Gregg Berhalter has stated his belief that his U.S. men’s national team has the ability to beat any team in the world.
The World Cup kicks off in just two months, as the USMNT aims to get out of a Group B that features England, Wales and Iran.
The USMNT coach was asked by LaLiga North America about the possibility of winning a World Cup, which he did not totally dismiss out of hand.
“The starting point to even have the conversation if you can win the World Cup or not needs to start with: can we get out of this group?” Berhalter asked. “And that’s certainly a target of ours as a starting point.
“Then from there, do we believe that on any given day we can beat anyone in the world? Yes, we do. So now you start saying OK, now we need to play a very good game in the knockout rounds to keep advancing and that’s the goal. Once you get to the knockout round, it’s just survival. You get in survival mode and then anything can happen.
“The World Cup is a huge event with the whole world watching and you just have to stick to what we’ve been doing. And the guys really understand that and I think we’ve been practicing that. So now it’s about doing it on the world stage.”
Before the USMNT heads to Qatar, it will face Japan and Saudi Arabia in its final two warm-up friendlies, which are set for September 23 and 27.
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