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U.S. Soccer fires head coach Jurgen Klinsmann

Photo by Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports
Photo by Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports

The Jurgen Klinsmann era is officially over.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati announced on Monday that Jurgen Klinsmann has been relieved of his duties as head coach and technical director of the U.S. Men’s National Team.

The decision comes less than a week after the USMNT’s 4-0 defeat in Costa Rica during World Cup qualifying.

“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,” said Gulati in an official statement. “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.

“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. With the next qualifying match in late March, we have several months to refocus the group and determine the best way forward to ensure a successful journey to qualify for our eighth-consecutive World Cup.”

Klinsmann, who has been in charge of the USMNT since July 2011, won the 2013 Gold Cup, guided the USMNT to the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup. The German coached in 98 games, the second-most in team history behind Bruce Arena.

A fourth-place finish at the 2015 Gold Cup, the USMNT’s worst result in the tournament since 2000, and a subsequent loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup cranked up the heat on Klinsmann. However, a semifinal appearance in the Copa America Centenario this past summer alleviated some of the pressure.

Back-to-back losses to begin the Hexagonal phase of World Cup qualifying proved to be the last straw for Gulati and U.S. Soccer. The USMNT had never opened the Hex with two defeats before this cycle.

Reports say that Bruce Arena, Peter Vermes and U.S. U-20 coach Tab Ramos have been lined up as possible replacements.

Comments

  1. F U KLINSMANN!!!

    GOODBYE! WAY TO RUIN THE GAME I LOVE!!! I CAN FINALLY WATCH SOCCER AGAIN.

    There is a real chance that he and Sunil were sent here by aliens to destroy U.S. soccer before it got *too good. That makes more sense than actually trying to make U.S. soccer better.

    They have absolutely destroyed the team I love and my love for it. annihilated the player pool, camaraderie, and American fighting spirit. I have watched just enough to know Klinsmann is still in charge, maybe 2 games, since the World Cup. Those were years ago.

    ……

    Hi SBI, I’ve missed you.

    GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE WORST COACH IN U.S. HISTORY.

    Reply
  2. This is basically like putting a band aid on a gun wound, it might stop the bleeding but the internal problems will remain. I’m actually glad Jk got fired because now everyone will be able to see that the problem isn’t the quality of the coach but the quality of the player’s. We as a nation have not developed ONE, not ONE, quality player since JK took over. The closest we’ve had was Yedlin and he’s a rotation option for a championship club. Sure JK isn’t the greatest of tactician’s but there’s only so much one can do with the quality of player’s he had at his disposal, which each year gradually regressed. Until we start addressing the severe shortcomings at the youth level, both in MLS and USYNT, we won’t get far.

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  3. Eh. IMO, the poor results from the past few years have been primarily due to:
    1. Donovan aging and retirement
    2. Dempsey aging and injury
    3. Bradley regressing following return to MLS

    Klinsmann’s failings are down the list. The problems seem to me to be the natural cycle of things.

    When we get a few more years on Pulisic and Brooks and a few others, we’ll improve, regardless of the coach.

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  4. We’ve been talking about various poor results in our region. What about the couple of games that nearly were disasters of unimaginable proportion. I can’t recall the exact matches but one I believe required Eddie Johnson coming in from the shadows to sub in the 88th minute and score on a header on his first touch to beat like St. Vincent or an equally tiny island nation. Also maybe Alan Gordon scoring to secure a tie or win at GUA City or San Pedro Sula.

    Either or both of those don’t go the USA’s way and his record in CONCACAF may be the most appalling of the last 40 years.

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  5. I think you all overrate the potential of the US men’s national team, whoever the coach is. We’re very average. I’m fine with Klinsmann leaving (and with him having to eat his pride), but it could very well not matter whether he stayed or went.

    Reply
    • The USMNT had its best world cup under Bruce. It doesn’t have to be him but I think he’s a good choice given the team’s current situation.

      Reply
      • With pretty much the same players as in 2002, the US also had one of it’s worst performances in 2006 under Arena. It’s an up and down game.

