Jurgen Klinsmann: 'USA can reach World Cup knockout phase'

USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann believes that his side is capable of reaching the knockout phase of this summer's World Cup finals.

The Americans have been drawn in Group G with Germany, Portugal and Ghana, but their coach is confident that they can emerge as surprise qualifiers.

"Our team has matured a lot over the last couple of years and we are going to give them a big, big fight," he said told reporters.

"We are expecting to go to the knockout stage, that means Germany, Portugal and Ghana will have to fight it out for the other spot [from Group G].

"We've come through a tough qualifying process where we proved our capability. We have a lot of good players."

The USA's most successful World Cup campaign came in 2002 when they reached the quarter-finals of the competition, going out to Germany 1-0.