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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;RECIFE, Brazil \u2013 The U.S. was 30 seconds away from safety.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead, thanks to a rapid succession of untimely miscues and an inch-perfect cross from Cristiano Ronaldo, the Americans\u2019 World Cup fate remains uncertain heading into Thursday\u2019s showdown with Germany.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fortunes change quickly at the World Cup.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\"This is razor-thin stuff,\u201D U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said here on Wednesday. \u201CAnd it\u2019s true for everybody.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Speaking at the Arena Pernambuco, the site of the Thursday\u2019s Group G climax, Gulati said that his evaluation of coach Jurgen Klinsmann and the U.S. national team program hinged on more than just the outcome of three tense, tight games at the World Cup. He\u2019s looking at the bigger picture, and there, the president likes what he sees. The Americans\u2019 performance on the field in Brazil is just one of several indications, Gulati said, that signing Klinsmann to a four-year contract months prior to the World Cup was the right decision.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt\u2019s not just about a game or the result,\u201D Gulati said. \u201CIt\u2019s about everything we are seeing, where the program is heading, the message that\u2019s going out from top to bottom.\"&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Klinsmann signed the new deal in December he also became the U.S. Soccer Federation\u2019s technical director, which allows him to oversee player and youth national team development and coaching education throughout the country. It\u2019s a big mandate and a big responsibility \u2013 one that will require more than three years on the job. Klinsmann was hired as national team coach in 2011.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\"It\u2019s about player development, and you will see&amp;nbsp;Jurgen&amp;nbsp;more involved in those sorts of things in this next cycle, partly because [in 2015] we are not in [World Cup] qualifying \u2026 We\u2019re pleased with the way all of those things are going -- the technical director side of things as well. And we decided that, even given the risks of three important games, that we were willing to make that commitment,\u201D Gulati&amp;nbsp;continued.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWe\u2019ve gotten almost everything we would have hoped for.&amp;nbsp;We\u2019ve got the best record the team has ever had over a two-year period with any coach. We\u2019ve won the [CONCACAF] Gold Cup. We finished top in qualifying. And we are sitting in position to finish first in the group at the World Cup.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Klinsmann\u2019s predecessor, Bob Bradley, also won a Gold Cup, finished atop the qualifying standings and won his group at the World Cup. Before him, Bruce Arena claimed two Gold Cup titles and took the U.S. to the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals. But this run feels different, Gulati implied, in part because of the attention Klinsmann\u2019s team commands.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWe have a lot of people talking saying \u2018Wow\u2019 and people getting excited, and Jurgen is also part of that,\u201D Gulati said. \u201CThere is certainly a lot more interest in the team then there\u2019s ever been, and, frankly, there\u2019s a lot more interest in him than there\u2019s ever been in any coach we\u2019ve had \u2026 that\u2019s pretty obvious to us as well. He\u2019s unique in that way \u2013 and that\u2019s partly the German-American issue, it's partly the American family, it\u2019s partly who he is as a coach, who he was as a player -- all of those things.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The force of Klinsmann\u2019s personality has made a difference in the locker room and out, Gulati said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIf we hadn\u2019t had the last 20 years, I don\u2019t think Jurgen could have walked in and had the success he\u2019s had on the field. So this has been a process. What Bruce did with the team over his tenure, what Bob Bradley took us to a level that we hadn\u2019t been at, this is now taking us to another level in terms of the whole picture. So I think It\u2019s a number of things. Maybe not the missing piece, but I think one of the things I often talk about when I talk about Jurgen or think about Jurgen: he exudes confidence,\u201D Gulati said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI walked into a room with&amp;nbsp;Jurgen when we [interviewed] him, and as you know that was more than a few times, and you come out of that room believing you can win the World Cup. And he never says \u2018You\u2019re going to win the World Cup\u2019. But he\u2019s just so confident about it, and I think that\u2019s extraordinary and I think that fits perfectly with the American mentality, which is, \u2018We can.\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He may project that confidence behind closed doors, but&amp;nbsp;Klinsmann&amp;nbsp;hasn't been shy about expressing his lack of belief that the U.S. can, in fact, win the World Cup. He said as much to &lt;em&gt;The&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;New York Times&lt;/i&gt; in December and then reiterated his point while in Brazil. According to Gulati, however, Klinsmann has always believed he could navigate his side through the treacherous Group G.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gulati recalled that as soon as the World Cup draw ended in December and the U.S. had been placed in a \u2018Group of Death\u2019 with Germany, Portugal and Ghana, the manager said that his team would survive it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHe meant it, and he believed it,\u201D Gulati said. \u201CThe confidence and the exuberance. Yeah, absolutely. And the experience. The experience. When you walk into a room and you\u2019ve got a guy with a World Cup medal around his neck, you\u2019ve got to at least listen to what he says the first time.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gulati said that exuberance has carried over to the team, which is playing with confidence and no longer overawed by the sport\u2019s big names.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI think for the first time in our history, recent history, I\u2019m not going to talk about 1950 or before, our players believe they are capable of beating anyone. That doesn\u2019t mean we think we\u2019re the favorites in any game, but we\u2019re capable of beating anyone and our players, our coach, we all believe that. I think our players demonstrated that that\u2019s the case,\u201D Gulati said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt\u2019s no longer the perception of, let\u2019s say, 20 years ago: \u2018Yeah, but we know the U.S. will fight and they\u2019re strong and they\u2019re fast and they\u2019ll keep working.\u2019 Now, especially after that Portugal game, people are saying, \u2018Wow, they played.\u2019 So I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt about that. In the end, to keep those perceptions moving in the right direction, you\u2019ve got to get results. The perceptions would have been a lot better if we held on to the win [against Portugal], but I don\u2019t think anyone has underestimated us for a long time \u2026 I think now people are not just saying [there\u2019s] delight when you get drawn with he U.S. They\u2019re saying \u2018This is a real team.\u2019 And there\u2019s no doubt the perceptions have changed.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gulati\u2019s sense of that progression, those perceptions and the national team\u2019s burgeoning popularity in the U.S. leave him confident that renewing Klinsmann was the right call.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe narrative that is consistent and constant is that the sport\u2019s in a different place,\u201D he said. \u201CWhat\u2019s going on back home is completely different than it was even four years ago. It\u2019s as if we\u2019ve had 10 consecutive nights of Landon\u2019s goal [against Algeria]. And that means the sport is in a different place. Will that trend line be a little higher and little steeper if we get through [Germany]? The answer\u2019s \u2018yes.\u2019 And we are confident that will happen.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/25/sunil-gulati-usmnt-usa-world-cup-brazil-germany-jurgen-klinsmann>