I was one of his earliest, loudest critics. And while I would love to dig if his body and shoot him again, last night removed any need to talk about him ever again
History is relatively kind to those who achieve mediocrity...because it does not care to record what was possible, just what happened. The Brazil WC was brimming with possibility for USMNT.... and Jurgen had no clue, no belief, in that possibility. A classic case of the soldiers on the ground achieving marginal success despite the incompetence and weakness of their command.
Okay, this is really my last comment on him: we massively under performed in Brazil. It was frustrating to watch and frustrating to hear people praise ir
Shrug. In that first cycle Klinsmann won the Gold Cup, finished first in the Hex, and 2013 was our winningest year in the history of US soccer (and not just beating pansies). The 2014 World Cup "met expectations" as we advanced from the group stage (the rest of the World believes Klinsmann overachieved by advancing from that group). Its OK to say that in Klinsmann's first cycle, the results were OK. Sunil's big mistake wasn't hiring Klinsmann. It was signing him to a long-term extension before the 2014WC had even played out. [Presumably he did that because Euro clubs were sniffing around, and he inexplicably panicked.] The 2014 World Cup should have been his last competition with the US.
I'm surprised JK hasn't actively sought a new club. For sure he could find 1 in Germany. Either Bundesliga or 2 Bundesliga. Maybe in the Championship as well. Or Turkey at worst.
I completely agree that it was a mistake to extend his contract before the 2014 WC finals. But isn't it likely Sunil would have offered him an extension after that WC, since he managed to get us out of our group?
"You create an environment inside your team that's conducive to the comfort levels of all players," he said. "You develop a philosophy that you think will work for the group." A riposte to the Klinsmann era. http://www.americansoccernow.com/articles/how-the-u-s-men-s-national-team-got-its-groove-back
I bet he has. And if they saw his work with the US team, it wasn't exactly a big boost. His reputation around the world is: great player, shite coach.
I think knowing klinsmann ego, he will big for the US in a way outside of being the coach. I think he will play an active role in assisting and mentoring his past players such as bobby wood, Joe gyau and players he recruited such as green, Johansson and zelalem. He might even continue to on the side, recruit players for the usa such as timothy Tillman. Why? He doesn't want his legacy to be his firing, he will find a way to complete his personal picture ,and USMNT will Probably unknowingly or knowingly benefit from it.
This has been a bad blow for Klinsmann. The press around the world has taken notice. This is from AS, Spain: http://us.as.com/us/2017/03/25/futbol/1490417186_523261.html USA Humiliates Honduras & Starts Happily the Era Arena 2.0 Michael Bradley showed once again as the axis of the team, scoring the 2-0, a great goal coming from a crossed shot from outside the area.[...] Meanwhile, Honduras shouldn't feel too bad: this score does not reflect their actual level. They just had the bad luck to be the chosen rivals for this game, the purge of the frustration left by the end of the Klinsmann era.
Pretty spot on. His results were "Okay". We've won the Hex before. (More than once) We've won the Gold Cup before. 2013 was winningest year,...hmmm... (because LD was playing?) We've advanced out of group play before. And anyone who still insists out group was the group of death just needs to zip it. He led us to a few "historic friendly wins. But also some historic losses. The problem with "OK" is that it's not enough and it is certainly way less than Klinnsman promised.
Even though we don't have a big name coach? Bullshit, I say. We need Jurgen to bring respect to US Soccer.
You gotta say. Having a big name is good at least for coverage. Provided the coverage is positive. JK's reign did allow folks (non-followers of the team) to discuss our boys.
I don't believe that Klinsmann feels motivated to take just any job. I don't think he would be interested in anything less than a job that is very attractive to him for one reason or another (money, prestige, personal interest, what have you), and if he doesn't happen across one, he's got plenty of money to live on and can probably supplement that just fine with part-time punditry in either German or English or both.
This is true. I think his presence unnecessarily skewed the tone and direction of the dialgue, but it did help get the casual fans plus the Euro-centered American-based fans that generally have ignored American soccer a reason to be interested. At the same time, though, the internet and the great increase in cable television's coverage of the sport since around the 2010 WC cycle has had a lot to do with that as well. Plus the cultural impact of the EA FIFA franchise.
I think JK likes his comfort zone: warm weather, nice beaches, good house, family nearby. The beach seems important: he moved from Newport Beach to Huntington Beach. So I wouldn't expect him to go anywhere with a lousy weather. If I had the money, I'd stay in Southern California too. Why go freeze your butt somewhere in Northern England?
I really don't care about coverage or what 'footballing' countries think of us. I'd rather have them think of us as soccer backwater. Its even more enjoyable when we beat them.
