During the week leading up to friendlies with the Netherlands and Germany, U.S. Men's National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann was clear about his team’s objective for the pair of difficult matches.
“We want to build consistency in our performances. We want to play against those nations and show them that we’re not only coming here to defend, but also to attack,” Klinsmann told USsoccer.com. “We want to go forward. We want to score goals against them.”
Klinsmann’s men did just that in the initial friendly, earning their first-ever victory over the Dutch with a 4-3 result in Amsterdam. That win improved the USMNT’s record in 2015 to 3-2-1. Now comes the ultimate test for Sounders FC captain Brad Evans and his USA teammates: a battle in Cologne, Germany on Wednesday with the world’s No. 1 team (11:45 a.m. PT / FOX Sports 1).
The winners of last summer’s FIFA World Cup, Germany defeated the Americans 1-0 in the Group Stage of the tournament. The USA has beaten Germany three times, however, including a 4-3 victory in June of 2013 when Sounders FC forward Clint Dempsey scored a pair of goals.
Having just overcome the No. 6 team in the world on its own turf, Klinsmann and his players are confident heading into their matchup with the Germans.
“It’s a huge learning curve when you play teams like Holland and Germany,” the coach said earlier this week. “You can only benefit from that. It doesn’t matter what the result is at the end of the day. …You can only go to another level when you play teams that are on another level. It helps tremendously in terms of experience for the Gold Cup.”
The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup is less than one month away. After barely missing out on a chance to play in the World Cup, Evans has been adamant that he wants to be part of the Gold Cup squad.
Evans didn’t play in last week’s win over the Netherlands, but Klinsmann typically makes changes to his lineup when the USA has a pair of friendlies in a one or two week span. Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid said depending on how many minutes Evans plays on Wednesday, the captain could be available for Saturday’s match against FC Dallas.
