finally figured it out to get this thing going. You want to see where you stand at this specific moment.

There’s always a transition happening between World Cups and between Brazil and Russia we want to push through the next generation and hopefully, give us more options in 2018.

For the moment, his is about measuring ourselves. Are we capable of beating [Colombia] eye to eye and make it far in this tournament? I think we are. We have the drive and the talent but now we have to prove it. The same goes for the coaching staff as well.

On if the US can win the Copa and the learning process they will go through:

You don’t want to go too far and say our goal is to win the Copa. Right now our goal is to get out of the group and then we’ll take it one game at a time.

The next step is winning knockout games. There’s one less game than in the World Cup so if you win your first knockout game, you’re in the final four. This is big.

So our goal is to get there and prove ourselves. I think we have strong enough and talented enough players to beat Colombia. We admire Colombia and all the talent they have but [we know we are capable of beating them].

We played them in a wonderful friendly two years ago in Fulham and although we lost in the very last minute with a goal, we were close. We missed some great chances there, Bobby Wood missed one of them, and hopefully he gets that chance again and puts it in. That could make the difference.

On his message to the team:

The message is to give everything possible to go through and maximize every second on the field in all three matches. We don’t have a choice between first and second in the group, we only have one message: to get through the group. Whatever comes next in the Quarterfinal is fine with us no matter what happens in the other groups.

On Alejandro Bedoya and the aggressiveness of the team:

I definitely hope we have the edge to step it up in terms of aggressiveness and physicality. It’s just a part of the international game. We had an amazing experience against Colombia in Fulham, which was a good lesson for us to see how physical games can be.

Bedoya is half-Colombian and is obviously super excited about this game. He went through his own learning curve since the World Cup. He had a couple of up and downs but in the last couple months, he has been outstanding with Nantes [and the national team].

He’s very strong and has his own presence in Europe. He also has a great personality and you can see that he is getting more mature. He understands that he is getting to an age where people expect more leadership and responsibilities beyond just going with the flow. He has made that step and is ready to be more vocal on the field and guide the players around him. For example, he helped correct Gyasi [Zardes] against Bolivia and tell him what to do, when to come back, stay up and do all these things. Those are small signs that he is taking more ownership of his own game and that is nice to see.

On Colombian soccer as a whole:

I’m not thinking back to what was now over, what, twenty-six years ago (oh my gosh), but there’s a lot of admiration for Colombian soccer worldwide. This team is followed not only in the Copa America and in the World Cup but because of the fact that they develop so many good individual players that play for big clubs in Europe. This is the best compliment you can have.

Keep up to date on the Copa America Centenario with Football Every Day as we take you inside the most important men’s tournament on US shores since the 1994 World Cup!

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.