The USA Men's Soccer Team Will Play In...

One of the 'Groups of Death'.

Yours truly was tuned in along with much of the planet this morning to see how the 2014 FIFA World Cup draw was going to shake out for Team USA and their current head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Under Klinsmann the USA is 27-10-7.  They have been moving up the FIFA rankings and climbed to 14th.  They've had some historic firsts in their centennial year, had a best in program history 12 game winning streak and against FIFA Top 10 ranked clubs they are now 2-1-1 in the Klinsmann Era.

Klinsmann continues his commitment of not only building to team into an elite squad, but do so by having the US Men's team play the top European squads.   And surprise, surprise, as they get familiar with Klinsmann's system, increasingly they are beating them. 

Some of the European teams they beat this year were Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy on their way to a best ever total of 16 wins this year.  

In addition to winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the fifth time with six straight wins, the USA enroute to qualifying for the seventh straight time for the FIFA World Cup finals also finished at the top of the CONCACAF hexagonal qualifying for the second consecutive cycle.  They compiled a 7-1-2 record including a thrilling 3-2 extra time comeback win in Panama at the end of the campaign and the dos a cero clinching match against Mexico in Columbus,.OH that secured the ticket to Brazil

While this centennial year of USA soccer was a spectacular one on the men's side and we all know how awesome the women's team is, in order for the USA men to make that next leap into the elite echelons of the FIFA men's soccer ranks, you have to not only consistently beat the top teams, but shine on the World Cup stage.    

If Team USA was looking to prove to themselves and to the soccer world that 2013 wasn't a fluke and were looking for a challenge in World Cup group play, they just got their opportunity to do so.

They ended up in Group G, one of the 'Groups of Death' in which they will be playing against FIFA number 2 ranked Germany, FIFA number 5 ranked Portugal and FIFA number 24 ranked Ghana.

And unlike 2010's World Cup Final in South Africa, where they clocked 192 miles total of group stage bus travel from their training base in Pretoria to matches in Rustenburg, Johannesburg and a game in Pretoria, their travel script is flipped for this one.  From their training base in São Paulo, they'll be adding to their frequent flyer miles by going to Natal, Manaus and Recife for a total of 9,000 miles in the 5th largest country on our planet.  

"It couldn't get any more difficult or any bigger," said Klinsmann at the draw in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. "It's a real challenge. And we'll take it. We'll take it on, and hopefully we're going to surprise some people there."

“What’s exciting about this draw is that it’s time for us as a National Team to show how far soccer has come in this country and to earn the respect that we worked hard to have. If you go back to the 2006 World Cup and look at where the team was to where the team is now, we have a lot more guys playing consistently in the big leagues and gaining experience within our National Team. That’s making us a stronger National Team. When we face these European teams and bigger teams, [we are] pulling out results in the past three to four years like getting a good result in Italy and playing against the bigger teams like Germany in D.C. For us, and for the rest of the world, it shows how far we’ve come, and we couldn’t ask for a better draw than Germany Portugal and Ghana.” - See more at: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/mens-national-team/2013/12/131206-mnt-player-quotes.aspx#sthash.kHJzSzSn.dpuf

“What’s exciting about this draw is that it’s time for us as a National Team to show how far soccer has come in this country and to earn the respect that we worked hard to have. If you go back to the 2006 World Cup and look at where the team was to where the team is now, we have a lot more guys playing consistently in the big leagues and gaining experience within our National Team. That’s making us a stronger National Team. When we face these European teams and bigger teams, [we are] pulling out results in the past three to four years like getting a good result in Italy and playing against the bigger teams like Germany in D.C. For us, and for the rest of the world, it shows how far we’ve come, and we couldn’t ask for a better draw than Germany Portugal and Ghana.” - See more at: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/mens-national-team/2013/12/131206-mnt-player-quotes.aspx#sthash.kHJzSzSn.dpuf

Team USA opens their 2014 World Cup tournament group stage play in Natal on June 16 against Ghana, the team that has knocked them out of the 2006 and 2010 quarterfinals. 

After tangling with the Black Stars, they face Cristian Ronaldo and Portugal June 22.in what will probably be a critical group match in Manaus, and then Jurgen Klinsmann and Team USA close out group play on June 26 by facing in Recife the team he coached and played for in his homeboys from Germany.

While most international soccer pundits and fans consider the USA long 200-1 underdogs to take the trophy back to US soil, much less get out of their group to face whoever comes out of Group H, the Team USA members are looking forward to the challenge.

'What's exciting about this draw is that it is time for us as a national team to show how far soccer has come in this country and to earn the respect that we have worked so hard to have." said forward Eddie Johnson. 

"If you go back to the 2006 World Cup and look at where the team was to where the team is now, we have a lot more guys playing consistently in the big leagues and gaining experience within our National Team. That's making us a stronger National Team," he added.

"When we face these European teams and bigger teams, we are pulling out results in the past three to four tears like getting a good result in Italy and playing against the bigger teams like Germany in DC.  For us, and for the rest of the world, it shows how far we have come and we couldn't ask for a better draw than Germany, Portugal and Ghana." 

Can the USA men shock the world and not only get results, but get out of Group G into the knockout round?   We'll find out in six months.