USMNT Head Coach thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree Ramos would be a good option. If Berkhalter is the choice and doesn’t pan out, Ramos will be next man up. I can understand their reluctance to go to a foreign coach after the Klinsmann mess. Maybe if that has worked out better they wouldn’t be so set on an American

If Klinsmann "mess" disqualifies all foreign coaches, then Arena/Sarachan mess certainly disqualifies all American coaches, especially those with MLS background. I finally understand why they have not been able to find and hire a well-qualified coach for over a year.

Who said "disqualified?" The word was reluctance. Better to hire the devil you know than one that you don't. Klinsmann served the platter to Arena that lost us qualification in the last WC. Not that Arena deserves praise, but he inherited that disaster. Say what you want about Sarachan, but at least the player rotation is much improved and being experimented with. The next person in line needs to solidify a core and mate it with strategy and tactics.

Tata Martino and JCO have both coached in MLS. They fit the definition of "the devil you know," especially JCO, who has done his share of humiliating the USMNT in this down period, and also has been tested against top-level international competition, such as Germany and Brazil in the last World Cup. That neither man was even interviewed says a lot about US Soccer's phony "search."

BTW, Klinsmann wasn't a great fit for the USMNT, but the biggest "mess" he left was telling the truth about MLS and how it sucks at developing US players. That, more than anything else, was why he was fired. And the reason we have so many great young players now like Weston McKennie is because Klinsmann opened the doors of the Bundesliga to them.

Anyway, it looks like we'll get to see if whatever strategy and tactics Berhalter comes up with can hold its own against players whose quality is more like Gonzalo Higuain's than his older brother's.

Klinsmann's last year with the US was a complete disaster. The team should have progressively gotten better through his tenure, but peaked early in his tenure. The performance over five years speaks volumes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree Ramos would be a good option. If Berkhalter is the choice and doesn’t pan out, Ramos will be next man up. I can understand their reluctance to go to a foreign coach after the Klinsmann mess. Maybe if that has worked out better they wouldn’t be so set on an American

If Klinsmann "mess" disqualifies all foreign coaches, then Arena/Sarachan mess certainly disqualifies all American coaches, especially those with MLS background. I finally understand why they have not been able to find and hire a well-qualified coach for over a year.

Who said "disqualified?" The word was reluctance. Better to hire the devil you know than one that you don't. Klinsmann served the platter to Arena that lost us qualification in the last WC. Not that Arena deserves praise, but he inherited that disaster. Say what you want about Sarachan, but at least the player rotation is much improved and being experimented with. The next person in line needs to solidify a core and mate it with strategy and tactics.

Tata Martino and JCO have both coached in MLS. They fit the definition of "the devil you know," especially JCO, who has done his share of humiliating the USMNT in this down period, and also has been tested against top-level international competition, such as Germany and Brazil in the last World Cup. That neither man was even interviewed says a lot about US Soccer's phony "search."

BTW, Klinsmann wasn't a great fit for the USMNT, but the biggest "mess" he left was telling the truth about MLS and how it sucks at developing US players. That, more than anything else, was why he was fired. And the reason we have so many great young players now like Weston McKennie is because Klinsmann opened the doors of the Bundesliga to them.

Anyway, it looks like we'll get to see if whatever strategy and tactics Berhalter comes up with can hold its own against players whose quality is more like Gonzalo Higuain's than his older brother's.

Klinsmann's last year with the US was a complete disaster. The team should have progressively gotten better through his tenure, but peaked early in his tenure. The performance over five years speaks volumes.

That's because of washed-up players who were past their "sell-by" dates, like Michael Bradley, who's a decent center back until you realize he's supposed to be a midfielder. Arena kept going to the same dry well with the same results. Don't blame Klinsmann for missing the World Cup. It wasn't his fault.

[Anonymous]

What happened in Klinsmann's last years was the best US players got lured back to MLS by big money to fill stadiums and lost their competitive edge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree Ramos would be a good option. If Berkhalter is the choice and doesn’t pan out, Ramos will be next man up. I can understand their reluctance to go to a foreign coach after the Klinsmann mess. Maybe if that has worked out better they wouldn’t be so set on an American

If Klinsmann "mess" disqualifies all foreign coaches, then Arena/Sarachan mess certainly disqualifies all American coaches, especially those with MLS background. I finally understand why they have not been able to find and hire a well-qualified coach for over a year.

