http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-q-a-with-jurgen-klinsmann-ahead-of-the-copa-america-1464907320 I saw the on the us soccer subreddit and didn't see anyone post it here. This is probably one of my favorite Klinsmann interviews. It's also probably one of the more candid and coherent. Also, sorry for not making the title more exciting by saying "take down" or "Klinsmann dominated." He has some interesting things to say about American sports and how soccer compares. Additionally, it sounds like he's firmly maintaining that the senior team is not around to develop players. Wish he had more to say regarding the problematic age gap between 18-23 and how he thinks we should approach it.
I saw this last night and just assumed it had been posted. He pulls no punches here. He just lays into everyone.
One thing I have an issue with here: "What is going on on the goalkeeper front? Tim Howard is 37. [Brad] Guzan is 31. Nick Rimando is 36. Where is our next wave? Holy moly. We lost that generation that didn’t qualify for [the] London [Olympics]. What happened to the Bill Hamids" Um, he was injured, and now he's back and he looks excellent. Call him up, bro. Also, acting like 31 is old for a goalkeeper is pretty funny. Guzan still has another 4+ years at the top of his game. Aside from that, there are a couple quibbles, but there are enough places to bitch about JK on this board so I'll just gloss over it. He certainly says some things that are accurate, though.
One thing I will say about this interview is that Futterman did an excellent job getting the most out of JK's responses, and he did that by asking the correct, and sometimes uncomfortable questions, like this: "WSJ: Two years ago, you said Gedion Zelalem was talented enough to play for the national team. What happened to him?" and this: "WSJ: Did you expect to be still relying on Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones and other players already over 30?" and this.. "WSJ: Younger players say you give little in the way of instruction, that you say things like “let your personality show,” or “make a statement.” Why do you speak in such generalities?" We need more point blank questions like this from our soccer media, period. Whether in a supporting or critical nature, it needs to happen more often.
That's an "individual-player" focused answer that shows Klinsmann might not be (or certainly isn't) fully prepared to manage a "team" (and certainly not a "program" as a TD). There's far too many "me" and "me" items in his answers, and not enough focus on the collective "us" (the team/program), imo. (Typical striker mentality.)
To be fair, he's called in these players because he saw something he likes, so he wants them to continue to impress him. He's not calling Nagbe in Portland, for example, and telling him to do x, y and z. He should give them an idea of what he's looking for in the role they are playing that day. But more than that, they're already pros and made the team on their own preformances. There's managing and micro managing.
I agree but I think he missed a layup follow up question when JK said this. "How can we explain to people in U.S. that soccer is a player-driven game and the decisions are made by the player? Because once the game is rolling, you have barely any influence on it. You have you three subs, a little talk at halftime and you can scream as loud as you want on the sideline, but they can barely hear you. So our challenge is always to tell them you have to take the game into your own hands, you have to drive it." It seems like a clear followup would have been "why is US Soccer paying you millions of dollars if you have such little influence on each game?"
Certainly, but as a manager of a NT, it would seem the best guidance for players (whom he wants to "continue to impress" him) would be to manage the team on how to specifically play and succeed as a team, and not just individuals out there (doing individual things like scoring, creating or intimidating) looking to impress the manager. Players are "most impressive" when they succeed within an impressive team structure, imo. JK doesn't seem to offer that to the NT players he calls in. (Or, I don't know, maybe he's starting to learn to do that a bit here in this second cycle, but a lot is still tbd in the next 2 years.) No, but he's likely providing "unhelpful" (or just flat out repetitive and unnecessary) guidance like "You’ve got to live differently, got to sleep differently, feed yourself differently. You’ve got to train longer, train extra sessions. " Yes, and JK says his staff does that "here and there." But honestly, that should be their primary focus on managing the NT and its players and the overall program. The program and USMNT has seemed to lack any real or consistent tactics for quite a few years now. Agreed, and at times it seems like JK finds ways to micro-manage individual players (in his own distinct and hands off way -- "you have to change how you sleep" and/or "you have to win every head ball on set pieces") without worrying about the overall and required managing of the team and program.
I understand, but I mean, the guy isn't trying to lose his press credentials/access here. It's still his career and how he likely supports his family. There's definitely going a little too far, and while this question is perhaps viable and you can arrive to it through reasoning, it's a professional no-no even if you're a hard-hitting reporter. This guy isn't Stephen A. Smith. I will say, along those lines, that I've always thought the impact of soccer managers is blown out of proportion, especially when compared to a more planned, static sport like American Football. I remember playing the game at a moderately high level and being out on the field, and while I would have been given some loose tactical parameters by my coach, it was still up to me to invent things and think fast. In the heat of the game, and from play to play, managers have very little influence on what's going on, except at the lowest levels. Most people don't like to talk about that because indeed, it does make the "manager" role seem a little pointless while the game is being played outside of big tactical shifts and subs, but Klinsmann actually hit the nail on the head with this for the most part.