      • No they had their best game at a world cup under Bruce – the Germany quarterfinal, which they deserved to win. As for the rest, only a dying minute S. Korea goal vs portugal got the team out of their group. We were lucky. But history is based on luck.

      • In 2006, Arena did not have (a healthy)O’Brien, Friedel, Stewart, Mathis, Sanneh, or Hedjuk, only the latter failed to play an important role in the success of 2002.

    • Show some respect to one of the top two American coaches. I know you’re a Klinsmann fanboy, but his time is over and it’s time to move on.

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  6. He needed to go….full stop…..and we needed to do it now to take advantage of the time we have to right the ship….my only concern is whether or not the new coach alienates some of the dual nats; particularly CCV who is not cap-tied….that said, klinsi needed to go….

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    • I think its just as likely CCV would see this as the team trying to step away from the dysfunction that had to have been the last qualifying camp.

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  7. 1. BRUCE ARENA
    2. JESSE MARSCH
    3. DOMINIC KINNEAR
    4. OSCAR PAREJA
    5. PETER VERMES
    6. GREGG BERHALTER
    7. JASON KREIS
    Lol……At this point it doesn’t matter. Anyone is better than Klinsmann. We haven’t exerted our dominance on a top CONCACAF team let alone a Top FIFA 15 team, so at this point the only way is up. We just need something different…..new ideas, new methods, new strategies. We need US coaches who would be less concern about a big payoff and more concern about nationality, citizenship, and patriotism (Remember playing Berti Vogts and Azerbaijan national team and this same man was the USMNT technical advisor……lol).
    We need a coach that knows the limitation of players, that can work with these average abilities and will not have trouble communicating with players because of culture clashes.
    For one thing, this will send a wave of encouragement to the development of young domestic coaches.
    Any one of those coaches will be familiar with not only the US Style of play but also the skillset and abilities of the players in our league, which helps when implementing strategies and in preventing injuries (players won’t be pushed way beyond their limits!!!!).
    I never thought this day will come, now all of a sudden USSOCCER is exciting again

    Reply
    • I like Marsch. He certainly had the Red Bull doing well (even if they haven’t fared that well in the play-offs). He also has experience at the international level as one of Bradley’s assistants. I also think the high pressure style of play the Red Bull employ would fit the USMNT player pool pretty well.

      He does seem to know how to manage personalities pretty well; what other MLS coach has a single DP on the squad who very seldom starts, but who does contribute to the team as a substitute without complaining and throwing some kind of hissy fit about the lack of starts?

      I do not know how to predict the future so do not know if he will be a great choice for USMNT manager just yet, but all signs point to him taking that job sooner or later.

      Reply
      • Red Bulls supporter here…hoping US Soccer keeps their hands off Jesse Marsch for a few more years. At least until after we win an MLS Cup.

    • That list looks about right, and the winner is…..Bruce Arena!! He is the safe, practical, and proven choice for the transition. As one earlier poster put it, “Bruce will pick a team that can lunch pail it’s way through qualifying and get us to the World Cup.” I say, “Then the sparks will start to fly!”

      Reply
  8. Klinsmann took the US team to heights unseen since the way back World Cup and Gold Cup immediately prior to his management tenure…. and the tenure before that ….and the one before that…well, at least he used different words and phrases…and he won a World Cup as a player….
    Good Riddance, scam artist

    Reply
    • Both Arena and Bradley took the team to Gold Cup championships and Bradley never finished worse than 2nd. Bradley took them just as far in the World Cup and Arena did better than either in that regard. Bradley’s team finished 2nd in the Con.Fed. Cup beating Spain along the way in a game that mattered.
      Klinsmann for all his hyperbole did not improve on the Arena and Bradley records to any extent, saying he took the team to new heights is just silly.

      Reply
    • Yeah, it never really moved the way the sales pitch said, but he’s getting canned because it was headed backwards at this point.

