Tim questions it strongly but is he involved in those conversations? I doubt it. It wouldn't have even been the second or third weirdest thing he did relating to the tournament. I would have been surprised but at that point Guzan playing wasn't a crazy idea.
Exactly. Jurgen was responsible for the shittyiness he created. But we are on our third manager since JK, and this current shittyiness is completely on the current "leadership".
Is this all that dissimilar from what Klinsmann said? Will Garber throw another hissy fit and demand fealty from someone drawing a salary from MLS and is arguably the best player in MLS (while Sweden declined to add him to their WC team even after he expressed interest)? “I’m a Ferrari among Fiats." Zlatan Ibrahimovic backed up his comments with a magnificent hat trick and helped the Galaxy grab a 3-2 win against LAFC on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park. The build up to the derby heated up earlier this week when the Swedish star was asked if if he thought he was better than LAFC's star and captain Carlos Vela, who is also the league's top scorer. “By far, because if he's in his prime. How old is he? 29,” said Ibrahimovic via ESPN. “And he's playing in MLS and he's in his prime. When I was 29, where was I? (Europe). Big difference.” He also described himself as a Ferrari among Fiats, comparing himself to the rest of the league. https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/07/19/zlatan-ibrahimovic-wild-goal-galaxy-lafc-video
Nothing Zlatan said wasnt true, but of course that didnt/doesnt matter to Garber and MLS fans. LAFC got Zlataned last night. Dude turns 38 in October. "The Ferrari had a lot of fuel today."🏎 @Ibra_official | @RippleFoods pic.twitter.com/1ZWKcyTuxZ— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 20, 2019
Nothing Klinsmann said wasn't true either. It just whizzed of Bib Kraft and he succeed Garber on him. Bradley said very similar things. heck what JK said was a TRUISM. Should not have been controversial at all. Now other things about his reign can be criticized, but not his statements that sent Garber off on his junk yard dog routine,
The point is NOT that MLS kinda sucks. If you're the type of fan who only cares about the Liverpool-Chelsea or Bayern-Dortmund type of games, of course MLS sucks. Nearly everything sucks compared to such games. A Newcastle-Huddersfield would also suck for you. A realistic fan knows MLS ranks below the 20 best leagues in the planet, which still means there are over 120 leagues worse than it. That's not terrible for a country that only started to take soccer seriously again in the last 25 years. The point is that when you got an emerging league, a league still begging for acceptance, so to speak, you expect people who come to the country to help build the sport up and whose opinion is respected overseas to say something positive about the place. Klinsmann's comments about the league had huge resonance in Europe and beyond. Here was a guy who had lived for years in the USA, who was brought to re-organize the game, who knew our history and how tough it was to make soccer part of the market, lagging behind other much bigger sports, saying that we were not competitive. Like getting shot in the back of the head by your best friend, dammit. Also, missing two Olympic Games in a row didn't help our current present. Think about it: our "missing generation," the guys now in the 25-30 range, were 17-22 when JK took over. 2011 to 2014 was the time where they were expected to become integrated with the NT, catch some scout's eye, and get their shot in Europe. JK preferred to look for youth with links to the USA instead of promoting the sport here. The pipeline from MLS to Europe completely dried up, we stopped performing in the u23 level, and our kids were given the push to rather go on a free to some academy in Europe ASAP rather than playing here. The result is an entire lost generation. A list over 50 names long of players that went to waste time in academies/youth/reserve teams where no one cared about them, since they were free. That we got a Pulisic and a McKennie out of it wasn't worth that price. They'd have made their way there too, eventually, like Tyler did. Of course, minus the unnecessary badmouthing of the league. Because, and let's keep this in mind, Adams was given a shot because he was part of the RedBull system. Otherwise, the pipeline was destroyed with an ax during the Klinsmann years. I know Klinsmann fans hate me for saying this, but I re-affirm what I said when it was rumored he'd be hired, back in 2006: "this guy is going to set us back 20 years."
Lol. The thought that because Klinsmann said that our best players choosing MLS over major league option was bad for the USMNT because it’s a lower level of play and would therefore make it harder for them to retain their edge caused Europeans (and beyond) to think less of MLS is a total joke. This is coming from someone who’s not a fan of Klinsmann and was fully on the Bradley to MLS train. So, I guess Ibra has set us back decades as well too, eh? Those equally damning words and more recent.
It's entirely different. A player who has barely been here a year or two, and who's just a player with no political clout, is entirely different. Klinsmann said it when he was our coach, when he was our technical director, when he had been living here for years, after he had been named publicly to improve our system, after Sunil had praised him as someone who knew American soccer well. And if he said in public that we're "not competitive" (and that carries a huge weight, it's not just "being weaker than Europe" --Klinsmann said, several times, "not competitive," when players returned, when criticizing the league for being only eight months long), what do you think he said in private? Because JK was always the politician. Why do you think no one from Europe has come to hire him after getting fired? It's not for lack of experience or even that he's just quite average as a coach. Worse coaches get steady jobs in the continent, specially having the great past as a player that JK has, and all those connections. His problem is that he always talks too much. He's made a lot of very powerful enemies in his own country just because he enjoys so much the sound of his own voice.
