Thought he played far above his talent level. Was a good leader on the field and a solid defender. Can't cut it as a coach in any other league. Too young to be a national coach. Should be Wenger's assistant so he can learn how to manage a top tier soccer team. MLS Kingpin, Big ears, hires Gold Sacks lackey - who probably represent 80% of the financial interests of the league and the league owners - MLS GM, MLS Coach. Yeah, sure, no conflict of interests here. If I cared I would sue them for collusion and profiteering...instead, I'll just post about it. MLSMNT. The Bud Light of Global Soccer.
I want the best manager available, not the best manager who: is familiar with America, American players, the American mindset, MLS, Don Garber, blah blah blah. Didn't we have that with JK and Bruce Arena? Why aren't we going out and getting the best manager available? Or at least the best manager available who would want the job? It ain't a lack of funds that keeps the fed from stumping up serious money for a serious coach. They've found out how to keep money rolling in with a pretty easy formula: hold friendlies with other countries with a lot of ex pats in the states. It doesn't matter if US fans show up. Oh, and also let Mexico play its friendlies here.
Maybe that's exactly what they did: tried to hire the best manager for the job, for a reasonable price, but everybody said "no, I pass." So we're stuck with the American MLS guys. No one else wants to take care of this team, at least not for an amount of money that is not crazy.
I guess that is apparent when you think about the caliber of Berhalter as a manager. Good MLS club manager, completely untested at the international level. I'm not sure we want a trial by fire at this point. I know, I'm speaking to the choir.
Salaries for top level managers are in the realm of crazy regardless where they work. If we offer less than market rate, of course they're going to say no. I'd say no if someone asked me to do my job at less than market value. The top guys make many millions with whatever club or country hires them. And besides, money is the one thing the federation is great at making. If we could afford Klinsman, we could afford someone else with a name. If we really wanted a big hire, the money wouldn't be that much of an issue. With Klinsman it was more control at issue and why we didn't hire him sooner. That said, I'm just sick of waiting and I've always liked Berhalter well enough so I'll get behind him and see what he does. We can call for his head after a couple games in charge. No need to preemptively trash what we think he will do. Like any coach, he'll do enough to piss everyone off soon enough.
Like I posted in N&A Klinsmann recently commented that a team like the U.S. no longer suits his ambition. He wants more than surviving a group stage, which turns out was his realistic ambition with the U.S. despite some lofty words where he seemed to be aiming higher. And he's the class of coach that's probably still riding the reputation of his playing days more so than anything else. I think attracting top coaching talent is easier said then done unless buckets of money are part of the deal. And even then we'd probably be buying on older, worn out coach or a younger guy who sees the job primarily as a stepping stone.
Don't think the money is the problem, it is this whacky MLS/SUM/US Fed system that hampers a lot of important efforts. JK decided to go head to head with them and they 1. moved all his best players into the worst league, 2. publicly, privately and institutionally undermined him.
Ghana, portugal and germany - Just getting out of that group was indeed not only a tough goal but impressive. Especially when you realize we didn't get out of CACACACAFF
No one wants the he job tbh. At least without having a ton of control which ussoccer will never give up..
And if you're a top manager you want the prestige of coaching a winning club or a top national team. If Russia offers you five million a year, and the USA offers you the same, which one would you take? The team that goes to the World Cup and makes a run in it, of course. Missing a World Cup has an effect in devaluing the perceived net worth of our entire program. And with coaches, it can't be all about the cash: there's also the image. If you keep your image as a winner, you're more likely to keep landing juicy contracts for a long time --much longer than the six or seven years a player has to make top money. Why risk it coaching a national team that may fail to qualify yet again, once you look at the state of its federation and the sorry lack of quality in its pool?
it was so obvious that surviving the group was all he cared about - to the point of preventing any further advancement. he ran all of his starters into the ground and didnt rotate his squad barely at all in the WC....his bench was an afterthought. no one does that if they have designs on a run. also his tactics were extremely negative...load the pitch up with dmids and hope to squeek through....very low cieling on that type of team. maybe he tried to be better with the USMNT and was unable so he reverted to anti-football? maybe that regression was inevitable or maybe it was more about his shortcomings as a tactician and manager. ( i think it was on him and not the team but it was just easy for him to "give up")
For Klinsmann, if giving up before we had even begun to fight happened to also create a moment where he felt free to whack Landon, then it was Eine Win-Win, Baby!
Assuming you are being facetious? My apologies if you are and I need to turn up my sarcasm meter. http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-s...ederation-ceo-dan-flynn-stepping-down-sources "Flynn, 63, was named secretary general back in 2000, a time when the USSF was in extreme financial difficulty, and oversaw a period of rapid growth and increased stability, with the federation now sitting on a surplus of $150 million."
The worst part of this whole debacle is that Martino is leaving the top job in MLS to go and coach El Tri, having known all along that the managerial role for the USMNT is open. We get Berhalter. They get Tata. Do we need any other reason to be depressed? For argument's sake, let's say that Tata wasn't in the running because he isn't American and doesn't have a perfect grasp of the English language. If so, whoever is running the show at the Fed is moronic. He was open to a national team job clearly, and won't be suiting up for the US. He will go and make our competition better. Stupidity at the highest order if he wasn't considered for the reasons stated above. If on the other hand, he was an option that we considered, and decided for whatever reason that he would RATHER coach Mexico, well f us. We (the US Soccer fed and players) dug our own grave on this one. There goes 6 points in the Hex, so let's hope there are some real minnows in that last phase 'cause we're going to need them.
Like Doyle said if Crew miss the playoffs it's going to very difficult for Earnie and USSF to justify hiring a guy who misses the playoffs 2 out of 3 years in a league where half the teams get in.
To whom do they need to justify exactly ? They have zero accountability to anyone. Doyle will be forced to spread apology pieces and then write articles about the good ship lollypop that is MLS. This organization is worse than the SUM of it's parts. It is clear that every decision is compromised by league, player and coach cronism.