Commentary
Consensus from San Jose: It's time for Klinsmann to go
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Nov 16, 2016
"All of the evidence piling up points to one logical outcome for U.S. Soccer," wrote SI.com's Grant Wahl, "The time has come to move on from Jurgen Klinsmann."
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati wasn't ready to cut Klinsmann loose just yet.
“We won’t make any decisions right after games,” Gulati told Wahl and other reporters inside the Estadio Nacional after the game. “We’ll think about what happened today and talk with Jurgen and look at the situation. Obviously it’s not a good start to the Hex, and today in particular was not a good performance.”
ESPN FC's Doug McIntyre noted that concerns about Klinsmann were nothing new: "Klinsmann's lack of tactical acumen and odd lineup choices have confounded his players throughout his five-year tenure, but those players always seemed to bail their manager out by turning in a big performance when his back was against the wall. Not on this night."
The irony of the loss, as Goal.com's Ives Galarcep noted, is that "Klinsmann took the same players and formation that played so well in the second half against Mexico on Friday and deploy them against the Ticos.
"What Klinsmann didn't account for was the fact several players would not only fail to play as well as they did Friday, but would play much worse. Jermaine Jones looked tired and ineffective, Christian Pulisic was rendered largely invisible, Brad Guzan lacked sharpness and John Brooks had one of the worst individual defensive performances in recent memory."
If Klinsmann is to be replaced, the obvious replacement, according to Wahl, is Bruce Arena, who took the USA to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups
and whose contract with the LA Galaxy is up at the end of the year.
"Arena would help the U.S. rediscover an identity," wrote Wahl, "one that has eluded this team since the end of World
Cup 2014."
Klinsmann has one more year on his contract, but added McIntyre, "if Klinsmann is the wrong guy, and the evidence now is overwhelming, the salary left on his contract that runs
until the end of 2018 can't be enough to save him."
25 comments about "Consensus from San Jose: It's time for Klinsmann to go".
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No more Bruce. No Bob either. Not sure if anyone has noticed, but top national team coaches are in short supply.
Bruce might be a perfect stop-gap. Russia is only 1.5 years away, so we can't have someone who needs a year to get acclimated to the international game.
Will Bruce Arena make these sorry players do better? If players can't play well two matches in a week, what good are they?
Bruce Arena has a great job at LAG and one of the biggest budgets in the MLS. Why would he jump back into USMNT that is in trouble 25% through the final round of qualifying? They will remember how poorly USSoccer treated Bob Bradley 6 years ago despite producing decent results.
As R2 Dad said, coaches are in short supply. Perhaps the best currently unemployed one is Sigi Scmid
Chris Coleman (wales) USA has a better chance to go World Cup than wales
Bruce Arena has commented in the not to recent past that he would be open to a move back to the USMNT position. The timing isn't the best. JK needs to go.
Caleb Porter? He didn't do well with the Olympians, and his MLS title-winning season in Portland was followed by one in which everything went wrong... but he's young, knows the game, and has won at multiple levels of the sport. I don't dislike JK as much as many here, but if the players have quit on the coach, you can't replace 11 players.
From Sunil's perspective, if JK fails, JK fails. If Sunil appoints a new guy and new guy fails, then Sunil fails.
Sigi's been around the international game, has had success with US U20s, has built domestic success at UCLA, LA Galaxy, Columbus and Seattle. There probably isn't a more deserving domestic candidate, and an international candidate would need to understand the American environment and players (and the closest candidate is probably currently coaching Mexico).
Give Sigi a contract through the rest of the Hex. I would bet that he would have the backing of the locker room from the start.
I've generally been supportive of Klinsman and he articulates what American players need very well, but he's not translating that information into matchday coaching anymore.
It's unfortunate Klinsman could not get the needed results these last two matches. I've been a supporter of his because he finally brought what our US players lacked: a world class mentality. Nevertheless, if he is given the boot, I think Tab Ramos deserves a shot. He's worn the jersey, fought in World Cup battles, played overseas in Spain and has coached our U20s and has had some success. He'll be able to spot and give some young play makers s chance.
I have always liked Tab Ramos and I think that he always looked for players with technique on the ball. If that's hispanic, then it's hispanic. I heard too many people complain that he had too many hispanics, but they controlled the ball. That's more than our current crop of nats seem to do.
Bravo Raymundo!
I agree %100. Tab has been sitting next to Juergen since day 1 & has his finger on the pulse of not only the team & it's persona but the staff as well. Someone totally new would likely bring in all new when this may just need a major tweak here & there. Klinsmann did some good things & Tab can build on that.
Additionally, Losing like we did to Mexico really blew & all but it was a very close match even w/o the lineup F/up in the 1st 20 mins. In San Jose' did ANY1 honestly think we had a chance going in there? I know, 4-0 is ridiculous but would losing 1-0 have made it any better? Don't drain the swamp!
Where is Bora when we need him
Bring back Rongen!
Rongen can't step over his tongue! I was hugely disappointed in JKs choice of players at the beginning and his continued use of lead foot Altidore. We stunk up the place in Costa Rica! as far as I am concerned the entire cadre has to be revised. Did anyone notice that our passes almost purposely went to CR players. Our guys waited for passes while CR player stepped in front and stoe the ball constantly, This was a player's debacle and a failing for player selection. There is no difference between 1:0 or 4:0 except pride or ego. And goal difference of course!
Anyone but JK, please.
Arena is a failure even at The Galaxy! An absolute ham handed strategist which he has proven over and over and unless his star studded team is healthy cannot inspire that team to perform at a higher level. Even he cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!
I'm going to agree with Ric and Mark on this, Siggy Stardust. I see the need for an immediate change of manager. Let the new start quickly and to pick his staff, maybe Tab and Jason will stick. It's going to take an older-experienced person to make some decisions JK wouldn't. MB, JJ, JA, BG, GZ, KB are not effective enough. I'm not interested in tackling the whole developmental debate. It's a quagmire. I do know we have talent enough to get to Russia and get out of group. We have more young players playing at higher levels than ever. Future isn't doomed, but Russia is in doubt if Gulati doesn't make a change.
Bruce is the way to go. He's a perfect stopgap to get us to Russia and then he can move aside for someone new.
And by that I mean move aside after the world cup.
Ideal scenario: Bruce takes over as boss until Russia, then retires from coaching to take up a role with USSF to be a liaison with NCAA to make the college game a better development ground for players.
Don Lamb has it totally correct. I couldn't have said it better. JK was alright as coach up to the 2014 World Cup, but he hasn't brought much more to the team. He definitely hasn't delivered what he promised.
We are nuts to get rid of JK, we will lose all the focus on getting our players developed in Europe that has been in large part to JK focus on getting our players in top leagues. If we fall back to MLS we will drop like a rock. This isnt 2000 its 2017 if we fall back to USSF/MLS/SUM mode then we will get knocked out in the first round.
Too often we blame coaches, when it is obvious our players are inferior! Bradley, Altidore, Brooks, Jones, and many others are simply not good enough. The quality of players have not risen in the last decade! Technically weak, lacking in pace, poor vision, and mentally weak.
Dear Radical Kids... follow this... first, Claudio Reyna was an improvement with the youth... but NYCFC money sucked him away... However, if you got Brian Kleiban to run the youth program, that would be a big step in the right direction... and give him at least 5 years. This won't solve the whole problem of YOUTH DEVELOPMENT and organic movement being needed, but it would quantum leap our youth programs. If you don't know who Kleiban is, google him and don't just read the latest... go back 4,5,6 years... you could turn him loose on our youth, except he'd need to clean up his mouth.