Klinsmann talking with U.S. Soccer

Klinsmann's contract did expire, but the German Fed had a contract offer on the table. I think he remembered how they and the country was looking at the team and the constant criticism leading up to the WC and said "Nah, you can take the job. If I hadn't gotten this far, you couldn't have gotten me out of the door fast enough."

As far as the U.S. not being able to compete, you have to have been on a different planet to not see the U.S. as a major player in the next ten years. The non-renewal of Arena was right because he was so fixed on his way. The possible introduction of Klinsmann should bring a new direction and a coach who will try to play to the strengths of the players he has.

 

Just fucking hire someone already. The national team should not be out of commission for nearly six months. That's unacceptable.

If this deal is done by the end of the year as they say and then we schedule some friendlies, it will be the longest the USMNT has gone without playing a game since the late '80s.

 

I agree -- I would have liked to hire a coach who has been watching every MLS and YA game this season.

 

I'd like the U.S. to hire a coach who has international experience and the ability to move the team forward. But that's just me.

 

I don't have a problem hiring any coach. But, I don't want a coach to come in here and assume that just because a player is in MLS that he isn't as good or better than some guy riding the pine in England.

I want a coach that isn't going to keep going to the McBride well, even when it is dry, instead of giving a chance to Ching, a guy that entered hot.

 

Not on crack, just cracking up when I hear folks swearing by U.S.A. soccer.
They DON'T SCORE POINTS.
Period.
In the pre-World portion they went 1-1 with Poland then lost 5-0 or 5-1 a month later in upper Germany.
In the Cup matches, they scored maybe two goals.
The epic with Italy, and some other epic back in 2002?
Every team's got those glory matches up their sleeves here and there.
The U.S. just flat bets out-muscled by the Europeans and out-finessed by most any team they face.
I'm not impressed with U.S. men's soccer and frankly, I didn't understand why year after year they kept keeping dull-ass Bruce Arena around as coach.
The U.S. men are rail-thin when they line up against other soccer teams around the world.

 

Who else read this as "Klansman talking with U.S. Soccer"?

Klinsmann will, if nothing else, be a boost for the heads and at least send the message that they want to be players on a world scene; I suspect an in-house type of hire would have been read as conceding first-tier status.

 

You mean like when they beat Portugal in the previous World Cup?

They didn't score a lot of goals in this World Cup. But neither did Italy. In fact, when you are playing the best teams in the world, a lot of goals don't get scored. Last time I checked England generally won by one goal after only scoring 1-goal.

Also, it was the US team that beat Poland 5-0 in a tune-up and months earlier, lost to Germany, in Germany, with a mostly B-Team of players that weren't going to the World Cup at all.

The US can play with the top teams. It is likely that they will lose to France, Italy, Germany, England, etc the majority of the time, but they are knocking on the door. I'm looking at Klinsmann and I think he is the offensive guy to pull the ball in the back of the onion bag.

 

Hed, as soon as you said they don't score points, I tuned you out. This is Association Football, not American Football, funnily enough played with the hands, not the feet, or basketball.

Do they score points in baseball and hockey as well?

Time to return to the kidde pool.......

 

With all the talk about Klinsmann, U.S. soccer needs to do what it can to speed this up.

I've read the drawbacks - the best one was Germany's relative lack of regard for defense - but I don't see it. The U.S. needs to be more aggressive up front and Klinsmann can do that. Additionally, since he and his wife are already based in southern California, it's a great way to get a non-American coach and keep the locals from whining about it.

Question to those who don't think Klinsmann is a good idea: Who's the best candidate? Is there an American candidate we're ignoring? (Not an antagonistic question BTW ... )

 

In other words, let's start making the other sides score 3 or 4 goals to win instead of 1.

 

I don't think it's a question of making other teams outscore the U.S., just a question of giving the American's attack more opportunity to score themselves.

I think the most disappointing aspect of the U.S. in Germany wasn't the lack of goals but the lack of scoring opportunities. The players didn't seem to have the freedom to attack because they were being so constricted by the system.