I was pretty excited about Klinsmann post 2006 when it looked like he was going to replace Arena at one point. By the time he became coach the shine had come off a bit but I was still hopeful. The sporting news article was pretty concerning but they righted the ship and qualified normally. And the World Cup was fine though the decision to leave Donovan off was incredibly dumb. It wasn’t till the second cycle till I realized what a charlatan he was. And now we’ve had multiple players come out from that era and basically say he didn’t give them any tactics and they had to get together and figure it out in their own.
I bet the thing that sold Pochettino on the job was not having to go through qualifying. The job looks a lot less attractive when you have to take a team to San Pedro Sula, and play in a monsoon with dogs running onto the field.
That is at best a disingenuous statement. Do you believe that the team got together and decided that they were going to open HEX 2018 with a 3-4-1-2 with Pulisic in the hole behind Jozy and Bobby Wood up top. Detailed USMNT tactical instructions and preparations were handled by the assistant coaches (Andi, Tab, and Martin Vasquez) Detailed opponent prep sessions, often the 3rd session in the 3-a-days, were often handled by the USMNT scout from the opponent's region. We have had multiple players report that and have seen Behind the Crest videos documenting those facts. Recently Herc Gomez again highlighted that fact. Beasley had a much more sarcastic answer 10 years ago. “Jurgen is not an X’s and O’s type of guy.” Gomez said. “He would let the assistant coaches do more of that. Jurgen is more big picture and tries to get the most out of players. Some players respond well to that. Others don’t. Others need more direction, need more details.” https://www.socceramerica.com/a-look-back-with-herculez-gomez-at-jurgen-klinsmann-as-usmnt-coach/
Lets read again about 22 "sources" in around the team, some of whom questioned if Jermaine Jones "cared"! That question aged well.
Personally I think it was 2002 that was the inflection point. MLS was drowning, at least struggling. That was the tournament that got people excited. I’m hoping for another level up here, I think the build up and hype for this WC will surprise everyone here.
Was that the recent tournament where we needed generous added time, Jamaica missing several 1v1 with our GK, and a fluky Jamaica own goal in the dying seconds to avoid elimination.
Not really. The US, by virtue of winning the last time out, doesn't enter until the quarterfinals, by which time all the small fry, and their miserably maintained stadiums, should have disappeared.
Well he is Argentinian and as we saw in the Copa America there’s plenty of rough and tumble coupled with bad officiating in CONMEBOL. And one of the things that’s impressive to me about Argentina is they know how to play versus the different game you see in CONMEBOL but they also can shift their game for when they play a France.
I don't know why we're re-litigating Klinsmann (who literally can't get a soccer job), but coincidentally this is from Tim Howard TODAY: This is a very good read from @TimHowardGK on what he hopes for from Poch as USMNT manager. https://t.co/lsHidRIvx4 pic.twitter.com/ak2TFJhyO7— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) August 16, 2024 The USMNT is a top-five coaching job in international soccer. They had to get this right and I’m delighted with Mauricio Pochettino… but here’s why it went wrong the last time the US hired a foreign coachhttps://t.co/q9VYH4OiBD— Tim Howard (@TimHowardGK) August 15, 2024 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...-soccer-World-Cup-coach-Jurgen-Klinsmann.html
And yet the rest of it has been backed up by reams of other reporting and just today you had Tim Howard saying the same thing publicly. And he’s not the only player of that era to call out Klinsmann’s coaching.
For those who are too lazy to click... Tim Howard on Jurgen Klinsmann: I was there before, during and after his reign. I spent 15 years on the national team and I don't remember a time when there was a bigger disconnect between the players and the manager than under Jurgen. He organized a lot of team excursions. He specialized in fluff and philosophical rhetoric. But there was zero soccer. We went to Versailles, we went to the 9/11 memorial, we went on boating trips. He made us come into lunch and sing the national anthem. He dictated when we slept and when we woke up. He decided what we wore. He replaced sugary snacks and enforced tighter curfews. He tried to change our breathing, he sent us on 'empty stomach runs' at dawn. He hired people and literally made up staffing positions for them. Jurgen tried to reinvent the wheel but he didn't teach us a lot of soccer. So we had to on rely on the likes Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore to bring the team together and win games - in spite of the manager.
So according to Howard, Poch is inheriting a pool that accomplished less with a great manager than he accomplished with a terrible one. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the current pool….or more likely just tending to his own ego. So dumb.
So they were wrong about Jones and the rest of their xenophobic nonsense but right about everything else. How about the fact that we should be playing a 4-4-2 and not trying to possess the ball. Were they also right about that?
Will you be posting the suck up stuff and defense that Howard said about Klinsmann when he was actually playing?
It's possible that Tim Howard doesn't know anything about Jermaine Jones, or any dual-nat loyalty nonsense, or judging the talent levels of various player pools, or what formations should or shouldn't be played, etc. etc. but since he was ACTUALLY THERE ON THE TEAM he probably has a good idea as to whether or not the USMNT coach was actually coaching the players!! I mean he give a pretty detailed description of what Klinsmann was up to, for those who want to read it... can anyone here actually dispute any of it?? 99.99% of professional soccer players who want to play for their national team don't want to end up in a spat with the national team coach who chooses the roster and end up John Brooks'ed off the team... that is actually just smart self preservation on the part of those 99.99%... the problem if there is any is with the dummies that are supposed to be journalists who are posing such questions to Tim Weah or whoever.