November 16, 2016
Earl Gardner/Philly Soccer Page
Jurgen Klinsmann's USA finished in fourth place at the 2015 Gold Cup, losing to Panama on penalties at Talen Energy Stadium.
Yesterday, I heard two excellent opinions on the performance of U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann. One was shared before the 4-0 Costa Rica loss and one after.
Soccer Wire's Charles Boehm, speaking on Sirius XMFC, spoke about the idea that Klinsmann has simultaneously raised the ceiling and lowered the floor for the USMNT. He's absolutely right. We've become a team that can now win in Cologne and Prague, yet lose in Columbus and Atlanta.
But more than anything, the product is stale. I'm bored with Jurgen's USA, and I didn't watch most of the games that took place after the Belgium loss in Salvador. I was exhausted with Jurgen's managing, and I needed a break from the meaningless friendlies that make up so much of the international schedule.
The other was from American Soccer Now's Brian Sciaretta, who pointed out that every single person on the field is playing worse for the USA than they are for their club team. That's certainly true for the eleven starters who hit the field in San Jose last night.
I'll add a third opinion, then – Jurgen has no idea what he's doing, and it's hard to pick a starting point.
You could begin with his decision to play a 3-5-2 against Mexico last week. If Jim Curtin is the Ronald Reagan of tactics (he's conservative), then Jurgen is somewhere left of Che Guevara, with an intractable desire to jackhammer the square peg into the round hole. Every time Jurgen finds something that works, he cannot resist the urge to tinker, meddle and tweak. You sense the presence of a mind-bending demon, a soccer siren that whispers to him – "let's try this, Jurgen!".
You could go with his penchant for playing guys out of position. Matt Besler at left back? Kellyn Acosta at left back? Fabian Johnson at left back? One of those players is a center back, one is a defensive midfielder, and one is a left winger. The first is has won multiple domestic trophies, the second plays on the best team in MLS, and the third might be the most talented guy in the entire U.S. player pool. Here we are, then, moving them around the field.
But wait, there's more:
• Alejandro Bedoya as a No. 6? Jermaine Jones as a center back? DeAndre Yedlin as a winger? Huh? What? Why?
• Jurgen's positional whimsies make Peter Nowak look like an amateur.
You could talk about Jurgen's selections and snubs. Even when Sacha Kljestan was playing Champion's League soccer with Anderlecht, he couldn't get a call. Benny Feilhaber couldn't get a call. Landon Donovan was left out of the 2014 World Cup, and two poachers were picked, one of whom was injured. Guys like Chris Wondolowski and Mix Diskerud and Michael Orozco and Brad Davis didn't belong anywhere near the USMNT, let alone in the starting eleven.
Klinsmann always said he wanted to guide US Soccer into a different era. Now he finally has. The 1980's.
— Adrian Healey (@AdrianHealey) November 16, 2016
But more than anything, the product is stale. I'm bored with Jurgen's USA, and I didn't watch most of the games that took place after the Belgium loss in Salvador. I was exhausted with Jurgen's managing, and I needed a break from the meaningless friendlies that make up so much of the international schedule.
One other thing that jumped out at me from Tuesday night's loss is that the players didn't seem to be giving 100%. I wouldn't say that they were 'half-assing' it, but the typical fight and grit, the substance that makes up for our technical shortcomings, was completely missing. This locker room has always been less than enthused with Jurgen's decision making, so it's not surprising. Some players have certainly quit on him, and that probably wouldn't be the case for Bob Bradley, even though he was guilty of some of the same things that Jurgen is, namely relying on players that just weren't good enough for this level.
And this isn't about Jurgen being German, or any foreign-born player being "non-American." These guys are the sons of American military members, and that's good enough for me. Let's not twist this widespread criticism into some pseudo-xenophobia with Donald Trump and Ku Klux Klan references.
This is about Jurgen Klinsmann as a football coach, and we've reached the end of the line. For all of the good things that he's done, the negatives have stood out more. Jurgen went 3-3 in the Copa America. He finished the World Cup with one win, one draw, and two losses. He lost to Jamaica in the semifinals of the Gold Cup, on home soil.
Jurgen was hired to take this team to the next level, but he's plateaued at the same point as Bob Bradley. Now the team is in last place in round three of World Cup qualifying, and there's only a short amount of time to find a suitable replacement to get things back on track.
Here is the hard fact: every #usmnt player (abroad or domestic) is playing worse on the national team than with his club.
— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) November 16, 2016
