United States Men’s National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann said that following his side’s bounce out of the 2014 World Cup he will now turn to youth in preparation for next year’s Gold Cup.
Klinsmann explained that he will seek to identify new players through discussions with coaches of the U.S. youth squads.
“This transition year coming up is definitely the opportunity to bring a lot of young players through the ranks and see what they are capable to do,” Klinsmann said in a World Cup farewell conference.
He was quick to note, however, that unearthing youth did not necessarily mean the end of the road for field players in their thirties like Clint Dempsey, Kyle Beckerman, Jermaine Jones and DaMarcus Beasley.There is no ‘thank you and bye’ it is always defined by performance what you bring to the table. I think a good thing about going into the next year is that we have the opportunity to see a lot of young players, coming into our platform in the senior team. We can give them the time to show where they are at right now.
The experienced players, or older players, we can tell them now for the next couple of months, play in your club environment. We know you inside-out anyway, we know what you bring to the table. Maybe there is the time now with the next couple of friendlies that are coming up and over the next year, (to) see the young players grow and see how far they can make it.
Given Klinsmann’s track record, the comments should come as little surprise as one of the German’s main missions since assuming the helm has been to identify new talent. And now, with the 2014 World Cup breakouts of 20-year-old DeAndre Yedlin and 19-year-old Julian Green, it’s only natural that the coach will look to add greater youth depth in preparation for the future.
Gearing up for next summer’s Gold Cup, Klinsmann added: “We have to start implementing all those elements with our Under-17, Under-18, Under-20 and the Under-21 team which will be our Olympic team. That is the next generation that is going to come in - the more we get the message to those kids, the more we will benefit in a couple of years from now”.