Stars and Stripes do it in style

WHEN US coach Jurgen Klinsmann revealed before his team's World Cup opening match that he planned to leave Brazil only after the July 14 final, those comments - implying the Americans would go far in the tournament - were met with a mixture of disbelief and amusement.

Team USA, after all, arrived at the competition as one of the favourites - not to win the trophy, but to head home straight after the group stages. Some even went so far as to suggest that Klinsmann was now flip-flopping on his earlier assessment of his team's chances.

On at least three previous occasions, the 49-year-old had publicly declared that his players had no chance of winning the World Cup and that any expectation of them doing so was simply unrealistic.