Who’s in charge anyway?
Olympic Diving Coach?
Yeah, we all saw this one coming. I’m still mulling over the choice of Jurgen Klinsmann as the new head coach of the US mens national team. I’m still not convinced it’s the right direction as coach. However, there may be other things going on within the USSF which may be associated with the change which may prove this move to be a good one in the long-run. We just won’t know for some time.
My first thoughts were that this was a mistake. After all, what’s he done in charge of a national team? Yeah, he took over the German team after a poor showing at the 2004 Euros. He lead them to to third in the Confederations Cup in 05 beating Australia & Tunisia, tying a poor Argentina in the group stage. Losing to Brazil in the Semi’s and managing to beat Mexico in OT in the third-place game. Remember, Mexico only qualified cuz they got to play all their Gold Cup matches at the Azteca in the 2004 edition.
Then there was that famous World Cup run in 2006. Okay, beating Costa Rica, Poland & Equador is exciting, but for a major team playing in a World Cup they are hosting, that should be expected, right? Then it was Sweden, ho hum, then Argentina on penalties. That was probably the highlight of his managerial career cuz Germany’s run was ended a few days later when they faced Italy. Granted, he got them to the Semi-Finals of the World Cup…but this was Germany, not the USA.
Then there was his time at Bayern Munich. He didn’t make it the entire season there. Though the argument could be made that they did finish second that season…though he was sacked with 5 games left. Five games which saw the caretaker manager lead them to winning 13 points which did save their Champions League spot.
So, it’s easy to find the negatives in this choice. However, Sunil Gulati has been chasing Klinsmann for a while now so there must be something he sees in the new boss.
The biggest criticism of the US Soccer program for years has been the development of players. Is that something Klinsmann can fix? Well, not before the next World Cup. He may be able to change some of the scouting involved in bringing players into the US Soccer Development Academy. However, that’s long-term and won’t provide returns for several years. Besides, I’m sure the numbers are out there somewhere but, what percentage of players who’ve gone there have been capped at the Senior level? No, that’s something MLS teams need to help with.
Speaking of which, this is where things might get interesting. I was reading an interview with him on SI.com today from last year.
SI.com: When you ended up walking away from the U.S. coaching job in ‘06, the word was that U.S. Soccer wasn’t willing to give you the degree of control that you wanted. Is that true?
Klinsmann: Yeah. The timing was just too difficult. Because the Copa América and the Gold Cup were being played [in 2007], and we had discussions about who you can bring down there, and those discussions were not going in my direction. That’s when I said it’s not the right time for it. We left it totally positive. It was no problem at all.
SI.com: Was there an issue with MLS releasing players for Copa América?
Klinsmann: It was about the organizational issues approaching those tournaments, who you can have and all that stuff. But it was no problem. That’s when you say as a coach, ‘O.K., it seems we’re not there yet.’ Maybe now they look at it differently…
Now, what was the disagreement on payer availability? Just from comments and selections Bob Bradley made during his time it appeared, at least to me, it wasn’t always his choice to have his best team for every game, especially during the MLS season when the league doesn’t take a break from play like many other leagues?
This would be a huge change, and probably a much needed one. If friendly matches meant he was able to alway select his strongest squad for every match as long as it was on a FIFA date, that would certainly help the team as a whole. The more the best team of 11 can play together, the better. That was always something I complained about with Bradley, Arena, Sampson…. They just never seemed to settle on a best team and were constantly changing their line-ups.
Players are with their club teams for 30+ games a season. How much time do international teams spend together really getting to know their teammates on the pitch? Then, if there is no consistency with the starting line-up, that’s makes things even more difficult to get them working as a unit. Probably the last time the USMNT was that together was in 1994…of course, many players weren’t with professional teams that year.
If we get nothing else from the Klinsmann era, changing the old philosophy would be an awesome legacy for him to leave. Heck, maybe it’ll get MLS to rethink their scheduling strategy….ok, maybe not. But one has to think that Klinsmann will be able to make a lot of decisions his predecessors weren’t.
Anyway, even with my reservations, I’m giving Klinsmann a clean slate. Good luck to him and I hope it’s the start of something great for US Soccer.
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