This must be the worst management approach of all time. I bold the most stupid comment: “I think it’s really an interesting moment now because you have a core group of players that are kind of running out of time," he said, "and I just want them to just embrace that moment. We’re going to play for a trophy. We’re going to play for a trip to Russia in 2017, and maybe you’re not there anymore for that because you are now 32 or 33. We have players on our roster that have done so much for the national team program, but that are also not getting any younger. All these guys in their 30s, they need to realize ‘You know what, I’m may not be getting these opportunities any more. This is it. We better take that trophy.’ However it looks like, we’ve got to go and get this thing."
RE: the bolded portion, I'm not a coach (so, I don't purport to understand the appropriate mental tactics to motivate a team of athletes), and let me make it clear that I'm not a Jurgen Klinsmann fan, but is this that bad of a comment? What I'm reading from this is that guys like Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Kyle Beckerman and Jermaine Jones need to play with a sense of urgency, like this might be their last opportunity to represent the Stars & Stripes in a meaningful, must-win game, and that they need to take advantage of the opportunity. I agree that Klinsmann's stream of consciousness interviews can be odd and that he shouldn't give these players the impression that they won't be around in two years, but that could also be a motivator and get these guys to play with an extra chip on their shoulder ("let me prove him wrong").
The track record of proving Jurgen wrong actually succeeding in getting Jurgen to change his wrongness is just wrong.
We don't have a core group of players. We have close to a 70 player pool that Jurgen picks from. Sometimes you're called in. Sometimes you aren't. That's no way to run a national team.
I have issues with Klinsmann, but I think he was just saying that when your time is running down, you should be fighting to win whatever you can before you go. That it's not just about the World Cup, it's about all the competitions, including this one. And maybe you don't go to the World Cup, but you still have a trophy to fight for and the chance to win something before you are done and that should matter. I'm on his side there. I hate the idea that we pretend nothing matters but a small handful of games every four years. Sure, the cup is the big thing, but I absolutely think we should be looking to win all competitions, which is why tanking so miserably at the Gold Cup mattered to me.
My brother's girlfriend got a kitten on Saturday, and it died on Sunday. She's young, and it's the first time she's had a pet on her own, and she's crushed. Damnit, Jurgen...
Landon says "save the kittens" http://www.espnfc.us/confederations...van-klinsmann-should-go-if-us-loses-to-mexico
Distemper is a kitten killer. I lost all kinds of them as a kid (country life...how I miss you). I had no idea Jurgy was giving them all distemper. A-hole.
Sometimes a dead kitten will come back and bite you in the ass . . . http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/23/us/landon-donovan-world-cup-snub-outrage/ As for Donovan, Klinsmann said other players were "a tiny little bit ahead of him,"
I want to yell at work, but I cannot yell at work, which is unfortunate. So Im yelling in my head very loudly. Ive never gone into a mexico game with such mixed emotions, that's how unnatural this whole process is. They have to know that a tactical defeat for them is a strategic win. Im sure theyd relish the thought of us being fortunate to make the playoff round this time around
What dies every time Landon opens his pie hole? I would say his credibility, but that would assume he had any on the subject of JK.
Actually, every time LD speaks, a pouty-face Jurgen poster falls off a wall. Sad men have to turn to their wives for foreplay then. Tragic really.