As the hours ticked down to the US’ third-place Copa America Centenario match against Colombia (8 pm ET, FX. Univision, UDN), head coach Jurgen Klinsmann stressed that the outcome very much still matters. “We met them in the first game and we lost; this is a big opportunity for our team to correct that result, and to shot the growth throughout the tournament of our team,” he said at a press conference in New York on Friday night.
“I think it’s important to finish off on high note,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s better to win a third-place game than to lose the final.”
In fact, Klinsmann made clear that he’s viewing Saturday night’s face-off as a true rematch. “It’s not going to be a friendly game,” he said.
And his squad will take some hard-won learning from that first game into the night—especially to watch these “masters,” as he called them, as they try to transition from defense to offense. “They can hit you in a split second with their counter breaks,” Klinsmann said. “And I’m sure they are a little bit angry not to be in the final.”
As such, he said he’s expecting to tweak tonight’s US lineup, especially since the three players suspended for the team’s last match—Alejandro Bedoya, Bobby Wood, and Jermaine Jones—are headed back. Darlington Nagbe and Christian Pulisic could likely feature on the bench again, he said, while the availability of a “banged-up” John Brooks and Fabian Johnson would be a last-minute decision. Goalkeeper Tim Howard, meanwhile, will definitely play.
Regardless of the outcome, though, Klinsmann said there’s one overall takeaway for this country from Copa America Centenario. “This tournament has proved,” he said, “that the United States are ready to host another World Cup.”