      That was the least physical set of games I have seen from a US team in qualifying. It was too easy to just pass the ball around. That does not happen in CONCACAF. People are lying around on the ground and cards are handed out like confetti. We seemed unprepared for real qualifying this cycle and couldn’t even handle Guatemala or TnT away. Much less Gold Cup/Rose Bowl Playoff/Hex level.

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  9. Some stuff seems obvious.

    Our forwards seem pretty OK right now. Buncha Bundesliga guys, plus Jordan Morris and Jozy Altidore. Obviously Gyasi Zardes will be in the mix somewhere, either striker or wing…

    …but obviously we gotta do something about our midfield. Are we a 4-4-2, a 4-5-1, a 4-2-3-1, or what? If we’re a 4-4-2 like we’ve usually been, we need to find two C-mids who actually complement one another; you can play Baby Bradley OR Jermaine Jones at the 6, but not both, and neither is really a 10. If we’re going to play a 10 that means bringing Sascha Klejstan in as a starter, or bringing Benny Feilhaber or Darlington Nagbe in from the cold. WE NEED A 10! Our attack is incoherent. Oh, and Fabian Johnson…sorry, bro, but the more I see you at midfield, the more I like you as a defender.

    …and obviously we need some more pace, creativity, and firepower on the wing. Obvious Zardes could factor there and Pulisic certainly could but Zusi and Bedoya are blue-collar if unspectacular options…love to see guys like Sebastian Lletget or even Tommy McNamara get a look.

    …also obviously we’ve gotta do something about our outside backs. I like Yedlin (even if Klinsmann didn’t) and I lke Fabian Johnson (as an outside back, that is.) After that the pool gets shallow in a hurry and Klinsmann refused to rate or even try guys like Robbie Rogers from MLS who looked like they maybe could have helped us.

    …and oh, yeah, we need to play two CB’s together consistently. So they’re not, you know, always rubbernecking and miscommunicating and tripping over one another.

    You figure Arena will bring pragmatism and sort this out…whereas there at the end I’m not real sure anybody knew quite what Klinsmann was trying to do.

    Reply
  10. Arena is a safe bet. He’d be brought in to see the USMNT through qualification. If he does that, then he can stick around. If he fails, then US Soccer can say he was an interim choice and part ways with him.

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  11. I’d rather Tab Ramos than Bruce Arena, maybe I just don’t like him because I’m a NYRB guy.

    I really just hope whoever comes in has a similar approach to dual nationals, regardless of results, having someone who was in touch with, believed in and was able to convince a kid like Zelelam to commit to the states is important.

    it doesn’t matter how good or bad you think some of the dual nationals have been, having johannson, diskerud, boyd, brooks, d.williams, chandler, johnson, zelelam etc. is important to the USMNT, and has expanded not only their brand, which to some dual nationals may be important, but also, at times, has expanded their level of play.

    That being said. I’m looking forward to seeing a coach analyze the best available players in the pool, from every league in the world. its not just the MLS and Benny Feilhaber that gets shortchanged, the English Championship has talent that hardly got valued (Eric Lichaj and Danny Williams should be called in more often)

    at the end of the day, all i can do is read/comment on SBI and hope for the best.

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  12. K so I think we are all in agreement that Bruce is the logical choice to finish this cycle. But no one is talking about the other BIG role that is now open and that is Technical director! That is something I feel has been not been getting as much attention as it should. JK was holding two spots and we were lacking in both!

    Reply
    • As someone who watches his Dynamo TD and HC butt heads to our detriment, I don’t see the value in competing poles. I would have a separate age group team hierarchy but they should still report to Bruce. You look at our central mid, center back, keeper issues and I put it down to, we don’t seem to be treating the age group teams as serving the needs of the adult team. The emphasis shifted from concrete success and grooming players for need positions, to trying to impose an abstract aesthetic. I really don’t care about the “politicial” positions on the style question, I want teams that compete across the age groups, and I don’t want this nonsense where for several years the age groups can’t produce worthy people prepared to play at need positions. How many years has it been, Jones and Bradley are getting old? That we need better center backs? That the next generation of keepers have been brushed aside by an ageing Howard and an erratic Guzan?

