2014 World Cup: USA coach Klinsmann confident he has uncovered Ghana's secrets

Published on: 12 June 2014
2014 World Cup: USA coach Klinsmann confident he has uncovered Ghana's secrets
Klinsmann says he now has an idea on how to defeat Ghana on Monday

United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann says he now has a firm idea on how to defeat Ghana on Monday when the two sides clash in Group G of the World Cup in Brazil after watching the Black Stars.

This comes after after Klinsmann, World Cup advisor Berti Vogts and scout Matthias Hamann watched the Ghanaian side defeat South Korea 4-0 in a pre-World Cup friendly in Miami on Monday.

Ghana has defeated the USA in their two previous appearances at the World Cup and the German coach is confident he has now unlocked the secrets of the Black Stars after the Korea game.

Even though Klinsmann was fairly secretive about what he learned from watching the Black Stars' 4-0 win over South Korea, the German coach is confident he has an idea of how to defeat the Ghanaians

“Obviously a great result for Ghana,” Klinsmann said.

“I wanted to see them myself and get an impression there, and we have that. … We respect every opponent that we play in those group-stage games, and we know about their strengths,

"But we also know about their weaknesses. And we know about our strengths and what we need to improve still, and we’ve been working on that for a month.”

Ghana preceded their decisive win over South Korea with a 1-0 loss to the Netherlands in Rotterdam on May 31 and will not come into Natal as a surprise squad to the Americans, who were eliminated by the Black Stars each of the past two World Cups.

“We feel very confident going into this game against Ghana,” Klinsmann said.

“But we also know what Ghana represents – one of the top nations in Africa, no doubt about it. … But we are eager to challenge them, we are eager to go eye to eye now. And once those [group stage games] are played, then you can make your judgement.”

The USMNT were scheduled to face Belgium in a closed-door scrimmage on Thursday before the match was abruptly cancelled on Wednesday afternoon due to traffic concerns for the Belgian side.

Instead they'll work out two more times at their training facility as the days count down to their opening game.

 

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