Apparently the Germans are giving much of the credit to the current form of the German team to Klinsman. If they are correct, then perhaps he should become the new coach for the USA. At this point, I think that Bradley will not be returning, although I do not see him going to England to coach. Didn't Sampson coach a club in Central America for a season after his tenure as US coach and before his brief spell at Costa Rica?
>>>In Germany, U.S. can see Klinsmann’s handiwork
By Mark Zeigler, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 10:08 p.m.
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Germany 11:30 PT12:30 MT1:30 CT2:30 ET18:30 GMT20:30 GMT+219:30 21:30 KSA4:30 AET0:00 IST2:30 SST2:30
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JOHANNESBURG — When Germany reached the final of the 2008 European Championships in Austria under new coach Joachim Loew, federation head Theo Zwanziger invited a most unusual guest to watch the game with him from the VIP box: the team’s former coach.
Juergen Klinsmann had coached Die Mannschaft, as Germany’s national team is known, during the 2006 World Cup and for two rather tumultuous years before it, then returned to his oceanfront home in Newport Beach and a life of anonymity in America. He had made it a point, as is customary for ex-coaches, to stay away from Germany’s games since.
“Juergen Klinsmann has played an enormous part in the development of this team,” explained Zwanziger, himself once one of Klinsmann’s most vocal critics. “It is also his final.”
And there you have it. As you watch Loew and Die Mannschaft roll through this World Cup and face Spain in the semifinals today, marvel at their fast, energetic, modern brand of soccer that brought mighty England and Argentina to their knees by a combined 8-1. But also know this: The architect of what you’re watching has lived in Southern California for more than a decade, a half-hour drive from the U.S. Soccer’s national training center, and is currently unemployed as a coach.
And the U.S. national team, most likely, will be hiring soon.
Technically, Bob Bradley has a contract through the end of the year. But World Cup coaches rarely last into a second cycle (only two of the 32 in this World Cup were around in 2006 as well), and Bradley and U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati sound like men prepared to amicably part ways when they meet in the coming weeks.
Bradley has talked about pursuing “new challenges” amid reports that he is a candidate for the vacancy at English club Fulham. And Gulati talks about the national team reaching the next level with a fresh perspective.
Klinsmann, 45, nearly became the coach four years ago, but egos got in the way. Whether Gulati wouldn’t give into Klinsmann’s demands, or Klinsmann refused to compromise on Gulati’s stipulations, or both, the bottom line is the deal didn’t get done and Bradley was the default candidate after serving as interim coach.
Second chances don’t come around often in sports. Gulati, by all appearances, is about to get one.
These are Klinsmann’s impressive credentials — played for major clubs in Germany, France, Italy and England; won a World Cup in 1990; coached in a World Cup and reached the semis in his first job; helped out Bruce Arena with the U.S. team behind the scenes in the mid-2000s; speaks English and Spanish; worked as an ABC/ESPN commentator during this World Cup, and possesses a keen insight into the idiosyncrasies of American soccer and its unorthodox development system.
But it is what Germany has done in South Africa, and how, that might be the most compelling motive.
Klinsmann took over Germany after its calamitous performance 2004 European Championships, where it didn’t win a game and suffered the ignominy of tying Latvia 0-0. He instantly changed the team’s climate — employing a sports psychologist; junking the sweeper system of Franz Beckenbauer fame for a flat-four defense; cutting several veteran players; bringing in fitness trainers from Arizona; using coaching philosophies culled from his time studying U.S. professional sports; introducing an innovative style with attackers flying down the field in numbers out of a 4-2-3-1 formation.
“We need to question every single ritual and habit,” Klinsmann said.
There were growing pains, and Klinsmann nearly was dismissed before the 2006 World Cup amid a chorus of critics who resisted change. But Klinsmann and Germany acquitted themselves well in 2006, reaching the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Italy.
Loew, Klinsmann’s lead assistant and the tactical brains behind the operation, was named as his successor and led Die Mannschaft to the Euro 2008 final, losing to Spain. The current German team is equally young and relentless, with an average age of under 25. It dropped four goals on Australia, four more on England, four more on Argentina; its 13 total leads the World Cup.
“Our philosophy was to play a fast-paced, attacking style of soccer,” Klinsmann recently told England’s Daily Mail newspaper. “That’s what we introduced to the German team. ... It’s a process that has taken Germany six years to learn to play.
“The players have now grown into it, and Joachim is continuing that.”
It is a style you’d think would suit American soccer attributes: fit, athletic, hungry players who work well as a team and never give up. It also might be the direction that international soccer is headed. And Klinsmann is currently unemployed as a coach, and U.S. Soccer likely will be hiring soon.
Are we missing something here?
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