Flashback: Jurgen Klinsmann - New USA National Soccer Coach

[Macmoish]

Flashback 5 Years

U.S. Soccer names Klinsmann new USMNT coach
www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29763034/30966499

Posted by Jerry Hinnen

It's not an exaggeration: the dreams of thousands of U.S. Soccer fans have finally come true.

After years of flirtation on both sides, the U.S. Soccer Federation has named Jurgen Klinsmann head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team. Klinsmann replaces the largely-unpopular Bob Bradley, fired yesterday after five up-and-down years at the helm.

Ask most fans of the USMNT and they'll tell you going from Bradley to "Klinsi" represents the biggest coaching upgrade since Lou Holtz replaced Gerry Faust at Notre Dame. That might seem like an overreaction for a coach with only two meaningful stints on his resume, one as the manager of his native Germany's national team for the 2006 World Cup cycle and another at the helm of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.

But Klinsmann's relative inexperience does nothing to outweigh the perfect combination of credibility and familiarity his hire represents for the USA. Many internationally-recognized managers might have listened to the USSF's offers, but thanks to Klinsmann having moved with his family to the Los Angeles area more than a decade ago, none of them have anything resembling his knowledge of the U.S. player pool and American mindset.

The prospect of hiring any coach with the immediate credibility that comes with being a national hero for one of the globe's great soccer nations -- not to mention guiding that nation to a stirring, surprising World Cup semifinal berth in 2006 -- would be enough to get U.S. fans salivating. Combine that with Klinsmann's understanding of the position and the U.S. roster, and it's not possible to draw up a more appealing candidate.

Which is why USSF head honcho Sunil Gulati and Klinsmann have had on-and-off back-table discussions regarding the USMNT job for years. Klinsmann has reportedly had serious reservations in the past about his level of control regarding U.S. player development and roster construction, with Gulati allegedly balking about some of Klinsmann's demands.

But with Bradley looking more and more unfit to coach another four-year World Cup cycle following the recent 4-2 capitulation to Mexico in the Gold Cup final (not to mention the inexplicabe 2-1 defeat to Panama in the tournament's group stage), Gulati and the USSF may have felt the time had come to meet Klinsmann's conditions.

Given Bradley's documented flaws and the rarity of national team coaches anywhere lasting through two World Cups, it's worth asking what took the USSF so long. But it's also worth applauding them for making the neccessary move now. For U.S. Soccer, it's hard to imagine that Klinnsmann's arrival won't be the very definition of "better late than never."

www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29763034/30966499

[Macmoish]

Paul Gardner/Soccer America

Klinsmann's real test is the matter of style

A German head coach for the U.S. national team? After the virtually Teutonic rigidities of Bob Bradley, that does not sound like the new beginning that is required.

Of course, there are weighty reasons for not regarding Juergen Klinsmann as German, or not a typical German. The fact that he did things very differently from the traditional way when he took over the German national team in 2004, for a start.

The Germany that he put on the field for the 2006 World Cup was widely hailed as something new for Germany -- younger, brighter, more exciting, more attack-oriented -- all of which sounds almost too good to be true.

As it happens, I am one of those who found Klinsmann’s achievement exactly that ... overrated. Frankly, they were not up to what one might expect -- after all, the world’s No. 2 soccer nation staging a World Cup should surely be expected to do better than third place.

Taking a quick look at those results: A 4-2 romp over a lightweight Costa Rica (which lost all three of its games, letting in 9 goals in the process) started things off, followed by a labored 1-0 win over Poland; another romp, 3-0 over Ecuador, followed. The 2-0 win over Sweden was probably the best performance, but nothing to set the house on fire. Then came a lucky PK win over Argentina -- and that was it, as the Germans bowed out to the eventual winner Italy.

That World Cup episode was Klinsmann’s first attempt at coaching, and he got amazingly high marks for it. So high, that he was quickly hired by Bayern Munich, where he found things much tougher, and got himself fired before the season ended. That record, looked at objectively, is nothing special. And it was accomplished under ideal circumstances -- i.e. working in his native country, with German players, the ones he should understand best.

Unquestionably, in 2006 Klinsmann did field a lively attacking team that, if nothing else, looked good when contrasted with the turgid side that Germany had become. He now enters a similar situation -- the current USA team has bogged down into mediocrity, it needs jolting back into life. And just as Klinsmann took over Germany under favorable circumstances (playing as the host team in the World Cup), he takes charge here at a friendly moment, with the USA confronted with nothing more strenuous than seeking to qualify for the 2014 World Cup -- a feat that it should accomplish without undue effort.

The results, then, are virtually certain to be acceptable. But it is the other part of Klinsmann’s German success that is vital here -- producing a team that plays exciting soccer. And coming up with a team that fits together all the varied parts of the jigsaw puzzle that is the American talent pool.

Of course one should view that prospect with considerable optimism. Klinsmann speaks Spanish, which ought to be a major help to him in mobilizing this country’s Hispanic talent. He has also given evidence of understanding that results are not the primary aim -- he told the Germans when his early results there were not going well, that “Young players need defeats to make progress.” (Against that, is the rarely noticed fact that Klinsmann’s new Germany was a big team -- his starting 11 against Costa Rica had an average height of 6-foot.)

