Football
ESPN staff 9y

Jurgen Klinsmann says U.S. can win World Cup 'many years down the road'

United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann said his ultimate goal is to win the World Cup, even if that dream won't be realized until "many years down the road."

Klinsmann is in London ahead of the Americans' friendly against Colombia at Craven Cottage on Friday. He referred to the 2014 World Cup, in which the U.S. advanced through the group stage, as a first step in a gradual process.

"It will be definitely the goal, to win the World Cup, many years down the road," Klinsmann told The Guardian on Monday. "We learned how to advance out of the group stage, the next step is to learn how to win knockout games at a World Cup.

"That has a lot to do with the mental aspect of the game. That's what it takes, that's our learning curve."

Since the World Cup ended, Klinsmann has been embroiled in a war of worlds with MLS commissioner Don Garber, as their respective priorities have conflicted.

Klinsmann is concerned primarily with building the best squad that can compete at a global level. To that point, he has recommended that his players take on challenges in top European leagues. But a number of top players -- such as Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley -- have chosen to play their club soccer in MLS.

The U.S. has always featured strong participation levels at the youth level, while the professional leagues are still coming into their own under Garber's leadership. Klinsmann said he views connecting those dots as a key factor in bringing his team to a point where they can compete for a World Cup title.

"A lot of people see the game keeps improving and is growing," Klinsmann said. "The tricky part within the U.S. is that we haven't connected the pieces yet, from professional teams to other professional levels, down to the college level and the youth level. There are so many disconnected pieces floating around. The whole structure is not in place, like it is in a traditional football nation. But this is also a useful opportunity.

"This is pretty cool because you kind of have a clean sheet of paper and say: 'How are we going to do it?' You work in England or Germany and it's pretty much set in place and you have to work with the pieces that are there. It's difficult to change them. For us, we can change the youth approach and the curriculum of coach education and makes changes with the college coaches and talk to them about doing the season differently or the feeder system differently, then it can happen. We can have an influence, that for me is exciting."

To accomplish his goals, Klinsmann said he will call upon the diverse lessons he's learned from working with some of the sport's top managers at Stuttgart, Inter, Monaco, Bayern Munich, Sampdoria and Tottenham.

"I was lucky that football gave me an opportunity to travel, to go to Italy and learn Italian, to go to France and work with Arsene Wenger [at Monaco] for two years, learn French and understand their way," Klinsmann said.

"I was better prepared then for England because I had already learned in Italy to take people the way they are, and not the way I wanted them to be, which is more the German approach, that 'It has to be this way.'

"I think every player can learn so much from his managers, and I was so lucky. I had Arsene, Giovanni Trapattoni, Franz Beckenbauer, Ossie Ardiles, Gerry Francis, Cesar Luis Menotti."

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