Written by Harrison Prolic at Bloguin
On July 13, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Philipp Lahm raises the World Cup trophy and somewhere in California, Jürgen Klinsmann is smiling. Eight years earlier, Klinsmann coached many of those German players in the 2006 World Cup. The 2014 World Cup was something that Germany had worked towards for over a decade. Klinsmann played a large part in that process. Now Klinsmann has a new challenge in a different country, with a different history and different expectations.
Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Mexico has put Klinsmann on the hot seat, and many are calling for his job. But just how bad of a job has Klinsmann done with the USMNT? In 2014 they got out of a group with Ghana, Portugal and eventual champions Germany. This summer, his side beat Germany and the Netherlands in friendlies. But a poor showing at the Gold Cup and the loss to Mexico Saturday night overshadowed these results. Klinsmann’s critics say that he’s mismanaged the team, alienated some of USA’s greatest players and been too dismissive of how the United States plays the game. The last point might be Klinsmann’s biggest problem.
Klinsmann is by no means a bad coach. You don’t get the job with two of the biggest soccer teams in the world by accident. His time with Bayern Munich was a bit of a disaster, but that was in part due to the club going through a transition at the time. The USMNT is now in a different kind of transition, much like Germany was in 2006, albeit without the same kind of resources or history. Comparing the German national team to the USMNT is pointless. One country has won 4 World Cups, the other has gotten past the round of 16 once.Klinsmann isn’t trying to make his team play like Germany, that would be silly, but he knows how to build a program for sustained success better than anyone who would possibly replace him. That’s the big challenge for Klinsmann. He wants to change the system in the U.S. He’s certainly ruffled a few feathers in MLS front offices in the process.
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