How Jurgen Klinsmann Plans to Make U.S. Soccer Better (and Less American)

Thanks for posting this. I read it this morning over breakfast and was going to post it if no one else had.

It's a mostly complimentary article. It does shed some new light on how sudden the cut announcement was, surprising people at US Soccer and the media one day after Klinsi had said he wasn't set on his 23 yet.

Supports the idea that Klinsi just didn't tolerate Donovan's more laid-back, introspective personality, couldn't fathom not working 100%, 24/7, all year long, and so just didn't want Donovan on his team because he didn't fit his vision of what a pro soccer player should be like.

 

Articles like that, that contain quotes such as those, make me absolutely dislike Klinsmann. That article is a fawning hagiography.

 

I dont think they idiolize or make him a saint. They merely describe who the man is. They show how their is some trepidation in US soccer and support as well.

Its a balancing act and we wont really know the result till the world cup is over. and even then if we dont get out of the group it appears there is a really good chance he will still be coach.

they even show how jurgen has luxuries other coaches did not get. (of course in 1998 US soccer made no money at all and this last year was the second highest in revenue and this year is heading to be the highest in revenue ever so it kind of makes sense)

it is a good piece. it doesnt say what his result will be or whether it will work only what his vision is and what he wants to do.

didnt say he is making it happen or he WILL do it only that this is his vision.

 

The impression that I got was that all his decisions come down to "THATS SO JURGEN". I don't find it particularly insightful.

 

In a way I do find that extremely insightful. The man they portray in the article is the same man that runs the team. He wants the GO GO GO mentality to be there all day every day. He wants people who challenge themselves and others. The Kobe Bryant comment is quite insightful to his mindset. He truly does not value past performance as much as he does current and future performance if the value isn't there. You can argue all day if his evaluations are correct, but he has a method in his head and a direction.

Sunil has admittedly basically given him the keys to the car and said take us wherever you want to go. He has a direction and a vision, it might be misguided as Arena notes, but his personality extremely plays into how he runs his squad and the vision he has for the US Soccer setup.

In a way by saying THATS SO JURGEN you've hit the nail on the head and probably why the opinions are so heavily divided on his decisions. He has unilateral power at the top currently, and is not afraid to use it to his ends. If you fundamentally don't agree with his visions and methods, its going to be messy.

Love him or hate him, love the path he sees or hate it, it's hard to argue he's not dedicated to his vision.

 

This is what I think as well. We wont know till its over. But I think we do have a habit of overpaying and overpraising people for what they were and not for who they are today.

We are sentimental.

Jose comes into chelsea and see ashley cole and aziplicueta. one a legend for chelsea the other a new comer.

He pretty much goes with aziplicueta all year. that would be a weird decision in America. We wouldnt understand in some circles.

It doesnt mean JURGEN is right. Let me be clear.

It does mean this is his vision of how things should be and that remains consistent. attitude means a lot to him. your mentality is important. I think the US mentality seems to be pretty strong right now. Most players say "media can say all they want" and "we dont care. we are going in to win" timmy howard last night.

 

Yes Jurgen has made many changes. But those changes have not necessarily been to "new" things and are certainly not distinctively "German" versus "American". They are just things he happens to like as a coach. It grates that there has been a linkage between Jurgen+New+German/European versus US Soccer Pre-Jurgen=American.

I don't find anything fundamentally German or un-American or new about his Scotland temper tantrum. It just struck me as something many coaches would do. I mean, didn't Gene Hackman do that sort of thing in Hoosiers? Oh, the little preparation drills are important and must be approached with seriousness and energy is new? Come on.

 

Seriously this. It's the obvious angle and the article played it up way too much when there isn't really that much there.

 

Which quotes are fueling this hate?

 

This conjecture, specifically, makes me think this guy has never played a sport or observed training at any reasonable level:

Only if you're used to FFPS.

What?

The funny thing is, Jurgen's approach is VERY American: Upbeat confidence, yearning for innovation, placing motivation on the forefront of ideology, etc.

The media confuses some of the fans who have been around for a long time because their articles come off as condescending and patronizing and give no credit to the history of U.S. Soccer. In short, they act like the USSF is the CSA. I find that the newer fans LOVE it, though.

He's doing some "new" things in regards to what Bob and Bruce did in the past, but that doesn't mean that the old things were necessarily wrong, or that the new things are necessarily right or vice versa. They are just that, they are new..the vision of a single person, just like Bob's and Bruce's visions differed from each other, so does Jurgen's...but many media outlets make it into something it's not.

It is hard to blame them though, from their writing, it seems they are mystified by Jurgen's words and at times hypnotized by his vision..since apparently they don't debate soccer tactics on a message board and aren't used to these groundbreaking ideas.

This isn't vitriol towards Klinsmann by the way, it is directed specifically at the media acting like we need a savior and ignoring that we've been uptrending for the last 20 years domestically and abroad, not to mention changing the way players are developed here, which seems to be wholly ignored in many of these articles (MLS Academy system, coaching tactics evolving and becoming more advanced, all before Jurgen came in with his "flipping the pyramid" comments). Jurgen's doing his thing, I'm cool with that at this point and I enjoy a lot of what he has done and said and the interest that has been drawn from his hire and the controversy surrounding him...but my GOD could the media (not necessarily this article) portray fans of U.S. Soccer as any more juvenile and uneducated?

