PHILADELPHIA – The knockout stage has arrived for the US national team, according to head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
Days after taking care of business against Costa Rica in a “must-win” match that reinvigorated their hopes of reaching the quarterfinals, the US find themselves in control of their own destiny ahead of their Group A finale against Paraguay on Saturday (7 pm ET; FS1, Univision, UDN).
Win and a place in the quarterfinals is secure. A draw would do the job as well, assuming Costa Rica fail to make up a six-goal gap in goal differential. Lose to Paraguay, meanwhile, and the hosts would watch from home as the tournament hits the knockout stage.
Those razor-thin margins are the reality of tournament soccer at the highest level, not that Klinsmann and his team need reminding.
“This is already a knockout game on Saturday. This is it,” Klinsmann said Thursday. “You need now to get at least one point. We are not playing for one point. We cannot do that. It is not our character to go for one point. We go for the win. Otherwise, we might punish ourselves.
“This is our goal, to go through that on Saturday and then play the next one-off and learn how to play these one-off games to mature in our own way towards a World Cup where we want to go further.”
Of course, Paraguay are more than capable of punishing the US themselves.
After a scoreless draw against Costa Rica to start the tournament, La Albirroja (the white and red) nearly mounted a 10-man comeback against Colombia in their second match, eventually falling 2-1, to set up their own must-win scenario against the US.
“This is a very unpredictable team,” Klinsmann said. “This is a team that has individual players that can hurt you in a split second, like Colombia experienced [on Tuesday]. They thought the job was almost done and then boom, they scored the one goal. If they don’t go down to 10 men, they were right on the verge of equalizing that game.”
In a break for the Americans, striker Oscar Romero was sent off against Colombia and will watch the match from the stands at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday. Still, that didn’t seem to dampen the spirits or the danger posed by Paraguay against Colombia, the Group A team that has booked its place in the quarterfinals with two wins in two games.
“They are fearless. That’s their nature,” Klinsmann said about Paraguay. “They were in the last Copa America final four, and in the previous [tournament] second. That tells you what Paraguay is. I think we are very well prepared and we are definitely capable of beating them.”
Should the US win, they’ll face either the winner or runner-up from Group B – one of Brazil, Ecuador or Peru – in the quarterfinals. First, though, they must pass another high-stakes test that seemed like a reach just a few days ago after a tournament-opening loss to Colombia.
“We always saw the big picture. I think the panic button was probably hit by a lot of people on the outside of our camp [after the defeat to Colombia],” goalkeeper Brad Guzan said. “But we always knew the Costa Rica game was going to be a big game for us. And we got the result we needed. But at the same time we’re not getting ahead of ourselves because we know Saturday’s result is just as important as the Costa Rica game. So we need to find a way to get a result on Saturday.”