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  13. So stupid. Klinsmann was the best coach we have ever had. He actually won a World Cup. No amount of Bruce Arena’s lacrosse experience measures up to the fact that Klinsmann actually got there and won the big game. Ultimately it was Michael Bradley’s poor play and regression as a player that cost Klinsmann his job. Bradley should go out the door with him. He’s way over the hill now. Lots of miles on that tread… He looks like he quit on us in the last two games. Plenty of other guys who can take terrible set pieces. Dont need a diminished Bradley on the field. He’s a liability.

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  14. Mixed feelings. Jurgen was fanstastic for the U.S. and we have advanced a lot since 2011. He leaves the program in far better shape. So thanks for your efforts, Herr Klinsmann. That said, the sell by date is here and SG made the right decision. Now the bigger question is who has the stature to replace him? I just hope we go for another foreign professional again as there does not seem to be anyone qualified enough for the job here.

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    • Perhaps the Klinsmann firing will mean the re-introduction of Nagbe, the certainly imminent arrival of Kekuta Manneh once healthy, a most likely Cameron Carter Vickers are all players to get excited about. We now should have a Manager who will instruct the players of how he wants the team to play and each player knows his role within that team game plan which should lead to a more fluid game for us. A new manager even if it is Bruce could mean some players who have been underperforming will be benched over players who are just better at the moment. The new Manager whoever it may be willl have a pool of players that is better than we have ever had but is still not a top 10 team today but we will get there. We are moving in the right direction. As the sport grows here in America the MLS Academies are taking shape, the youth coaching is getting better so expect to see continued improvement of the youth prospects.

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    • Meh. If you toss out last summer, which was still just ok (losses Colombia, Argentina), the results have been crap in our own region. I grant you that if the next guy can’t fix it, maybe it had become a dumpster fire in general — and I think the next guy will have a tough job finding younger but good players to fill key central spots — but that it became a dumpster fire under long term leadership of a coach doesn’t excuse the coach.

      In particular, we are paying for how he treated Nagbe and for how much he went back to the Old Player well last summer to get positive results to save his job. When we went back to serious regional games as opposed to cash cow tournaments, we got even worse than Gold Cup. He had a chance to remake the team and address its problems with a month long camp to bed people in and experiment with new options. He went for status quo, got his 4th place, but left his team an ageing wreck for the Hex.

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  15. I think we should have done this awhile ago, but I’m grateful this ordeal is finally over. The players had clearly had enough. I’m not thrilled about Arena, if it proves to be him up next, but he does give us some solid experience in this situation. I also hope to god it isn’t Tab.
    I like Sigi, but he just got fired and the Sounders started doing better after he left *cough* Lodeiro.
    I like Pareja, Berhalter, Marsch, Kinnear, even Olsen and Porter, but I’m not sure who’s ready and who’s willing.
    I love Mastroeni, even though most on here wouldn’t like watching his philosophy in action, but I think he could use another year or two of seasoning at club level.
    Probably not going to go after a big name since we have all this money still on the books.

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    • While I agree, maybe it’s not fair to just any of those coaches in the middle of this either. I’d like to see Pareja get the job after the World Cup.

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      • Yeah. Pareja or Marsch. But I’d like those candidates to get a full four years to implement, not have to take over on the fly in the middle of a cycle.

        Pareja’s ability to get some really tremendous performances out of young players really interests me. Before Mauro Diaz went down FC Dallas was just heads-and-shoulders above everybody else in MLS at times. That ball zipped around the pitch when Diaz was at the 10 and Dallas was humming.

  16. I’m not happy with any of the 3 possible replacements mentioned. I just don’t see an upgrade with any of them. While arena seems the favorite, the Galaxy have underperformed both of the last two seasons and he made some bad personnel moves for this year’s team. Vermes hasn’t done all that well this year either and Ramos is sorely lacking in head coaching experience.

