Oh thank god they finally got it right.
Yessssssssss
Cool
F$#& Yeah!
Great hire, this is awesome!
Are you saying that previous coaches did not try to win games?
LOUD NOISES! I assume this is a good thing... please expand for those of us who have no clue.
He's a pretty well respected coach and was the manager for Germany in 2006 when they hosted the world cup. He coached them to third place in that cup. it was rumored last year that he might be the US' coach in 2006, but thing never worked out.
...a top flight striker in the '80s and '90s and was the leader of the West German side that won the World Cup in 1990.
a toenail on the end of his penis and will eat a homeless person if you dare him to.
he pretty much revolutionised Germanys soccer program and brought in a bunch of dual citizen players who are now stars. He didn't just coach, he reworked the entire management structure, negotiated and revoked press access, revolutionised the youth program, and sought players from other countries with German parentage to play. He changed game tactics drastically and only allowed players to the team based on performance, and not reputation. He took a TON of criticism for it, esoecially from media outlets he cut from the program, until his team won the 3rd place playoff in the 06 World Cup. His assistant and players he helped incorporate almost won the World Cup again in 10.
Sidenote: After he retired from his playing career he moved to California and lived under a pseudonym for a while, and has lived in the US ever since. Even when he coached in Germany he drew heavy criticism for commuting from the US, instead of moving. SoCal is the center for the national team, and he's publically campaigned for the job, but they wouldn't give it to him before because they weren't comfortable with the level of control he wanted. When he coached Bayern Munich for a spell he was inviting American players he had been scouting to come and try out for the team as well, and did commentary for US games at the 10 World Cup. He's very invested in American soccer.
Most Germans were not happy with him early on in his tenure. He really ruffled a lot of feathers and the team had some very ugly performances as they adapted to the new system and brought in new faces. It took time to totally overhaul how things were done, but once the ball started rolling the results have been tremendous ever since (under both Klinsmann and his protege Low) with third place finishes in the last two World Cups and a loss to Spain in the finals of Euro 2008.
Hopefully people will have patience with him here and realize that his efforts to revamp our youth development system (which pretty much sucks balls compared to the rest of the world) are far more important than any short term results on the field.
Klinsmann: The RichRod of soccer. Hopefully his tenure as the USMNT coach goes better than RichRod's at Michigan...
This post should result in a docking of at least 500 points. There's no reason for it.
...the German national team to dual citizens is actually a really big deal. Traditionally, Germany wasn't too open to non-ethnic Germans on their national team. The addition of Turks and Slavs to the team has significantly strenghthened their team since this change was made.
US Soccer has done an uneven job over the years pursuing dual citizens. They've had some great successes and some major losses (mostly Euro-Americans). With the significant increase in immigration from Mexico and Central America to the US, the number of top flight players with dual citizenship is rapidly expanding.
If Klinsmann were the coach already Neven Subotic would be playing for the US team right now. He and Mats Hummels are THE best young center backs in the Bundesliga.
Brede Hangeland, born in Texas. His parents are Norwegian so he plays for Norway. But he would've been eligible to play for the U.S.
...of USMNT excellence is upon us.
Seriously, that's a huge get. Klinsmann is the definition of quality.
"We are excited to have Jürgen as the head coach of our Men's National Team," Gulati said in a press release. "He is a highly accomplished player and coach with the experience and knowledge to advance the program. Jürgen has had success in many different areas of the game and we look forward to the leadership he will provide on and off the field."
Klinsmann: "I am proud and honored to be named the head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team. I would like to thank the U.S. Soccer Federation for the opportunity, and I'm excited about the challenge ahead. I am looking forward to bringing the team together for our upcoming match against Mexico and starting on the road toward qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup."
/patiently waits for Yeoman to come here and tell us we're all idiots for liking Klinsmann
I think you're poorly informed. (And understandably so, since I don't think any of you are fans of the German NT.)
I laid out the case on the other thread and I'm not sure I want to go through it again, but I probably will if provoked (or, better, if anyone actually wants it). The short form of the argument is to compare Klinsmann's record without Löw to Löw's record without Klinsmann. There's a lot more, to explain why that comparison isn't just a coincidence....
Being 1 game out of first place and losing in the Champions League quarterfinal to Barca. Absolutely disgraceful! If only Low were there to prop him up.
...with five games to play and the team teetering on the brink of failing to qualify for the CL after a 1:5 fiasco at Wolfsburg. His replacement was able to right the ship, got four wins and a draw down the stretch and got them back into second and a qualification slot.
Klinsmann was full of good management-speak ("imposing our will") but he didn't actually understand the system he was trying to implement. It relies very heavily on choreographed moves--there's very little improvisation in a German rush, it's why they always seem to know where each other are on the pitch--and those details were always Löw's job; without him Klinsmann didn't have a clue. That seems to have communicated itself to the players; the locker room was a shambles by the time he left.
Bayern's the richest club in Germany by a very wide margin. Quarterfinals in the CL, quarterfinals in the German Cup, third place to Wolfsburg...that's a very bad season by their standards
As a Canadian, this hurts. Great hire for the USMNT and one that will put us even further behind the USA in soccer...dammit! You guys are in for a bright future.
