Posted on 11/21/2016 5:29:18 PM PST by usafa92
Jurgen Klinsmann has been relieved of his duties as coach and technical director of the U.S. men's national team, U.S. Soccer announced on Monday.
According to Sam Borden of the New York Times, current Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena is likely to replace Klinsmann on an interim basis. However, Borden notes that details have not been finalized. According to Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, Arena could be announced as soon as Tuesday.
In a statement, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati explained the move, which comes after the team's horrible start to the hexagonal round of World Cup qualifying. The U.S. lost to Mexico at home and then 4-0 at Costa Rica in a 4-day span earlier this month:
Today we made the difficult decision of parting ways with Jurgen Klinsmann, our head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team and Technical Director.
We want to thank Jurgen for his hard work and commitment during these last five years. He took pride in having the responsibility of steering the program, and there were considerable achievements along the way.
Many are aware of the historic victories, including leading us out of the Group of Death to the Round of 16 in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but there were also lesser publicized efforts behind the scenes. He challenged everyone in the U.S. Soccer community to think about things in new ways, and thanks to his efforts we have grown as an organization and expect there will be benefits from his work for years to come.
While we remain confident that we have quality players to help us advance to Russia 2018, the form and growth of the team up to this point left us convinced that we need to go in a different direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbssports.com ...
the answer is always “I am confident my position is secure”. That’s reality,Except, not really.
Klinsmann's flake response went much further than your reality though. Just so we know what was said:
Jurgen Klinsmann, whose status as coach of the United States men’s national team is under intense scrutiny, said Sunday night that he was “very comfortable” with his position and that he believed those calling for him to be fired were “being disrespectful” and “ignoring the facts” about his tenure as the team’s leader.I don't hold it against him so much. I like him and lots of sports players are flakes. But the situation is becoming serious and now is not the time for a flake.
I don’t think it’s flaky. I’m kind of with him. People have been whining for him to get fired from day 1, for mostly stupid reasons. You spend that long with people calling for your termination and you’re not fired you probably do get comfortable. Meanwhile the team actually did pretty well under his stewardship, about as well as could really be expected given the actual talent level of the team. I doubt they’ll improve dramatically in the next World Cup, the fact of the matter is soccer is not a path to riches for US athletes and does not draw the talent of other sports, and the US team will be made up of 2nd and 3rd tier talent until it’s possible to make 10s of millions of dollars at it here. And that doesn’t give any coach much to work with.
Great day for US Soccer! It was awesome but those folks went as far as they could.
Time to move the level up a notch. Sometimes that is a painful process.
I just think it’s the wrong approach to rely on a bunch of guys playing in Europe under different systems, to expect them to come back to the USMNT and gel right away.
I would rather take the approach of designating one MLS team as the team where the National players can play, and develop cohesion, because in tournament play, cohesion overcomes talent.
Looks like it paid off. US up 4-0 against Honduras.
5-0! Pulisic is the real deal!
6-0! Dempsey gets the hat trick!
And Panama was a surprise loser to Trinidad and Tobago, so now the chances of the US qualifying have skyrocketed.
Not all great players make good managers.
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