Coininfifa: U.S. Soccer Reacts to World Cup Draw

The USMNT moments after being eliminated by Ghana in 2010 (photo: foxnews.com

Probably the biggest story to come out of all this: Klinsmann will be facing off not only against the team he used to play for nationally, but the one he used to coach as well– Germany. He had this to say when he saw the US had been drawn in the same group as the Germans, “I kind of had in my stomach that we were going to get Germany…. it’s a real challenge and we’ll take it, we’ll take it on and hopefully we’re going to surprise some people there.”

That’s Jurgen Klinsmann in a nutshell. He’s a glass half full kind coach as previously mentioned, and while he certainly has a lot riding on his shoulders going into this World Cup, he refuses to let people call his US team underdogs. ”No, we’re not underdogs. All the nations in a World Cup, these 32 nations are all big names. They all deserve to be there and there are no surprises. All the big nations are in there, and if you want to get into the top 10 or top 12 in the world, you have to start beating them.”

Klinsmann isn’t the only one taking a positive approach to an otherwise grim situation. Veteran US net minder Tim Howard agrees that while it’s a tough group, there’s no reason his team should be counted out. ”I think it’s an extremely tough group, which we expected, but the fact that it’s tough does not mean that we can’t advance through the group. I think we can. We’ll have to play at our best but I think we can.”

Howard has a unique point of view, having experienced the World Cup not once, but twice. ”There’s a lot of anticipation. Everything gets hyped up for the draw and there’s this letdown, this lull. It gets kind of quiet,” he said of the initial post draw reaction. ”Then, from the time we meet up in June and have a camp, it’s a whirlwind. I feel like when we finally land in Brazil, that we’ve done everything we can to prepare.”

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