Personally, I don't really know how much if any the statements of either have "set us back" but I would say that there is an important difference between Klinsmann and Ibra. Ibra is like Swedens Lalas with much more soccer talent and, of course he is much more known worldwide. They are similar in their need for attention (although I think Zlatan is more extreme...or at least more effective). They both say things for effect and as a result you have to take whatever they say with a grain of salt. "That's just Zlatan...." When Ibra says something he may or may not believe it completely but he definitely believes it will make headlines. When Klinsmann said something it was, in my opinion, more likely to be taken seriously.
Zlatan had a wrestling-like persona long before MLS so I suspect Garber knew what the league was getting. I doubt he's losing much sleep given the end result was an entertaining, hard fought match played in front of a raucous crowd.
Let's not forget that Bruce Arena said the same thing in 2006. Did that also set us back "decades"? Q. What has to change? A. The league has to get better. The players will get better if they play in a better league. They will have better opportunities overseas, and that’s the way our national team will get better. The best players in Brazil and Argentina play in Europe and their domestic leagues are pretty good. Mexico has a pretty good domestic league, but its national team has struggled because they didn’t have many players in Europe. And we’re better than Mexico. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/sports/soccer/13arena.html
I wish we had more realistic fans on this site. If only Garber could accept it and put a plan together to take a level or two higher than his aspirational nonsense about being a top league. It isnt Klinsmann that set us back, but the league continuing to make believe that it is something it isnt and the USMNT being stuffed with 75% MLS players.
The USA thrives a bit too much on illusion. The entire posing as "defenders of democracy and freedom" is really terrible, at least countries like Russia and China are more honest with their people and tell them, basically: "to keep at the top, you have to do terrible things to others, so if you enjoy the life here, shut up." We have a bit of that manifest destiny vibe going on even in soccer. Reality is, it took others 100+ years to get where they are, we're not going to do it in 25. Or in 50. Or maybe not even 100, because by the time we have 100 years invested in soccer they'll have close to 200. Also, a lot of that goes into inflating our poor prospects. We've been quite close to ruining poor Pulisic, with the giant tifo naming him the new Mexecutioner and then losing 1-2 in Columbus. That's bad, you don't do that to a kid. It may have been even worse had we won, it'd have got to his head. Anyway, it's all a learning experience. I personally think Donovan was always ill-suited to be a jock. Guy belonged more in academia, IMO. Reason why I doubt he'll ever be a solid commentator or a good coach. He has the brains, but sports is the realm of bravado, loud people, and macho posturing --even for the women. jurgen was also badly equipped to be a coach. Guy should have gone into politics, although he still needs to keep quiet and listen more. Sometimes it's a good idea to shut up and listen, really listen, to the ideas of others. Having ideas is only 10% of the work. Also, we're not all made the same way. The point of coaching is getting the best from each, according to his capacity. At least in team sports, the pure dog-eat-dog of Randian capitalism doesn't work.
What both Klinsmann and Ibra said was completely obvious. It’s even more o ious than Harbaugh and Meyers,”"I don't think it was anything that was new, or anything of a bombshell.” Seriously, that MLS was below the big 4 and players who drop to that level wouldn’t be as challenged? There’s no serious soccer coach or player in the world who didn’t think that was obvious.
One thing is saying we're not a top league yet. A very different thing is saying we're not "competitive." The latter devalues anything any player can show on MLS. The latter is the sort of reasoning that is behind Giovinco not getting called to the Italian NT even when he was tearing it up in MLS: "the level is not enough to make clear conclusions." Yet they were calling guys they had in the Chinese Super League. Because no one associated to the CSL had come and said, "we're not competitive." Take a league at about the level of the MLS: the Venezuelan one. When they interview coaches, technical directors, etc. from that league, they may criticize many things, even the Maduro regime for not giving them enough money, or say that they still have ways to go to compare to other South American leagues. but what they won't say is "the league is not competitive." They know well enough that saying that means whatever a player shows there is meaningless. And they keep merrily "sending" players to Europe from their Primera Division. like Peñaranda that went to Udinese for a million bucks, or Cadiz to Madeira for about the same.
Some player or coach making a comment that simply states what is woefully obvious to all that have been watching shouldn't be manipulated into being the big deal that it isn't. First, Zlatan's comments remind me of Muhammad Ali's "I am the greatest" and other similar pronouncements. They: (1) have great entertainment value; (2) come from a truly exceptional athlete in his sport; and (3) provide the source some media publicity. Second: all that can be learned from the Arena years, the Bradley years, the Jurgen years and even the Sarachan tenure has been discussed and analyzed to death on here and by the professional soccer commentators and critics. C'est fini. Se acabó. Nao mais. This thread has lasted longer than most marriages. Let's move on!
Agreed. Zlatan is totally being the pro wrestling heel character, and everybody gets that. If I were LAFC though, I'd take Zlatan's pronouncements seriously.
Diskerud: U.S. Soccer sacking Klinsmann was 'rather immature' Former United States international Mix Diskerud believes the nation might have continued on an upswing if Jurgen Klinsmann had not been fired in 2016. https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/dis...was-rather-immature/i3m6jaztfrv31tbfvzf2qcmdu