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  17. If you were going to change directions this was the exact time to do it.

    However, it’s only have of the equation. Hiring the right replacement is vital now. If some of the names floated are potential replacements being considered it’s an absolute step backwards on a number of levels.

    Reply
      • I’m all for it but who? Cam is the only vet that is still a valuable contributor. Jones and Howard need to be phased out, Michael is bad and Jozy is a hot head.

      • I have no pulse on the inner-workings of the locker room, but Brooks has displayed the makings (heart, ability and attitude) to be one at some point. His position certainly doesn’t hurt either considering he’ll be on the pitch for all 90 minutes.

      • I’m not so sure that we need a new captain. Not that I am completely against it, but Bradley has the demeanor to be a good leader on and off the field. I wonder how much he has been affected negatively by Juergen? That relationship started off rocky, and there never seemed to be much evidence that there was a ton of respect between those two. I’m not bold enough to say that Juergen is the reason for Bradley’s form, but I wouldn’t be surprised is he is much better under a better manger, who can handle the team better in the locker room and with his tactics on the field.

  18. His recent comments regarding how his detractors, mostly fans and journalists, didn’t know anything about soccer showed the writing on the wall to me. He had to have known that something was coming to make those statements, on top of the fact that the Reuters interview was done by the same person that wrote a glowing book about JK. His PR moves around the England job make sense now.

    For me it wasn’t just the Costa Rica result, as there have been a lot of negative things to point to, but he wasn’t up off the bench with his usual yelling and gesturing. I think he had no answers and the players had stopped responding to him. I think the timing is right.

    Reply
    • I am, nobody is, not always going to agree with another coach, but he always talked down to us.

      In his mind, he was way too good for us, so why was he here. We are both better off. Time to move on. Thanks for what he did. Definitely time to move on.

      Reply
  19. I’m happy to see this. He was supposed to have a solid core by now and still can’t figure things out. The fact that he based a formation on an 18-year-old was enough for me.

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    • Arena had both his teams virtually qualified before the Hex was halfway over for 02 and 06 WCs… played a lot of young players in the later stages to try a develop match toughness… wish we had that luxury this time round but ) 0 points in 2 matches makes that tough.

      We need a coach that has won in Honduras and Panama… Arena has…

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      • You make this World Cup and only THEN worry about abstractions like “moving the team forward.”

        The problem right now is not a “vision thing,” it’s getting a youthfully athletic and effective, and talented, bunch of players to play up the spine of the team. Dempsey out sick. Jozy sucks in his place. Howard out hurt. Guzan sucks in his place. Old central mids. Nagbe out. Ineffective center backs. Cameron out.

        Some of those are solveable with better health. But some of these will involve finding better options and/or restoring people to the mix, to find a better, more competitive XI. And doing so under the pressure of a Hex where we cynically need points but have to probably risk changes to get them. Klinsi kept milking the same cows until his cows fell over.

        For this cycle, it’s not a vision problem, at least not anymore, it’s talent, risking it, finding it, to fix the lineup.

  20. YES!

    Now please don’t give the head coach posistion to Tab Ramos (for anyone who doesn’t know – Ramos is God-father of Gulati’s daugher, so there is the potential for some internal nepotism). Tab has been at JK’s side watching him tactically flounder.

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  21. I think this is very short sighted. I don’t know they can find a better replacement in the middle of the cycle. And then if you have xenophobic Bruce Arena (who subscribes to the Wambachism version of dual nationals), I feel bad for the Johnsons/Brooks/Greens of the world.

    Wish Jurgen got a longer leash. He’s done a lot of good things. But CONCACAF qualifying is getting harder on its own as all the national teams get better and more exposure to top leagues (Navas, Campbell, etc).

    Reply
    • how long does the leash need to be? bad loses are mounting like crazy

      klinsmann takes a what have you done for me lately approach to play selection(if he has an approach), shouldnt the same standard be held to the coach?