I agree with some of what he said, but disagree with some other stuff. I almost wonder if a lot of his comments were more motivational in nature to be honest. This isn't wrong, but Rubin and Hyndman are somewhat bad examples. Rubin was on pace, but had bad timing on some injuries - that's not really his fault. He's also only 20 still. Hyndman clearly has the talent and skill, he just needs to find a different club to secure regular playing time. Whether that means going the Bobby wood route or not is hard to say, but Klinssman is right in stating that regular playing time is the most important thing. Julian Green on the other hand may be a good example, although he was never part of the american soccer development system, so using him as an example of the "18-22 problem" doesn't really fit since he was not developed in America. Another point worth making is that the more recent 18-22 age group was pretty badly hit with injuries. Pretty much all of our better prospects had bad injuries, Gyau, Pelosi, Gatt, etc etc. You compound that with the fact that it wasn't all that talented of a group in the first place, and you get a developmental gap. Hopefully the current 18-22 generation does not have the same injury woes.
For one, I'm excited about Nagbe, Pulisic, Wood, Brooks, and Yedlin. I think those guys are all going to make it. Add them to a more middle-aged (soccer wise) core of Bradley, Johnson, Cameron, and Guzan and you've got almost an entire team going forward. Throw in what the elder statesman have left (Dempsey, Jones, Howard, Beckerman, Altidore) and you do have one. Hopefully, some more of the yougsters will pan out (Miazga, and LB, Morris, etc) and/or some of the fringier guys establish themselves (Bedoya, Castillo, Zardes, etc).
Yeah, I also read that as the classic problem of great players trying to coach - they often don't understand their own greatness at a deep, intellectual level. They didn't have to figure it all out first, they just had to go "let their personality shine" (i.e., greatness is already there, just let it out!) and "make a statement" (fulfill that deep believe that you are already great and the world just hasn't seen it yet). On the whole, I think the best coaches are lesser talents that figure out how to wring every last bit of skill, nerve and daring out of their bodies and take every slight mental and tactical advantage in the game in order to scrape out a good career. They understand how to raise any player up to another level because they have already used every trick in the book and written a few new chapters.
And honestly, JK wasn't hired so much to be a manager (and then a TD too, for some reason), more so than to be a "marketer" and "narrative-changer" for US Soccer. He'd not found much success in any of those roles, imo, perhaps beyond the "marketer" (and cheerleader) type roles. He's a known name, certainly.
By the way, if you guys enjoyed this interview and can appreciate the questions the interviewer asked, you can email him and let him know. A little commendation for a job well done can go a long way from your readers. matthew.futterman@wsj.com
So, maybe someone like a Guardiola or Mourinho or perhaps Kreis or Vermes or maybe Porter, or on a lesser scale someone like Olsen, Heaps or Petke.
That is a very poor question that you would not expect from a first year journalism student much less a seasoned reporter. What answers do you expect and how does it help your story?
So Americans aren't good at soccer because they don't take matters into their own hands. Is that to be our takeaway, Herr Klinsmann?
Actually, yeah that is the takeaway for the most part. I can imagine his tone in that interview became a little negative when he started making some presumptive statements about the maturity level and responsibility of players he's hardly dealt with at all. But, it was a reallllllly interesting read. Wish more coaches would be candid like this because professionalism in sports is obnoxiously boring. Anytime an announcer says something like, "There's no room in (insert sport name here) for things like that," I almost always disagree. I would hardly watch sports if it weren't for the crazy quotes and actions that happen every once in a while. I don't imagine I'm alone in feeling that way, so why is everyone afraid to talk about it? We need bad guys sometimes who are loud and outspoken.
The underlying narrative here is that JK is only or mostly really focused, apparently, on young talent with clubs abroad. He rarely mentions young players in MLS that are or could be very important to the program -- guys like Acosta or Finlay. Maybe that's changing a bit with the Morris example, but there is just a huge default tendency for JK to kinda ignore MLS, or just not be focused (enough) on it, imo. A decent follow-up question on Miazga could have been was his move to Chelsea the right one at this point in his career. Or would re-signing in MLS or opting for a league/club where he'd continue to get minutes have been the better option. Or, could the follow-up question have been why does Miazga specifically have to model himself after a player like John Terry, when he could perhaps choose to model himself after a player like Eddie Pope (or Matt Besler).
It is not at all a poor question especially given JK's condescending tone implying that Americans are too stupid to understand the concept, and the answer should have been easy for JK. Something like "the coach can have a huge impact during a game based on what he or she did before the game. From selection, to preparation, to tactics." Obviously, Klinsmann has rightly faced criticism at times for all of those things so that would open the door for more interesting questions.
A lot of what Klinsmann complains about are the right things to complain about. The problem always seems to be one of communication and message delivery. Some of it is cultural but it's also just personality. If it were Bruce saying all these things I think it would be a lot easier. There's no denying however that he has not really assumed ownership of finding the right solution for us instead of just demanding a sea change.
The obvious answer is because he is now at Chelsea and why not learn from one of the best at the trade that is on your squad? The point was not modeling himself after Terry, but to absorb knowledge that would make Miazga even better. He can, but would probably more difficult, to learn nuances of the game from Pope or Besler. Anyway, the JK is right, though, I am astonished at how many balls JT parries away. Also, I think he indirectly answered about younger players in MLS with this quote: