This one was DEFINITELY my personal favorite. I have to admit that I was a bit worried myself, but I held myself in check because it was early (and our first loss was still a road game). I figured as long as we could squeak a win vs Costa Rica, we were still in it. Luckily that ended up happening.
He does make the occassional blunder and when he does it is often really big, but he has learned from each and every one and seldom repeats the same mistakes. It was not always a smooth ride, but we are changing our entire mentality about how we approach a game and for such a major change the results have far and exceeded the expectation of even his most ardent supporters.
That's where I was, too. Mexico's implosion is the biggest shock of 2013 in CONCACAF. We just "won" the home-away qualification series against Mexico for the first time ever, and Mexico is an unbelievable 0W-3T-1L at home in the Hex. I doubt anyone on the planet expected that. I expected the US to finish 2nd behind Mexico, although I also thought 3d was possible if the muddled/drab US performances of the prior round continued through the Hexagonal. Through the prior round, roughly JK's first 12-14 months in charge, he was only getting a pedestrian "C" grade in my book. But even a C performance, an average US performance, should be good enough to qualify out of the Hex. But JK switched to younger CBs and that was my #1 complaint back in 2011 and 2012, so that made me very happy. Then JK started playing 4 attackers more often, rather than continuing BB's post-WC experiments with 3 central mids and 3 attackers, and I was also happy. Finally, Jozy and Donovan returned to the XI and I was thrilled. All my major lineup complaints are gone and the squad is coming together well now. I'm still puzzled that JK hasn't called in Lichaj for even a training look for any friendlies or the B-team Gold Cup, and I think he's missed a couple of opportunities to use Guzan in friendlies rather than over-work Howard, but those are relatively minor issues that I suspect will be corrected soon, too. And on the unexpected positive side, he's gotten better performances than I expected from Evans, EJ, Beasley (at LB; I always wanted him called in for LM), and Beckerman, so that a nice bonus. Since the end of the prior qualifying round, JK gets a B+/A- in my book. On to the World Cup!
Bringing in English League players worked for them 16 years ago, so you can't really blame them for trying it again.
this is a true story. a very. true. story. no way in hell will we get out of the hex if klinsmann is in charge
Maybe histrionic the first time, and I never got on board there. But I'm starting to truly believe it this time around with the lack of ideas this guy has to turn over the roster and properly utilize players. This was a meaningless friendly competitively which should just be setting us up for the future, yet he starts Jermaine Jones, Tim Howard, MOF, and Brad Evans. Are you kidding me? Jozy and Cameron are kind of bad enough because we know what to expect out of them. And we know what to expect out of Shea as a LW starter. He's a bench guy. No CAM to start. One CAM on the roster we knew what to expect out of, the other will be 31-32 next WC. Defensive fb's with limited speed. Little width supplied there. Such conservatism considering the situation, location, and opponent. Klinsmann is anti-development. He's playing for his job every game, and it's ironically going to cost him it eventually. Let's rip that band-aid off finally.
I was willing to give it a shot and we did look pretty good against Nigeria, then it all kind of fell apart. Two rotations is too many. Need a new coach for this cycle.
I would laugh if we kept Klinsmann and took a draw with SV&G followed by a loss at T&T. Right now, I'm not worried about getting out of the Hex, I'm worried about getting to the Hex in the first place.
Absolutely inconceivable. Just as inconceivable as us losing four straight on home soil to CONCACAF teams. I actually think we have a better chance of getting eliminated during this round than we do in the Hex. Last time around, we were 1-1-1 after the first batch of games and in third place in our group. If not for second half goals by Gomez against Jamaica (Bachelor party reward for me in Columbus) and Eddie Johnson (in the 90th) in Antigua, we would have been knocked out at that stage. Everyone says this group looks like a breeze, but the first three games include road trips to T&T and Guatemala. We've done okay at T&T historically (5W/2D/3L) but it's no guarantee we get anything out of that game, and we've only ever won once at Guatemala (1W/5D/3L). It's all hypothetical, but given our current form against CONCACAF teams, we could be in a lot of trouble in a hurry, and with only 6 games in this round, there's very little margin for error. We didn't wrap up the Hex until the final day of qualifying at this stage the last time. I'm not at all confident we'll do better this time around.
Still play in Concacaf. The concern in the hex will only depend on who makes it. Also a let down from other teams will benefit the US a lot.
The previous image (not this one) was from that movie with the Inigo Montoya quote that everyone likes, right?