U.S. out to prove Klinsmann wrong

DeMarcus Beasley (left) and Kyle Beckerman compete for a ball during the U.S. team’s practice Wednesday in Sao Paulo. The United States opens World Cup play Monday against Ghana.
DeMarcus Beasley (left) and Kyle Beckerman compete for a ball during the U.S. team’s practice Wednesday in Sao Paulo. The United States opens World Cup play Monday against Ghana.

SAO PAULO -- American fans decked out in red, white and blue watched their team's lone public training session in Brazil, cheering and seeking autographs.

Jurgen Klinsmann maintains they shouldn't expect the United States to lift soccer's top trophy for the first time July 13, even if that stance upsets some.

World Cup glance

WHEN Today through July 13

WHERE Brazil

OPENING GAME Brazil vs. Croatia, 3 p.m. today, San Paulo

GROUP STAGE PLAY Through June 26

FINAL July 13

U.S. SCHEDULE

DAY;TIME;OPP.;SITE

Monday;4:30 p.m.;Ghana;Natal

June 22;4:30 p.m.;Portugal;Manaus

June 26;11 a.m.;Germany;Recife

All times Central

"I think for us now, talking about winning a World Cup is just not realistic," the American coach said Wednesday during his first news conference in Brazil before the tournament. "First, we've got to make it through the group. So let's stay with our feet on the ground and say let's get that group first done, and then the sky is the limit."

The Americans open Monday against Ghana, the team that eliminated them from the past two World Cups, then play No. 4 Portugal and FIFA Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo. They close group play against three-time champion Germany, the world's second-ranked team.

Odds makers peg the U.S. team's chances of winning the title at 250-1, up from 60-1 before December's draw.

"I'll be at the Natal game. I'll be in Manaus, and I'll also be in Recife -- and, hopefully, the next stage," Liliana Ayalde, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, said after the almost two-hour training session.

Klinsmann won the 1990 World Cup as a player for West Germany and coached Germany to the 2006 semifinals. He caused a stir last weekend when he was quoted by The New York Times Magazine as saying in a December interview "we cannot win this World Cup because we are not at that level yet." Klinsmann, who has lived in Orange Country, Calif., for most of the past 16 years, was accused by some commentators of having an un-American mentality.

"If it's now American or not American, I don't know," he said. "You can correct me however you want."

Mix Diskerud, the 23-year-old midfielder with a Norwegian father and Arizonan mother, took Klinsmann's remarks as a challenge.

"That's an opportunity for us to prove him wrong," he said.

Midfielder Alejandro Bedoya thought it was a meaningless debate.

"The media, when they get a chance to get a hold of anything, they'll get it going," he said. "He's been optimistic with us since Day 1, and there's nothing short of confidence in him and his belief in us."

Only eight nations have won the World Cup, all from Europe and South America. Brazil has a record five titles, followed by Italy (four), Germany (three), Argentina and Uruguay (two), and England, France and Spain (one).

"We haven't won a World Cup before, so you can't go into the World Cup saying, 'Oh, we have to do what we've done in the past,' " forward Jozy Altidore said. "You come here obviously with that dream in the back of your mind. Let's not be silly. At the same time, you have to be realistic and understand there are some teams that maybe are a bit more favored than we are obviously to win the tournament."

The Americans enter ranked 13th, nine below their record high in April 2006. Their best World Cup finish was at the first tournament, when they reached the semifinals in 1930.

This is the seventh consecutive World Cup appearance for the Americans, who failed to qualify from 1950-90.

"I think we are every year making another step forward," Klinsmann said. "We always now approach games where we say we don't look at ourselves as an underdog, even if a lot of people want to put us as the underdog. In this very difficult group, we're not.

"We're going to go in there and take the game to Ghana and they will take it to us, and then we'll go back and forth and hopefully the people see an exciting game and us as a winner at the end of the day. And then we go from there."

Midfielder Jermaine Jones, one of five German-Americans on the 23-man roster, isn't focusing on the public debate.

"It's not important what the people outside say," he said. "It's important what is inside of the group."

Sports on 06/12/2014

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