SAO PAULO, Brazil — Jurgen Klinsmann played his last World Cup game less than a month shy of his 34th birthday. And though he didn’t score in that game he had three goals in the 1998 tournament, allowing him to walk away from the World Cup with his head held high.

That’s a lesson he’s tried to impress on a U.S. team that has eight members older than 30.

“The players that are beyond 30, this might be their last moment in the World Cup,” Klinsmann said Friday, the first day of preparation for his team’s round of 16 game with Belgium on Tuesday. “That’s just reality. It’s nothing kind of surprising.”

Building on history

By reaching the knockout stage in Brazil the U.S. advanced out of group play for the second time in as many World Cups, something the country had never done before.

And U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati thinks that success and the additional exposure it brings will have a long-term effect.

“It translates into more fans, more casual fans and more kids that could turn on the sport and may turn out to want to play,” he said. “Every game we play - I’m not going to say it’s a bonus because we want to go a long way - but it’s surely a big plus in terms of all those things that we want to be positive.”