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    • Both Bruce and Bradley brought in dual nationals. I don’t think Arena is opposed to it on principle, I think he gets that we are covering up domestic development failures by doing it, and shouldn’t forget about domestic development while we import dual nationals. I think you see the disparity in how the senior team does and how U23 does, that we aren’t growing them well enough here at this juncture. I actually blame the shift from Bradenton and college to younger professionalism, because the young players go from priority to another body trying to make an adult first team.

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      • Of course Arena and Bradley used dual-citizenship players if in their estimation those players were better than domestic players.
        Any smart coach knows a team can be only as good as the players it has. Sure you can, as a coach inspire, rearrange, or make tactical decisions that make the players perform a bit better or or a lot worse, but the starting point is the quality of the players. It would be foolish for any coach to purposely not select the players he thought would raise the ceiling for the team and instead select inferior players.

    • Leash was long enough. I feel some vindication after being on the ‘against Klinsmann’ side of so many arguments/discussions here on SBI. Finally US Soccer saw what so many of us saw long ago and the Klinsmann apologists are left to mourn their Messiah.

      Reply
    • I have historically been a big Klinsmann backer and I supported a lot of the things he was trying to do…though the fact remains that he was really coming up short (especially lately) in this transformation of style we were supposed to be doing…and the bottom line is that the team just plain wasn’t responding to him anymore. I just think all the incessant tinkering and throwing players under the bus backfired on him.

      Sometimes you see a team go tone-deaf towards their boss. Happened with Bob Bradley right at the end too and I thought he had put in a pretty decent shift as Team USA’s boss.

      This wasn’t knee-jerk; it seemed like more a necessity.

      I’ll give Klinsmann a lot more credit than many others will. I thought he was extremely good at spotting and recruiting – and then promoting and developing – those young players early even when others saw nothing in them – Bobby Wood’s a great example, Jon Brooks another. I thought he was also good at setting benchmarks; you could see his attempts to re-invent the team into a stolid defensive bunkerball team into one that got out and got after the opponent. We’re WAY more proactive than we were under Bob Bradley, and I think we’re a lot less intimidated by big-name opponents these days too. He moved us a distance; we think we can compete now, and in the open field. Rewind back to 2011 and you’d find most still wondering if the USA actually had the “technical ability” to play an open game. But I also don’t think he was going to get us any further either. Once you’ve lost the team, you’ve lost ’em.

      I’m with the other vets…be surprised if it’s anybody but Arena unless US Soccer just really tries to get him on the cheap.

      Reply
      • When he ran out the same team for CR it felt to me like he was out of ideas, or too stubborn to adapt, or boxed into his own corner. In any case, no longer getting traction, and in a massive qualifying hole. If one values the concrete qualifying, it’s time to shift towards someone with a chance at prompting concrete results.

        Arena lost traction in 2006. Bradley lost it after 2010. It happens. They have been around too long and depend on certain players who eventually get past it, and also start to be able to make idiosyncratic decisions like Bornstein or Kljestan without normal pushback.

        There’s no one or next to no one left old enough to know why they bailed on Arena last time. You know Arena can qualify a team, and has a solid talent eye and sense of tactics. You can either run it fully into the ground with JK, and ensure we miss for the first time since 1986, or you can try something else. Something else needs to be experienced and turnkey. This is not the time for revolutionaries and style over substance.

        I am still going to be interested if Old Hand is good enough. They are going to have to overhaul the center of the field from end to end of the formation, to compete. While trying to qualify. Whoever gets this has a job on their hands.

      • I’m not really sure I buy into the narrative that the 2006 team quit on Arena. Donovan was having personal issues and had a terrible World Cup, but I went back a couple of years ago and watched all of those games again. The team played hard in all of the games. That Italy game was the epitome of American fight and toughness under difficult circumstances. The Ghana game basically turned on one bad play by Reyna. Ok, Gooch’s foul was not a highlight either, but it didn’t seem like lack of heart or effort to me. In fact that team played some really attractive soccer for big stretches of that tournament.

        I’ve been a big Klinsmann supporter, but I’m an even bigger USMNT supporter and I will hope for massive success under Arena just like I did under JK.