Who said "disqualified?" The word was reluctance. Better to hire the devil you know than one that you don't. Klinsmann served the platter to Arena that lost us qualification in the last WC. Not that Arena deserves praise, but he inherited that disaster. Say what you want about Sarachan, but at least the player rotation is much improved and being experimented with. The next person in line needs to solidify a core and mate it with strategy and tactics.

Tata Martino and JCO have both coached in MLS. They fit the definition of "the devil you know," especially JCO, who has done his share of humiliating the USMNT in this down period, and also has been tested against top-level international competition, such as Germany and Brazil in the last World Cup. That neither man was even interviewed says a lot about US Soccer's phony "search."

BTW, Klinsmann wasn't a great fit for the USMNT, but the biggest "mess" he left was telling the truth about MLS and how it sucks at developing US players. That, more than anything else, was why he was fired. And the reason we have so many great young players now like Weston McKennie is because Klinsmann opened the doors of the Bundesliga to them.

Anyway, it looks like we'll get to see if whatever strategy and tactics Berhalter comes up with can hold its own against players whose quality is more like Gonzalo Higuain's than his older brother's.

Klinsmann's last year with the US was a complete disaster. The team should have progressively gotten better through his tenure, but peaked early in his tenure. The performance over five years speaks volumes.

That's because of washed-up players who were past their "sell-by" dates, like Michael Bradley, who's a decent center back until you realize he's supposed to be a midfielder. Arena kept going to the same dry well with the same results. Don't blame Klinsmann for missing the World Cup. It wasn't his fault.

Right, because it isn’t the job of a USMNT coach to assess the players for their career and psychological factors and call up new players as needed to ensure that we stay on target. Poor, poor Klinsmann, he was just a bystander to what was going on with our aging stars. All of that stuff about his inability to settle on a direction and keep a team on target was garbage. It was all the players fault....

It was absolutely a large part of his fault we didn’t make it....we finished very poorly in the immediately preceding Gold cup and his final matches which were part of WC qualifying and left a wreck of a team for the next coach. If you think it isn’t a main responsibility of the head coach to take care of personnel matters and ensure players psychology is on the right track, and to make improvements in anticipation of personnel who are being problematic, you are lost. It’s probably the most important responsibility.

He failed because he couldn’t take the pulse of the team and make the adjustments needed when it was headed downhill. He let it keep going south for long enough to result in the train wreck that was 2016/2017.

[Anonymous]

We lost to Costa Rica 0-4 away, a team that beat us 0-2 at home, and we lost away to Mexico 1-2. Klinsmann at his worst was a better coach than anyone we’ve had in the past 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We lost to Costa Rica 0-4 away, a team that beat us 0-2 at home, and we lost away to Mexico 1-2. Klinsmann at his worst was a better coach than anyone we’ve had in the past 20 years.

The results from the 2002 cycle don't agree with you. Klinsmann left us with a disaster. Own it.

[Anonymous]

The 2002 World Cup qualification campaign was a pain in the butt and we qualified 3rd place in the hexagonal with 17 pts, 5-2-3 record and +3 GD. We reached the quarterfinals which was pretty great, although Mexico in the round of 16 wasn’t exactly a powerhouse.

The 2014 World Cup qualification we came 1st place in the hexagonal with 22 pts, 7-1-2 record and +7 GD. We came up short in the round of 16, though we took Belgium the distance, a quite formidable team.

Under Klinsmann we lost the first 2 games of the hexagonal, then Bruce Arena was brought back in and touted as the guy who would get us into the World Cup, sure thing. And he also lost 2 games, and tied 3 more. Jurgen gave Pulisic his debut, and brought Brooks and Fabian into the fold. Howard had some of his strongest performances under his direction. He didn’t leave a disaster, we panicked after dropping the first 2 games of the hex, said screw the process, went back to 2002, didn’t qualify anyways, fired the guy we hired as a savior, elected the VP of the old regime, and over a year later we still don’t have a permanent coach. There’s world class coaches available, but they haven’t been considered. We might hire a decent head coach of a franchise that almost ceased to exist beyond this season, but we’re not really sure about that either. Now that’s a disaster.

[Anonymous]

But since you brought up leaving us with a disaster, look no further than the team’s performance at the 2006 World Cup under Bruce Arena. Yikes. I’d rather have Bob Bradley.

[Anonymous]

Klinsmann was unable to come up with the right combination of players and a tactical plan for the USMNT to consistently win tough games. In that sense he failed at his job. But he's become the all-purpose scapegoat for a whole host of problems that US Soccer is still sweeping under the rug while its leaders finalize their contract with a new coach whose main qualification seems to be that he's related to one of them and is in bed with MLS leadership, after the phoniest "search" in modern sports history.