It may be that Klinsmann’s main talent is as a motivator, rather than as a tactically canny coach. And that might work out well, at least at the beginning of his U.S. stint, because no one who has seen the USA’s recent games can be in any doubt that it is not a very spirited group.

But the real test of Klinsmann’s value will be the matter of style. That is going to be the crucial yardstick by which Klinsmann’s work with the U.S. men must be judged. That is all that really matters. I have said on a number of occasions that I really don’t give a damn how a coach prepares his team -- as long as it plays vibrant soccer.

So I will just have to overlook the fact that Klinsmann has shown alarming tendencies to think and act like a Californian. He took a team of Californian fitness gurus with him to Germany (supposedly they worked wonders, but one couldn’t help noticing that in the two overtime games that Germany played, it was the opponents, Argentina and Italy, who looked fitter). He had the team gathering in circles and inspiring themselves with chants like “We are a TEAM!” His California new-age affectations went right off the chart when he coached Bayern Munich, and had four Buddha statues installed at the training center. They were, it seems, meant to help spread “positive energy,” but they were soon removed. A former Bayern player Mario Basler smirked that, in his day, he and his teammates “would have gone up and shot the things.”

I suppose I shall also have to ignore the fact that Klinsmann's introductory press conference will be held at New York’s Niketown, which, for my taste is putting the sponsor too obtrusively at the center of things, however much Nike may be involved in this Klinsmann deal.

I’m hoping that none of the California-style b.s. will occur, but I’ll look the other way if it does -- provided the new team is being intelligently put together, providing it plays attractive soccer. And, of course, provided it looks like an American team, and does not resemble the bulky Germans who were so over-praised in 2006.

www.socceramerica.com/article/43109/klinsmanns-real-test-is-the-matter-of-style.html


LOS ANGELES TIMES

Klinsmann is American soccer's 1st star coach
Grahame L. Jones, Los Angeles Times
One thing is certain: None of the 34 coaches who preceded Juergen Klinsmann, who was named coach of the U.S. national soccer team Friday, had his credentials - either as a player or as a coach.

Good men and true they might have been, but he is in an altogether different league.

None of the 34 in their playing days won a World Cup, as Klinsmann did with Germany in 1990. None of them, in their playing days, captained their country to a European championship, as Klinsmann did with Germany in 1996. None of them, in their coaching days, led a team to third place in the World Cup, as Klinsmann did with Germany in 2006.

Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, said Friday that Klinsmann, who will be introduced at a news conference in New York on Monday, has "the experience and knowledge to advance the program" - and the program desperately needs advancing.

In fact, it probably needs demolishing first, redesigning second and rebuilding third - not just the U.S. national team itself but the entire way in which players are discovered, selected and trained at all age levels within the national program. Even the type of players being called up needs to be re-examined.

Klinsmann, who turns 47 today, is the right man for such a job. He was the right man five years ago, too, but no agreement could be reached. Hopefully, the obstacles that stood in the way then - and perhaps last year when his name again was raised - have been overcome.

To be effective, Klinsmann needs full control, which is what he has sought and what is thought to have held up his hiring in the past. He has the vision, but that means little without the authority.

Based in California for the past dozen years or so - he, his American wife and their children call Orange County home - he has had ample time to study the American soccer scene. He has not always been impressed by what he has seen and is on the record as saying U.S. players need to be pushed much harder - by coaches, fans and media - if they are to raise their standard.

The first thing current or would-be national team players should realize is that the rug is about to be pulled out from beneath any comfort zone they might inhabit. Klinsmann will drive them, he will demand more of them, he will push them beyond whatever limits they have so far reached. Some will survive. Some will not.

When he took charge of the German team in 2004, despite having no coaching experience, Klinsmann immediately brought about change. Younger, fitter, faster players were the new order of the day. A commitment to attacking soccer was the command from on high. It worked brilliantly then, but will it work now? Will it work here?

Klinsmann has little time before he and his team are put under the microscope. The United States has a friendly scheduled against archrival Mexico on Aug. 10 in Philadelphia, after which there are friendly matches in September against Costa Rica and Belgium.

In other words, Klinsmann has only days to put together a coaching staff. He also needs to decide whether he will simultaneously coach the under-23 team that will be attempting to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics (Klinsmann won a bronze medal with Germany in the 1988 Seoul Games) and, if not, who to put in that position, and who, also, to name as under-20 national coach.

There has to be continuity of style and philosophy throughout the U.S. program, and Klinsmann has to have confidence and trust in the age-level coaches beneath him.

As for the U.S. roster, the fans will expect immediate change, if not in personnel then at least in tactics and approach.

In short, they want to see the United States in 2012 playing like Germany in 2006.

It is no easy task. In fact it's probably the most difficult challenge he has faced in a career that saw him score 47 goals in 108 games for Germany and also star at such clubs as VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich.

What motivated him to take the U.S. job is not readily apparent. Financially, he is more than comfortable. His worldwide reputation is secure.

That leaves only the challenge, the love of the game, and the belief that he can make a difference. He deserves the chance to succeed.

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/29/SPPU1KH4Q0.DTL#ixzz1TZbPjqNl

[Macmoish]

5 Years in charge

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Klinsmann