I can be a bit more fair to Bradley these days about the Gold Cup Final debacle in 2011 when I consider just how badly that US team played in '11 and '12. The ship wouldn't be righted until '13, and basically would capsize again two years later. In regards to Arena, I thought he was sabotaged by injuries, and by getting a bit too comfortable with vets. Pretty much every high end attacking weapon he had developed or looked forward to using between '02-'04 got injured or had their career completely derailed by injuries by '06 other than Dempsey and Donovan, and everyone else was older. If you look back over the combinations of MLS lifers, and never was's that he was forced to trot out, the variety of non-entities that we pinned our hopes on in the midfield and at forward in 2004-2006, you pick up on what went wrong. Arena's team peaked in terms of talent and health between 02-03, then the pieces that were supposed to form the core like Mathis, Wolff, O'Brien, and Eddie Johnson all were waylaid by injuries, Mathis and Johnson were never the same, don't know if Wolff might have been better, or if he peaked as he was pre-injury in '01, and O'Brien was completely ruined by injuries. The only key weapons that survived this attrition were Beasley and Donovan. Vets like Reyna and McBride survived, only for Reyna's US career ending injury to play a key role in us locking the win or go home knockout group stage finale against Ghana. I held the horrendous collection of bogus pre-cup friendlies against Arena in '06 and bashed him at the time for it, believing the cream puff schedule did not prepare us well at all for the battle hardened powerhouse that was the Czech National Team coming off an enormous performance at Euro '04, the eventual champs in Italy, and the most successful African team really ever at a WC alongside Nigeria in Ghana. Instead we got a collection of SEC styled out of conference games, and we even managed to lose to one of them. I didn't think he took friendlies seriously enough down the stretch, that was the one area I appreciated Klinsmann, scheduling really difficult games to test ourselves in, Arena didn't do that as much in his second cycle, and that, especially down the stretch, combined w/an over reliance on vets really hurt progress. However, as mentioned earlier, I think injuries were the key reason we stunk it up in '06, and it's worth remembering a couple of things about that tourney: #1 we were the only team to face a largely healthy Czech squad, the squad fell apart w/injuries after our game, #2 we were the only team other than Germany (and Australia if like me, you view that PK as the result of an epic dive) to draw Italy in regulation, and did so despite getting hammered by the refs, and #3 we were epic hosed in the group finale, giving up a ridiculous game ruining penalty, when we were set to go in at half time w/all the momentum, and that was after Ghana got it's goal solely because of a brain fart, and torn ACL from Reyna which lead directly to Ghana's only legit goal. It's worth mentioning that in that game, we scored a goal and hit the post in the run of play, even had a Donovan miss a sure fire chance when he inexplicably dished to Olsen when the goal mouth was open, while Ghana's two goals came as a result of a catastrophic injury and brain fart from Reyna, and an utterly bogus penalty. I felt Arena's first cycle was definitely better than his second, but I also feel that in 2006 we were screwed by a horrible draw (legit Group of Death), an extraordinary collection of key injuries, and then terrible luck in the group stage. Change up the order of the games, but nothing else and we beat the Czech's and maybe beat Ghana, who knows, instead we ended up with a worst case scenario and still were a bad penalty and an international career ending injury for Reyna away from advancing to the knockouts. What if we had landed Costa Rica or Mexico's draw for the group stage? In with Angola, Iran, and Portugal, and the US advances. In with Germany, Poland, and Ecuador and we probably advance out of Group A. In with England, Sweden, and Paraguay, maybe we advance as well. Instead after the most dominating qualifying performance in concacaf qualifying in ages, the US got easily the toughest draw of any of the qualifying sides. Just brutal. There's a mountain of difference between what happened with Arena's boy's in '06, and what happened in '98, when after being gifted a relatively friendly draw, they proceeded to completely choke. The only thing I find in common in those performances (or say Costa Rica last November, or the Gold Cup Final in '11), is that the US men did seem to give up on the Czech game relatively early in group stage opener. That was the only time that could be said of Arena's US squad, and it's telling that in the next match, with everything against them, against the eventual WC Champs, two men down, they held out, and drew the eventual champs, proving they wouldn't quit even after the Czech disaster (interesting to hear Conrad telling Wahl in a podcast last week, that the loss to the Czech's was a game against the most talented side he ever faced, and that he felt if Koller hadn't gone down in the 1st half against the US (and Baros hadn't been injured, perhaps), that team would have easily qualified out of the group. It's something I felt as well. Those Czech's were a powerhouse, the best team at Euro '04, and a power in qualifying, that then endured a pile of injuries that ruined their only WC appearance in 2006.