U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann hopes a pair of upcoming friendlies with Germany and the Netherlands can give him a clearer picture of his team ahead of this summer's Gold Cup.
The United States will play the Netherlands on June 5 in Amsterdam and then take on World Cup holders Germany five days later in Cologne. And the former Germany international envisions tests against such high-profile teams, while being great fun, will help gauge where the U.S. team stands heading into the tournament.
"Well, they are just fun, really. They are just kind of challenges that you would love to have every week because there's so much in those games where you get answers to a lot of questions but you also have this learning curve, you know," Klinsmann said in an interview Monday.
"I have a very good pictures of where those players are, you know, and what type of soccer they play, and that's why they are the number one team in the world, and I think Holland, who was third in the World Cup, is now ranked No. 6.
"And they are there for a reason -- because they have great players, they have great programmes, they have great coaches ... and they have consistency -- and this is especially the word that we're looking for since a couple of years, we want to build consistency in our performances."
Klinsmann, whose U.S. team begin their Gold Cup campaign July 7 against Honduras, also admits the team's trip to Germany will predictably take on added significance for him, given how deeply involved he has been with his home country's national team.
"Oh, I just expect it to be fun for everybody involved, especially for the players -- you know, they play the world champion. Who else do you want?" he said.
"It's a beautiful stadium, it's a beautiful atmosphere as it mostly is for the home games of Germany. And obviously it's my home country too and it's a programme that I took care of for two years before World Cup 2006, and I had a wonderful time.
"It's my former assistant coach [Joachim Low] that leads since then the team very successfully and took them to the World Cup title. So it's going to be a special day."
Buried in the story of Klinsmann's homecoming will be another return -- that of goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who comes back to the national team for the first time in 2015.
"He will be the starter in the Gold Cup. He's our No. 1 and it's really, really important now for him to pick up games with us.
"So this is exciting for us, even if he had some tough weeks behind him with Aston Villa where suddenly the coach [Tim Sherwood] for whatever reason -- it's the coach's decision -- decided to put him as number two behind Shay Given, which surprised us big time.
"But he fights through that and he will be sharp and he will be hungry for the long summer," Klinsmann said of Guzan.