Jurgen Klinsmann: USMNT cannot win this World Cup

Six months ago, Jurgen Klinsmann said something factual. This is apparently news.

"We cannot win this World Cup, because we are not at that level yet," Klinsmann said to The New York Times Magazine in December. "For us, we have to play the game of our lives seven times to win the tournament."

Only eight teams have ever won the World Cup. The U.S. is not one of them.

Teams outside the world's elite don't win the World Cup. The U.S. is not one of the world's elite.

Basically, the U.S. isn't going to win the World Cup. At least not this summer. They may do it in 2018 or 2022 or 2054, but they aren't going to do it in 2014.

Chalk it up to an inexperienced back line, the lack of a single world class player or being a team in transition. There are a lot of reasons the U.S. won't win the World Cup this summer, but whichever one you cling to -- or maybe all of them -- Klinsmann agrees with you. It's not going to happen.

Maybe you would prefer Klinsmann lie to you. It still wouldn't change the reality.

The U.S. is still going to go to Brazil with the intent of winning every match. Every time they step on the field, they will be trying to win. They may even win one, two or three matches. They may make it out of the group and even make the quarterfinals. Klinsmann saying that they will not win the World Cup doesn't change that.

That the U.S. isn't going to stand atop world soccer, and that their manager knows it, isn't exactly new. The Americans weren't going to win the 2002 World Cup either and Bruce Arena said as much going into the tournament.

"We're not going to win [the World Cup] because we're not a good enough team. I don't think anyone is going to be damaged by us saying that. I mean, how many countries have won it?"

And so 12 years later, the U.S. finds itself in the same situation. The U.S. may have wished that they had grown more since 2002 -- and they have grown a lot -- but as Arena said, how many countries have won it?

There's an elite class in world soccer and the U.S. is not part of it. Yet.

Don't get mad at Klinsmann for speaking the truth. And what you already know.