 

They may be "new," but there's nothing necessarily "European" about them. All of us shit all over college soccer.

 

Chimp just because the article doesn't blast Klinsmann doesn't mean we don't get a lot of insight on his mental process. It was insightful to know that he's a very demanding coach in practices. We get a lot of quotes that show us what Klinsmann wants and what he values. Obviously, he just can't stand having a leader like Donovan wanting to coast at any level whatsoever. So that is cleared up. It's also very insightful how much power he has at the fed. This article is a goldmine of information.

 

Bruce was critical of MLS. Putting down college soccer is not new. Sampson controversially left off his captain. I will concede Green but not sure whether that is laudable.

 

On the bolded...1. This is not a club side...it's the last world cup that Donovan is eligible for most likely and he was better at creating scoring chances THIS YEAR than anyone else on the team by a mile. He's still in shape and still very much as good as anyone that made the team.
2. Chandler is an example of a player on the team that shows that Jurgen is actually anything but consistent. Everything he's said about Donovan as a weakness is represented by a player who is actually on the squad... so how is that consistent? Also if we're going to go with consistency then why leave off Goodson who has been starting recently?

No other NT coach makes this decision regarding LD. Every other team takes their most talented side to the WC...but Jurgen thinks the best 'in form' team includes several players that are as old as Donovan and have very little experience at the international level, very green players that are out of their depth and have very few caps, or one, with the team and a veteran core that basically seems to just go along with everything Jurgen says.

Jurgen has had 4 years to evaluate the team and I think he's ended up picking a side almost on a whim instead of true evaluation. So many players have gone through the team the past few years that it just seems like these were the guys that are here now...not that they were the best players all cycle...he's made a lot of weird decisions and that's more than leaving Donovan behind. Consistent...he's been everything but.

 

What he has done in the last three years has been great for a program wether we get or don't get out of the group stage. Nobody can leave his team in the middle of qualifiers and come back later claiming that the World Cup and team is very important. You just can't do that. This is exactly the leadership we needed in order to raise up our level. Arena's comments are comical, I'm not saying that an American coach cannot make us better, but his mentalilty is whack! If we are going to compete consistently against the best, our players need to be playing for the best teams in Europe, simple as that. It might be 10 years, 20 years, but that is exactly what needs to happen.

 

Jurgen makes me miss Bruce.

 

I miss 2002 Bruce, but I wouldn't want 2014 Bruce anywhere near this team. He'll be a crazy, xenophobic old man in the next 10 years or so.

 

Bruce's stance in that article, makes me happy he's not leading our team anymore. Juergen was brought in specifically, IMHO, to overcome the mentality in USSF that Bruce espoused. I hope Juergen is successful.

And please, don't tell me the typical US athlete doesn't feel more entitled than a European does? Come ON!

 

One more thing:

The world is too globalized now to attribute a set of ideals or approaches to a specific national identity. Everyone's ideas are shared, stolen, modified, and used by everyone else now (thanks, internet!), especially in soccer development, training, mental preparation, whatever. But, that makes the media uncomfortable and a whole set of established storylines are knocked out if you admit such a thing, and they simply NEED it to still be true, even if it isn't.

This isn't dissimilar to the necessity for the world to have a Brazilian superstar playing the game at all times. It is just part of the fabric and even when one doesn't truly exist (like, right now), they make it exist..because that's what the people want.

/rant

 

At least with Bruce we knew we had a guy that was a proven winner at the club level (and has since proven it more). In the end his downfall was being overly reliant on veterans that were past it. Had he rotated between cups better, our history would be different.

We don't have any real evidence that JK is a winner as a coach. Yes he took Germany in a home world cup to the semis. Big friggin deal. That should have been their minimum expectation for a German home cup. Some might argue that is underachieving. The evidence we have from Toronto and Munich is not flattering torwards Klinsmann.

It seems incredibly risky to me from Sunil's pov to put so much faith in a man that may not have what it takes to do what he thinks needs done. We're not talking about Rafa Benitez, who has a winning pedigree and a track record of building great academies. But, in the end, Sunil's real world experience isn't fantastic either. He's spent most of his life in the serene waters of academia and "volunteer" US soccer. Let us not forget he was let go at MLS hq.

 

Well, since we're talking about soccer specifically, I'd say that I absolutely disagree considering how humble (and humble financially) quite a few members of our MLS-based national team members are compared to their European counterparts in this tournament.

But then, absolutes either way are generally unfair, so I'll just say I disagree and that it is conjecture.

 

When within the first 2 paragraphs our NT manager is saying flat out we have no chance to win a World Cup, it really sets the tone. The whole thing is crediting him for being different and new when there are very few fundamental differences between him and other NT managers, other than being SO JURGEN.

I suppose I should have clarified that it isn't necessarily Jurgen that's frustrating, but the tone of the article, which reads like the USSF was clueless and terrible before JK showed up. It's ignorant of history, and ignorant of what our players are actually like, especially compared to European players.