CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015: Third place match USA 1-1 Panama (2-3 pks).
U.S. MNT Head Coach JURGEN KLINSMANN
His thoughts on the match:
“Overall, obviously it was a game that was pretty much overshadowed with what happened a couple days ago. A game that basically Panama and us didn’t really want to play in terms of how do you pump the players up after what happened on Wednesday night. Both teams deserve a huge compliment. They went all the way through, they went 120 minutes and into the penalty shootout. They were both extremely tired and gave what was left in them. I give credit to Panama for how they went through that tournament and stayed on course. For us it’s clear that we look towards September – two friendly games to build things in order to be prepared for the playoff in October.”
On the differences for the team between the 2013 and 2015 Gold Cups:
“I think all the teams were really competitive. All the teams were into the competition and wanted to win it. There was just a lot of stuff going on outside the field. There was always a sense of being uncertain of what happens next. When I talk to the players this morning, I told them we didn’t know what would happen because every time you go on the field you don’t know what happens with the refs with either way they go. You feel really sorry for the refs, because if they make a mistake one side or another goes at them. This feeling was there from the beginning of the tournament where you always wonder what will happen. It kind of overshadowed everything that went on really. Going through it from our end, we started fine. We got two wins and qualified for the quarterfinals. We took care of the quarters and then Wednesday night happened. It took the wind out – that’s just normal, that’s fine. It shows you also how competitive this region is. Nations that maybe weren’t regarded as high before the tournament earned a lot of respect, earned a lot of compliments, like Haiti for example, or especially Jamaica being in the final. You have to give them credit as well.”
On the pressure of going into October’s Confederations Cup playoff:
“There’s constant expectations, constant pressure for everybody. That’s just normal – it’s part of our job. We didn’t use that opportunity to finish things off in this tournament so we have to finish it off in October. If there’s a rise in expectations, that’s totally cool.”
On what he learned about the group and what he might have done differently:
“We’ll watch the games again and see more detailed stuff. There’s always something you find that you think afterwards you could have done things differently. I think overall when you look through it, we started well in the tournament and in a three-day rhythm in that group, which was the most difficult group, we got out right away with two wins, already qualified for the quarterfinals and then Wednesday night happened. Overall I think we could have won this tournament, but at the end of the day we didn’t. We’ll take our lessons from there, analyze it and then talk to the players.”
