HEAD bowed, Sacha Kljestan trudged off the pitch at Larnaca’s Papadopoulos Stadium during the United States’ 2-0 defeat to Ukraine in their international friendly on March 5.

The match, moved from Kharkiv to the Cypriot city due to political turmoil in Ukraine, was supposed to give him — and the other European-based US players — the chance to show coach Juergen Klinsmann what they could offer for the World Cup.

Unfortunately for the Anderlecht midfielder and his team-mates, they fluffed their lines.

Kljestan was taken off just past the hour mark as the US team put a disjointed performance in going down to Ukraine, who missed the World Cup after narrowly losing to France in the qualifying play-offs.

After missing out on the 2010 World Cup, Kljestan doesn’t want to be missing this time around for the US.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in football,” Kljestan told Dawn in an exclusive interview. “It was very disappointing and now it motivates me to make the 2014 World Cup team.”

Kljestan had a starting role for the US in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers but he was sent off in their 2009 Confederations Cup match against Brazil and that turned the tide for the now 28-year-old.

He went to the peripheries of Bob Bradley’s team, being named in the 30-man preliminary squad for the South African showpiece but failed to make the 23-man final team.

But that summer, he left Major League Soccer (MLS) side Chivas USA for Belgian giants Anderlecht and won back-to-back league titles with the club in the last two seasons.

His form for Anderlecht saw Klinsmann take notice and he was once again in the national team reckoning.

“Klinsmann puts a lot of confidence into the team with his positive energy and enthusiasm,” Kljestan notes.

Although the Ukraine friendly wasn’t one of Kljestan’s best performances in a US shirt, he’s enjoying his best season to-date with Anderlecht having already scored nine goals from midfield, including one in the Champions League.

But despite Kljestan’s form, Anderlecht’s league form has been poor in recent months as they have slipped 12 points behind league leaders Standard Liege and earlier this week fired coach John van den Brom.

However, Kljestan’s only chance of making it to Brazil in three months’ time is to keep his form going.

Sacha Kljestan (l) in action for USA. -Photo by AP

“The World Cup takes place only once every four years and if you aren’t motivated for this once in a lifetime tournament, then you shouldn’t be there,” Kljestan says. “I’m very motivated to get in the squad and do well in Brazil.”

If he does make it to Brazil, Kljestan and the US will have odds stacked against them to advance from Group ‘G’ which also has Germany, Portugal and Ghana.

Klinsmann expects the US to reach the knockout stage and Kljestan reckons the same.

“It will be very difficult as we play against two teams [Germany and Portugal] who are in the top five of the FIFA rankings and Ghana were Africa’s best team at the last World Cup,” Kljestan says.

“However, we have a strong belief as a national team that we are good enough and on a given day we can beat anyone. Our goal is to advance from the group stages.”

Playing at Anderlecht, Kljestan has been first-hand witness to the success that Belgium’s national team has enjoyed in recent times.

Belgium are many observers’ dark horses for the World Cup but Kljestan doesn’t think they would go all they. Instead, he thinks it would be the hosts who will be crowned champions for a sixth time on July 13.

“Anything is possible in football but I don’t think Belgium will win the World Cup although I believe they have the talent to make it very far,” he says. “I believe that Brazil will win the World Cup this year.”

“Champions League biggest tournament in the world”

This season, Kljestan scored his first Champions League goal in Anderlecht’s 3-1 loss to Greek giants Olympiakos.

Anderlect suffered an ultimately disappointing campaign, going out in the group stage, but Kljestan believes the experience has made him – and the team stronger.

“I think the UEFA Champions League is by far the biggest club football event in the world,” Kljestan says.

“It has the top club teams in the world competing for a very prestigious trophy … it doesn’t get better than that.

“I think playing in the Champions League for the past two years has really helped me and the team.

“On a personal level, it has given me a lot of confidence that I have played against the best in the world and not backed down.”

Kljestan put in another superb performance against French champions Paris St Germain as he assisted the goal which secured a 1-1 draw for Anderlecht after they had been beaten 5-0 by the Parisians in the return fixture.

And Kljestan believes PSG can go all the way and lift the Champions League trophy in Lisbon at the end of the season.

“I believe that PSG have the talent and the team to win the Champions League,” he says. “They are one of the best and most complete teams that I’ve ever played against.

“It always depends on how you play on a certain day but they are very good. Their main challengers will be Bayern Munich in my opinion.”

Kljestan was only one of two Americans who featured in this season’s Champions League with Schalke 04’s Jermaine Jones the other.

However, he believes back home the standard of MLS has improved over the last few years – especially with players such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry crossing the Atlantic to end their careers in the US.

“I think football in the US has grown immensely in the last four years,” Kljestan says. “The MLS has grown with more teams, more fans, and better players.

“As the MLS continues to improve, the sport will continue to grow and our national team will get better as well.“

For now though, Kljestan has no plans of going back to his country. Instead, he wants to continue his growth in the Belgian League.

“I think playing in Belgium has helped me a lot,” he reckons. “The league here is very good with a lot of talented young players.

“As you can see, Belgium’s national team is one of the best in the world now and a lot of that starts with young Belgians having success in the Belgian Pro League.

“And I think I’ve become a more complete player since I moved to Belgium. “

Note: This is the third installment of a 14-part Dawn 2014 FIFA World Cup special, which includes exclusive interviews with current and former players, features and analyses ahead of the football extravaganza in Brazil.