Juergen Klinsmann has U.S. poised for World Cup

Less than two weeks ago, Juergen Klinsmann, coach of the U.S. national soccer team, was under fire. His team had been embarrassed in a one-sided loss to Belgium, he couldn’t settle on a consistent lineup and there were rumors of dissension within the team’s ranks.

All that’s gone now. Because with Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Panama -- the most complete game the U.S. has played in Klinsmann’s two years at the helm -- the Americans have taken control of their regional qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a tournament that kicks off exactly one year from today.

With a 3-1-1 record and three shutouts, the U.S. sits alone atop the group standings with 10 points, two points head of Costa Rica and Mexico. It’s just the second time in 20 years the U.S. has led the final round of qualifying at the halfway mark, and the first time since the 2002 qualifying cycle.

“Yeah, big win for sure,” midfielder Michael Bradley said. “Especially when you look around the group right now and the results, three points are big. Every guy who stepped onto the field tonight should be proud of what they did.”

And the U.S., unbeaten in its last 24 qualifiers at home, can add three more points to its total next week in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah, where it will play host to Honduras, the only team to have beaten the Americans in a competitive game this year.

For the rematch, the Americans are expected to have regular midfielders Jermaine Jones and Graham Zusi back. Jones missed Tuesday’s game with a concussion while Zusi was ineligible after drawing two yellow cards.

“The team is really coming together,” defender Matt Besler said. “This group of guys are all on the same page. We are starting to play together, and I think that’s showing a lot on the field.

“Right now we are ready to go to Salt Lake and finish off the trip. That would put us in a very, very good position.”

If there was a loser Tuesday match, it may have been Landon Donovan, the national team’s all-time leader in goals and assists. Donovan hasn’t played for the U.S. since August and hasn’t even been called into camp since taking a self-imposed three-month sabbatical over the winter.

Donovan said he needed the break to rekindle his passion for soccer; Klinsmann saw the vacation as a lack of commitment. But when the U.S. struggled to score in its first four matches this year, getting just two goals, both from Clint Dempsey, it looked as though Klinsmann would have no choice but to invite Donovan back.

That urgency appears to have passed. Because with Jozy Altidore’s first-half goal Tuesday giving him scores in three consecutive games following an 18-month drought, and with Eddie Johnson’s second-half score giving him 11 in 16 World Cup qualifiers, the U.S. now leads its qualifying group in goals as well as in points. And with 10 goals in the two weeks, the U.S. has matched its total from the last nine months combined.

“We are starting to have that confidence, and guys are starting to play more together,” said defender DaMarcus Beasley, who had a chance at a goal of his own in the 80th minute Tuesday but the shot banged off the post. “This is the World Cup qualifier and the guys know that; this is not a friendly game, this is a game that matters. On nights like this you want to have a game like we did today, and I’m very proud to be a part of it.

“Once you have games like that, it’s always fun to play. You can always have bad games, but when it does go right, it feels good to get a win.”

Especially for Klinsmann, who has seemingly gone from pariah to prophet.

“As coaches, we always want to improve things. No matter what stage you take over a team, you just want to help the team to get better and you want to give them as much knowledge as possible and as much guidance as possible in order for them to improve, to grow, and to start fine-tuning things. I think that they are growing in that process. Obviously, overall as a team we want to just get better and improve and be able then to compete one day with the best out there.”

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