Canada has a soccer team?
in the US care about soccer?
Nope
I would guess that soccer ranks in the top 10 of sports watched in the US, but definitely below football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR (a sport?).
I'll bet it runs at about the same numbers as hockey across the whole country, but only if you include univision , galavision, and telemundo.
The national numbers for MLS are pretty bad, but so are the numbers for the NHL on versus. For local teams, hockey far outdraws MLS in most places, but I'll bet the Mexican league games on the Spanish language channels kill Kings and Ducks games in southern California, or former Coyotes games in Phoenix. For event TV, there's not a great comparison, but the World Cup final far outdrew Game 7 of the Stanley Cup this year (8.1 rating vs. 5.7, and that's just the English language broadcast).
I have taken a recent interest in soccer(last 2 years). I absolutely love the game now. I don't think I have watched any hockey games or baseball games all year, but I watch the shit out of some soccer. The only real sports I pay attention to are college football, college basketball, NFL and european soccer. I don't have time for hockey and baseball unless I need a nap.
Very big get.. Hopefully this could be the last piece that was needed to become a top tier competitor in world play.
Great get- hopefully they'll give him the control he wants
now lets hope he starts off his USMNT career right with a win over Mexico!
It would have been nice for the United States to get an actual coach who has won a league or continental title.
Coaches like Louis Van Gaal, Sven Goran Eriksson and Marcello Lippi were probably available for the right price.
It seems that Klinsmann is the preferred choice because he can speak English and because his wife is American. I would have preferred someone with a proven track record of winning as a coach, but, USA #1 let's go.
SGE nearly cost Mexico a berth in the 2010 Cup and pretty much only his firing rescued their bid. That's like, I dunno, missing the playoffs with the Lakers. I wouldn't want him anywhere near the USMNT.
Sven comes with a lot of issues, but holding what happened in Mexico against him is a little silly. He couldn't speak the language, half of the FMF leadership had never wanted him and the fans hated him from the outset. He was rushed into a situation where he had to play qualifiers immediately without having any time to adjust to the team. He only took the job because he'd just been dumped by Man City for no apparent reason after leading them to their best season in 40 years and he was desperate. I think that, given his tenure with England, you can make a very strong case about his abilities on the international stage. But Sven is still a top notch manager on every level, and he will be back on the big stage next year when Leicester makes the Prem.
That is not at all why Klinsmann is the preferred choice. The guy has a serious pedigree. How are you missing that?
His pedigree is far inferior to Lippi or Van Gaal. I would be disappointed to learn they made no inquiries to either of those coaches. I suspect they didn't bother, which would mean the United States didn't conduct a serious coaching search.
oy vey.
and coaching a National Team are even more different than coaching pros and coaching in college. Van Gall has a great club track record, but that doesn't translate to the National stage. He won the Champions league with Ajax and then coached the Netherlands team and they failed to even qualify for the World Cup. How is that a far superior pedigree?
Van Gaal has won national leagues in Holland and Spain and has won international tournaments with Ajax.
Do you know the back-story as to why the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup? The team was between generations and brooding a new collection of talent while easing out a number of older players who had dominated the team for years (including the international retirement of the mercurial Dennis Bergkamp). Plus, their star striker (Nistelrooy) was out for a large portion of the qualification campaign with an ACL tear.
Despite all that, it's not like Van Gaal failed. His record in charge of the Dutch was 8-2-4. That's not bad at all - I'd take that from my US coach.
The important thing here is that it's important to hire someone that has actually won something and that has seen his project through to the end. Van Gaal has done that in two different countries, totalling 19 domestic and international trophies with four different clubs.
Juergen Klinsmann has won exactly 0 domestic and international trophies.
I find it very funny that I've had different posters dissemble Sven Goran Eriksson and Van Gaal when they were provided as examples, even though they both have won national and continental titles. I'm looking forward to someone trying to tell me why Klinsmann is superior to Lippi.
Let's be clear - I don't mind the Klinsmann hire. I just don't understand why the U.S. wouldn't shoot for the best candidate possible, and conduct an actual coaching search.
We should've hired somebody else who might not have wanted the job. We also shouldn't have hired Hoke for all those same reasons. Exactly how many National Championships has he won? Look at his record for goodness sakes! Obviously we could have done much better. /s
This is a good move. The next step, if the U.S. is serious about competing on the world stage, is to leave CONCACAF and join CONMEBOL. CONCACAF may offer a near-guaranteed World Cup appearance, but the level of competition isn't strong enough to prepare us (or Mexico for that matter) for the big boys.
I don't think soccer in the USA has reached a point of popularity where enough people would continue to pay attention to it if we didn't go to the World Cup every four years. Not a smart move IME.
That'd be kind of difficult. Since CONCACAF is headquartered in NYC and the Gold Cup is always played on US Soil. We'd also probably only make the World Cup 50% of the time. If that.
Yeah I don't agree there. There are plenty of tournaments and friendlies available. I'd hate to miss out on the WC just for the sake of harder competition. I don't think there's any evidence that that helps the situation.
There's a debt ceiling joke here that the board's no politics rule unfortunately prohibits.