    • And so ends the NAT career of Johnathan Klinsmann. Im really hoping that Arena ends the majority of the passport American experiment. There is not a one of them that there isn’t at least as good a player that has come through out system

      Also have to think Gonzales days are numbered. If Arena had liked him, he’d still be at LA

      Reply
  22. I’m happy, yet shocked. Are we on the hook for all that money? Who will replace him and what are the expectations? If it’s the same old, same old – than I would rather have seen it through.

    Reply
    • Yes, we are on the hook for all that money. Klinsmann’s contract with US Soccer is guaranteed, which means he will be paid by US Soccer through 2018, fired or not. Which is why Gulati tried so hard to keep him around – Gulati brokered and signed that guaranteed contract, which means that he is now the fall guy. Who knows how they’re going to pay Bruce. Probably with money earned by the women’s team! Yay America!

      Reply
  23. It was time. His attitude/personality and tactical tinkering have long since ran their course.

    The real question is: Is our program better off, worse off or the same as it was before we went down this road with Klinsy? The second question, do we re-visit the “wiser” Bruce Arena or go in a fresh direction such as Jason Kreis or another international manager?

    Reply
    • It was time. He was starting to cause real damage. I don’t want Arena, but I do think that he will be able to pick an XI that will lunch pail it’s way in to the world cup. I miss the US that would pick fist fights with anyone, and that is one aspect that Arena can help with.

      Reply
      • I loved Tab Ramos as a player but I think he is the wrong person at this point to lead this team. It should be Bruce Arena as one commenter put it “he’ll pick a squad that can lunch pail it’s way to the world cup” or a similar no nonsense manager that will help us get the 18-20 pts needed to qualify.

        8 matches left int he Hex, 24 total pts up for grabs and we have ZERO POINTS. There is absolutely no room for error. 6-2-0 is about as bad as we can go and still qualify.

      • Actually they could maybe qualify with as few as 15-17 pts but that’s iffy and not really a scenario we want to be shooting for

      • @nate

        mexico made it in 2014 with 11 points (through playoff against asia). our road to russia is still relatively easy.

    • I’d be surprised if its anyone other than Bruce. Known quantity with experience managing the national team,knows the player pool, concacaf opponents, ect ect. Right now the USSF is looking for a stabilizing force to get us through 2018. Can’t see them rolling the dice with a foreigner or younger American without those traits.

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    • If the decision was made at an earlier juncture it could be more experimental. Right now, 2 games in the Hex blown and facing a deficit, one cannot learn on the job and proven competence at this level is necessary. Arena, Bradley, or some international equivalent. You do not play around with this choice unless you are also willing to risk non-qualification itself for the first time in decades.

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    • Finally, Gulati corrected his mistakes in 2011 and 2014. JK has and will never been an average coach, he is a worst coach for US soccer. He looks down US players and fans, he should deserve “a mid-finger”, entire his coaching time in US is total “BS”. I hope the new manager should do a better job

      Reply
    • Man, the number of ads on this site is becoming overwhelming. Anyways…

      I am glad they finally pulled the trigger on this, but I was also somewhat surprised it happened considering how much Gulati seemed to support JK. I supported the hiring of JK and was pleased with most of our direction for some years, but then the roster and lineup choices started going in the wrong direction IMO. Results were then affected and I was just not pleased in the slightest. However, I was hoping that JK would stay on in some capacity (technical director) just due to his ability to find talent and help our youth progression, but it seems that he is out completely.

      The likely replacement is Bruce, and as a Galaxy fan, I can see him pulling it off given we are mid-cycle and need immediate results. But, as many others have mentioned, he isn’t our coach of the future. I think we will look to international managers in 2 years time. I believe that many of them would like to coach the US as they see the up and coming talent, as well as the increase in popularity. Most coaches comment on our skills (speed, athleticism, strength, etc.) and those coaches tend to have the technical acumen to help us in terms of tactics and overall style which we lack.

      We shall see…

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