Klinsmann in no mood to take T&T lightly.
By Shaun Fuentes (Guardian).
United States head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has indicated that his team will not underestimate T&T when both teams clash next Tuesday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.
Speaking this week ahead of the start of the CONCACAF semifinal round, the German World Cup winner (as a player) described T&T as a difficult opponent.
“T&T is a team that challenges you big time. They are always difficult to play. The circumstances down there are not ones you would find when we play at home. It’s a team full of players coming out of the English Championship—difficult players, and players that know how to play their game. They did tremendously well in the Gold Cup. It’s going to be a challenge and that’s what we are preparing for. It’s going to be a difficult game, but we are ready to jump that hurdle and get a good result against T&T,” Klinsmann told US Soccer.com
“We’re all excited about starting World Cup qualifying toward Russia 2018. With St Vincent and the Grenadines and T&T, they’re two nations that are not taken lightly. They are good teams. T&T proved it in the previous Gold Cup. With St Vincent and the Grenadines, we have a team that is an unknown, but we watch their previous games and make ourselves familiar with their players. At the end of the day you still don’t really know what to expect, so it’s going to be very interesting.”
The US head coach explained the reason behind preparing the team in Miami over the past few days, saying: “After the first game, we are going to go down to Trinidad and there it will be a tropical, hot climate. That’s why we will meet up in Miami and get used to the heat for a couple of days, then we will fly up to St Louis to play the game against St Vincent and the Grenadines and fly from there all the way down to T&T which is off the coast of Venezuela, so it’s much more South America than Central and North America. This is why we chose Miami as the first stop for our players - to get them used to the heat.”