United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann seemingly softened his stance on his team's chances of winning the 2014 World Cup and said "the sky is the limit" for the Americans. He also defended his decision to cut longtime USA star Landon Donovan from the roster.
Klinsmann made headlines last week when he reiterated his stance from December: it's "unrealistic" to believe the Americans can win the cup. Although he didn't take back his remarks, he did acknowledge anything is possible in football.
"Talking about winning a World Cup is just not realistic," Klinsmann said last week, via FIFA.com. "But Greece in 2004, nobody said they would win the European Cup, but they did. Football is not predictable. If we get through this group, the sky is the limit. ...
"You have to be realistic. We are making every year another step forward. We don't look (at) ourselves as an underdog, even if a lot of the others do."
The United States is in Group G, which is labeled this year's "Group of Death." Team USA will be competing with Ghana, Germany and Portugal to qualify for the second round.
Klinsmann also defended his decision to cut Donovan from the 23-man roster.
"The other strikers we see that inch ahead of him," Klinsmann said last month. "We feel those guys are a little step ahead of Landon in certain areas. That's why we made that decision. ...
"(Donovan did) an amazing job the last ten days he was here. He has done everything right. It has not been easy. These are very close decisions. It's not a decision against a player, in this case Landon. It's a decision for another player. We coaches had the feeling over the last few days. We had an inkling a little bit. We sensed it was the right time now."