Klinsmann Humble In Defeat To Ireland

Following his side's surprising capitulation at the hands of the Republic of Ireland during the week, USA supremo Jurgen Klinsmann would have been forgiven for being in bullish mood throughout his post-match press conference, but his language was instead that of positive understanding.

Granted, it's been a long season for the players, especially following their World Cup exertions in Brazil. But their loss to Ireland, despite having been a disappointing overall performance apart from a brief 15-minute spell in the opening period, won't be pointed to as a result that has distorted an otherwise exciting year for American soccer.

Instead, the former Tottenham Hotspur choose to look at it as an opportunity to re-assess his side and plan for the future.

“Well, obviously, from a result point of view it's obviously disappointing. It was definitely the entertaining game that we thought it would become yesterday. At one down, equalising the game, then getting back into it we'd hoped to get the lead before half-time and there were enough chances there also right after half-time. Y'know, we could have scored that second goal.” Klinsmann said

“They score it, then the second and third goal. Individual mistakes, they cost you on that level, (we) can't allow these types of mistakes, defensively. The second and third goal, you're not getting away with it and they punished us.” he added

Focusing in on the fact that he's doing his best to blood through some younger stars, cynics might suggest he was trying to deflect attention away from some strange selection choices that he had made in the lead up to the tie.

After all, this was their second loss since the World Cup finals, and they're currently on a run that now sees them without a win in four games.

But the USA boss was keen to stress that progress in the long-run comes with experiencing pain in the short-term.

“Then, obviously, y'know you want your younger players coming in getting some minutes on that level with that atmosphere and getting experience and there's always a risk that you might get (concede) another one, which happened through a beautiful free-kick, no doubt about it.

“We saw enough things. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff. So, we'll address that obviously with the guys. We've finished off a long year, 2014, which, overall, was a positive year and now we are building. And when you build a new cycle and you introduce new, fresh players into the group, then there will be some growing pains along the way. That is just normal.

“Obviously you don't want to lose games – absolutely not – but the development of those players are not coming without pain, so we go through it.”

Ever-gracious in defeat, however, the visiting boss was eager to let the media know that indeed Ireland were deserving of their victory and were the better side on the night.

“We obviously are not happy about the result, but we accept it.” Klinsmann concluded.