The United States men's national soccer team has the most brutal and lengthy travel schedule of any team in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and that could be one reason behind why head coach Jurgen Klinsmann decided to bring some of his players to Sao Paulo for a two week training program ahead of the major tournament.
According to ESPNFC.com, Klinsmann brought the MLS players that are on his team to Brazil for a 12-day training program and he will workout and practice with them in Sao Paulo in hopes to get them acclimated to the environment and the conditions. The weather is expected to be very hot during the summer months and the travel schedule is going to be very tough for the United States and on top of that the team is of course in the group of death in the tournament draw.
Klinsmann spoke about the makeup of his team and mentioned two players in Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, both of whom have returned to the MLS, which is something that Klinsmann praised to reporters. Dempsey had returned earlier last year with the Seattle Sounders and news broke last week that Bradley signed with Toronto FC and now two of the top American players in the world are returning to the league. Klinsmann has been consistent in saying that he feels American players need to play in Europe against top competition to prepare for the World Cup, but he said at the same time that it's important for the top stars in the country to be playing stateside.
Dempsey is currently on loan with Fulham, which is where he previously played overseas along with Tottenham and Klinsmann said that he felt that was a smart move for the American star. The World Cup doesn't start until June and the United States team is preparing for a massive travel schedule and tough matches against their group in Ghana, Germany and Portugal.
Klinsmann praised his team ahead of the World Cup and he said that one of his goals was to get the United States into the top echelon of national teams and the US is now in its seventh straight World Cup tournament. Klinsmann has 10 players there that helped qualify and 26 on the roster are in the MLS and now the team is the first group to head to Brazil ahead of the tournament out of the 32 nations in the tournament. The team will be there until January 25 and then they will have a matchup as an exhibition in California with South Korea on February 1.
"It gives us the opportunity to be already at the facility we are going to stay in the World Cup, to get to know the hotel we are going to stay at and to get a feeling for the country," Klinsmann said. "What we want to get out of it is that the players experience all those things. In the technical side there is a lot that we can achieve, on the organizational, logistical side there is a lot we can experience."
