OT: Bob Bradley fired
Know we got a lot of futbol guys here so you'll be pleased to know he's no longer USMNT coach.
http://twitter.com/ussoccer/statuses/96653408488013824
"Bob Bradley has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of the #USMNT. More info: http://bit.ly/r9TUJH"
It's time to take US Soccer in a new direction. Hire Klinsman.
I'd be unbelievably happy with that hire. Sure, Klinsmann has the shine but O'Neill gets results.
that Marcello Lippi may be the next USMNT coach. Dear god, no! I much rather have Bradley remain the head coach than Lippi. Lippi is a terrible coach and squander a lot of talent at his disposal.
Can someone explain to a casual soccer fan why everyone is so enamored with this Klinnsman fellow?
1. Took over as german manager in a particularly dire moment in german soccer, when their best players looked to be aging and had crashed out of Euro 2004 playing a very boring style. Introduced new, young players (Lahm, Podolski, Schweinsteiger) and an exciting, attacking style in time for WC 2006, where germany finished 3d, after being minutes from a shoot out to go to the final.
2. Lives in California, which alleviates many of the supposed problems of a foreign coach (fluent in English, a real concern, and understanding 'the American psyche,' a largely made up one).
3. Past interest in the job.
Should add to this that he's also spoken of need to remake the structures of youth soccer in US, which is where a lot of people place blame for some particular issues of american game: emphasis on athleticism over skill, poor first touch, etc.
He has experience working with American players as well. In 2004 he was the Technical Advisor for the LA Galaxy. His firm SoccerSolutions was hired by Toronto FC last year to help rebuild the team.
Toronto's now, by some distance, the worst team in MLS.
That's not really true. Vancouver is just as bad.
But that -22 goal difference really stands out.
He wasn't the technical advisor for Toronto, he was just in charge of revamping the infrastucture of the club, but you do have a point there.
Interesting. Thanks everyone for the informative responses.
I'm not sure I'm as happy as everyone else. The problem with US Soccer is talent, not coaching. You can't expect much better than ~20th in the world with the roster we have right now: a collection of solid players at a high level, but none who play for real big clubs or, with the possible exception of Depsey and Howard, even really stand out at smaller ones.
Cherundolo captains the fourth-place team in the Bundesliga--does that count as "standing out"?
Can someone more fimiliar with European soccer help answer a question?
Is there any "up and coming" younger coaches that they could be looking at?
I know they could never get someone like Pep from Barca but I remember when he was hired and how he changed the atmosphere and public viewing of Barca.
As a German fan I'm really curious why you folks think Klinsmann would be a good hire.
He made sense in Germany at first as public cover and PR man for Löw, who would have impossible to hire directly. But that doesn't seem to be the US's need. And he did the German program some good by campaigning for the kind of attention to strength and fitness training that's the norm in American sports...but again, that doesn't seem to be the US's need.
Tactically he wasn't good once he had to do without Löw, and his handling of personnel (especially his inattention to fatigue) was pretty disastrous at the WC (and he didn't exactly cover himself in glory at Bayern, either).
What he's really, really good at is self-promotion. That has its place; I'm not sure it's here. Something about this feels like the managerial equivalent of MLS's habit of bringing in washed-up former European stars as a marketing ploy.
As someone who made the case for him above, I basically agree with all of this. I think he'll be hired, and that it won't really do much to improve the US.
That said, Grant Wahl of SI tweeted that "you won't be surprised" by the hire. It's almost certainly Klinsmann.
I think your comments earlier about his beliefs of needing to remake or upgrade the US youth programs are what interest me in him as a potential hire. He recognizes that we don't have the proper talent moving up from within our own system. And being a product of and involved with our youth system now... it is easy to have no faith in that we are looking out for our own best interests in that area currently.
However, to identify this may not necessarily make you a genius at coaching at the international level (as the poster above points out) or the right man to put a "boot" up our men's national teams backside... It's not always the lack of talent that frustrates me when watching our "men" play; it sometimes appears to be across the board effort. We need the talent that we don't have to make it to the top tier, but effort is something I can't make an excuse for as an American sports fan.
I hope the choice is one that blends vision of the future with current restraints in mind, as well as creativity to maximize what we do have. I don't know who this should be, but it did appear that Bradly had taken us as far as he was capable.
So why not let him take over the entire program except for tactical direction of the senior squad?
This, here, is an excellent point, and I wonder the same.
Hire Goose Finnerty, former Detroit Rockers keeper. I have no idea what his credentials are or any info on his whereabouts but I do know that he was once an A+ indoor player!
I am over the moon happy, although I wish Gulati was jopinng BB on the way out. I am so over cliquish favoritsim driving our personnel decisions instead of a system in place that takes the opponent's set up into account. This team has been going backward for a while now and this move makes absolute sense. I am so glad to see him go.
But no matter who comes in, US Soccer has a lot to answer for; this is a national system that cannot produce a decent CB in eight years, a LB worth anything, more than one RB, a true LW, an attacking CM or a dangerous striker. Our national system should be cranking out players AT LEAST on the level of Dempsey and Donovan across the park. I'm not even asking for Messi! Dempsey and Donovan! Instead, young players are herded into MLS and few develop into anything at all. Mexico just won the U-17s and its only going to get harder from here. Project 2010 was a failure and we have a massive qualification cycle coming up. I don't know how Gulati keeps his job.
If it is Klinnsman, I will be very happy, but he's going to need to make lemonade out of several lemons. The system in this country needs a real overhaul... I hope this is a start, but I think it runs deeper than the manager. Still, he was certainly a big part of the problem IMO....
I agree with your sentiments, but I'm optimistic about the development of Eric Lichaj.
Also Gulati is a huge problem in this whole thing.
I would love to see him grow from here. He is a strong player; proof will be in the pudding, but I hope it comes true. Clearly, not rooting against anyone on the team, but Bradenton isn't getting the job done. At all.
With Bradley gone I can now lend my torch and pitchfork to the fire Gulati campaign.
I don't know a lot about what coaches are out there, so I've put my money down for Klinsmann, as he seemed to want to improve youth soccer. As others have pointed out, if we don't improve the fundamentals of younger players, what kind of future does the USMNT have?
I've never understood all the Gulati hate. Can anyone briefly explain where it comes from?
"This is America dammit, the expectation is World Cups" lol
Seriously, I'd like to see us advance past the quarterfinals.
Remember Spain/Switzerland last year? That was the headline before the match, the biggest shock of the tournament.
As Bradley exits the stage I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the first, last and only time one of the deans of the European coaching community credited a US-born coach for a brilliant tactical plan.
I know he isn't popular around here, but he's the best tactician the US has ever produced. I wouldn't be surprised to see him coaching at Brazil '14.
(And no, I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be gone. It's best for both sides.)
I'd dig on seeing Klinsmann hired but in the short term there's still only so much you can do with shitty defensive play. I hope he's any good at turning pylons into serviceable defenders.