U.S. men’s national soccer team coach Jürgen Klinsmann said he’s “pretty sure” his squad will advance past the World Cup group stage, according to ESPNFC.com.
The U.S. team recently kicked off a 12-day training session in Sao Paulo for next summer’s FIFA World Cup ahead of a friendly game against Korea Republic on Feb. 1 in California.
“I’m pretty sure we are going to make it through to the [knockout] round,” he told ESPNFC. “Nothing will be laid out perfectly. Nothing [in Brazil] will be kind of the German way of 2006 where everything was on time and ironed out. There will be delays and logistical challenges with the hotels, fields, stadiums or whatever.”
The U.S. will play Ghana, Portugal and Germany in Group G of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Klinsmann acknowledged that in order to advance, the U.S. must beat Ghana in the opening game in Natal on June 16.
“We badly need three points against Ghana and one point against Portugal,” he told reporters.
Although the U.S. team faces a difficult challenge, Klinsmann also said that the team aims to be “in the top ten, 15 in the world” in the future, according to AFP.