You can't talk about the "disaster" that followed him without talking about the players who were their own worst enemies by constantly whining about Klinsmann shifting them around the pitch, which world-class coaches do all the time. Look at how Belgium beat Brazil in the World Cup: Martinez came up with a surprise tactical plan that shifted some of the world's best players out of their normal positions. Did you hear anyone complain? Does Christian Pulisic complain about his changing roles at Dortmund under different coaches? Good players don't do that. And players who want to win international tournaments don't walk away from top-level competitive leagues to take big-money contracts in the Retirement League (MLS).

[Anonymous]

It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

No, because I don't care. What I care about is using Klinsmann as a scapegoat to avoid the real problems: US Soccer and MLS. Stats are nothing if you can't win big games. And that will come with two things neither US Soccer nor MLS does well: Player development and coach development.

Our problems are structural and won't be solved by hiring someone like JCO or Tata. But US Soccer trying to rig the choice for Berhalter shows that they have learned absolutely nothing from the past four years. Not. A. Single. Thing. Just reinforcing mediocrity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

No, because I don't care. What I care about is using Klinsmann as a scapegoat to avoid the real problems: US Soccer and MLS. Stats are nothing if you can't win big games. And that will come with two things neither US Soccer nor MLS does well: Player development and coach development.

Our problems are structural and won't be solved by hiring someone like JCO or Tata. But US Soccer trying to rig the choice for Berhalter shows that they have learned absolutely nothing from the past four years. Not. A. Single. Thing. Just reinforcing mediocrity.

There is no evidence that JCO and Tata would solve the organizational problems. They are good coaches, no question. There's also no evidence to support your contention that Klinsmann was a better manager than Arena circa 2002-2006. Rather it's the opposite.

Has Berkhalter been announced yet or are you just poisoning the well to prepare for the announcement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

No, because I don't care. What I care about is using Klinsmann as a scapegoat to avoid the real problems: US Soccer and MLS. Stats are nothing if you can't win big games. And that will come with two things neither US Soccer nor MLS does well: Player development and coach development.

Our problems are structural and won't be solved by hiring someone like JCO or Tata. But US Soccer trying to rig the choice for Berhalter shows that they have learned absolutely nothing from the past four years. Not. A. Single. Thing. Just reinforcing mediocrity.

There is no evidence that JCO and Tata would solve the organizational problems. They are good coaches, no question. There's also no evidence to support your contention that Klinsmann was a better manager than Arena circa 2002-2006. Rather it's the opposite.

Has Berkhalter been announced yet or are you just poisoning the well to prepare for the announcement?

1. I said that.
2. I didn't say that. Perhaps someone else did, but not me.
3. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Berhalter has the job and that the announcement is imminent. I'm presuming they know what's up, though there are still reports that the LA Galaxy are in the mix. Of course I would much prefer he go to the Galaxy, in the hopes that it will force US Soccer to somehow come to its senses and do a real search.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

No, because I don't care. What I care about is using Klinsmann as a scapegoat to avoid the real problems: US Soccer and MLS. Stats are nothing if you can't win big games. And that will come with two things neither US Soccer nor MLS does well: Player development and coach development.

Our problems are structural and won't be solved by hiring someone like JCO or Tata. But US Soccer trying to rig the choice for Berhalter shows that they have learned absolutely nothing from the past four years. Not. A. Single. Thing. Just reinforcing mediocrity.

Klinsmann would still be coaching if he did not say that our best players, especially young ones, should not settle for comfy mediocrity of MLS, but instead they should strive to play in Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must kill you that even with the recent crappy results, Arena's stats are still better than Klinsmann.

Nothing written above demonstrates that Arena left a bigger mess than Klinsmann. We made the WC in 2006. The team was in shambles when Klinsmann left.

No, because I don't care. What I care about is using Klinsmann as a scapegoat to avoid the real problems: US Soccer and MLS. Stats are nothing if you can't win big games. And that will come with two things neither US Soccer nor MLS does well: Player development and coach development.

Our problems are structural and won't be solved by hiring someone like JCO or Tata. But US Soccer trying to rig the choice for Berhalter shows that they have learned absolutely nothing from the past four years. Not. A. Single. Thing. Just reinforcing mediocrity.

Klinsmann would still be coaching if he did not say that our best players, especially young ones, should not settle for comfy mediocrity of MLS, but instead they should strive to play in Europe.

It is the truth. He was 100% correct. It’s where old FIFA players go to retire, when they are no longer in their prime. We can’t hang with them in their prime. MLS is at slow speed.