Juergen Klinsmann is hoping the USA national team can one day force its way into the top 10 in FIFA rankings.
The US side has improved greatly during Klinsmann's stint at the helm, which kicked off just over two years ago, and the German is looking to continue that ascent by competing with the top teams in world football.
"We're just growing in terms of what our demands are. We are raising the bar," he told the NBC Sports Network.
"We say we want to compete with the best in the world one day, we want to get into the top 10 in the world."
But Klinsmann quickly said it would be remiss of him to suggest the US could win the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
"No, you've got to be realistic," he added. "I mean, I think we have the potential, obviously like in the past, to get out of the group stage - it depends, obviously, who you have in your group - and then it's all down to 50-50 games. Then you give the real battles in the knockout stage.
"But why not going a bit further than you ever did before? Why not giving the big nations, whoever that is, a real battle? And that's why we play those friendlies in Italy or we play in Bosnia or wherever against top teams in the world, and we showed that we can compete there. So why not in the World Cup?"
