USSF president Sunil Gulati has just announced the head coach of the USMNT. It is Jurgen Klinsmann, current resident of Huntington Beach, CA, and one of my all-time favorite players. Klinsmann coached Germany to third place in the 2006 World Cup, then stepped down of his own choice. He was then coach of Bayern Munich in 2008-09 before moving back to the United States.Few people know that after retiring from professional soccer in 1998, Jurgen Klinsmann's last appearance for a professional club was with Orange County Blue Star in 2003. Blue Star played in the PDL Premier, and were in danger of missing the playoffs, when out of nowhere, an unknown forward named Jay Goppingen scored five goals in eight games to help place Blue Star in playoff position. About that time, someone realized Jurgen Klinsmann is from Goppingen, Germany, and his secret was out.
Klinsmann said he played as Jay Goppingen just for fun, and to teach the young Blue Star players from his extensive experience. Those are exactly the qualities I want in a coach. Excellent choice, USSF.
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Rumor has it that Klinsmann was also part of the revamp of the USSF youth development strategy introduced earlier this summer recommending a 4-3-3 approach with more crisp precision passing. If that's true, this makes complete sense as he's working to build up the USSF from the ground up. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI know Klinsmann wanted control over the developmental teams, and I hope he got it. Although is a 4-3-3 (presumably a 4-2-1-3 with two defensive mids) really all that different from the 4-2-3-1 that we already use sometimes? We just don't have the talent to pull it off.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see. I thought he did an outstanding job with Germany in the 2006 World Cup. As I was there, he clearly exceeded local expectations. What was key is that he picked a good young squad and brought in players like Lamm, Podolski, Klose, et al. who are still the backbone of the team. So let's see if he can bring his eye for talent to the US. In my opinion, the question lies with his ability to perform as a tactician. This remains to be seen. The other question is, can he incorporate Jermaine Jones, who plays in Germany, and Michael Bradley together? If he can find a way for them to flourish together, this could immediately stregthen our squad. To me, this is where Coach Bradley primarily failed.
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