World Cup Soccer 2022 Qatar

[BullNBear52]

LOL. Well we understand losses.

He added: “The fact is, we lost two games. There is a lot of talk from people who don’t understand soccer or the team.”



Jurgen Klinsmann Fired as U.S. Soccer Coach
By SAM BORDENNOV. 21, 2016

On Thursday, Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach of the United States national men’s soccer team, dined with President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a number of Nobel laureates and a couple of astronauts at a gala in Berlin. The sausages were “excellent,” he said.

On Friday, Klinsmann returned to his home in California and was bemused by the criticism he was receiving in the news media for two recent losses by his team, which had damaged — but not erased — its chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. On Sunday, Klinsmann aggressively defended his record as coach in an interview, saying that he was “very comfortable” in his position and was not especially concerned about being removed.

On Monday, Klinsmann was fired.

The announcement, which was made by U.S. Soccer, the federation that oversees the sport in this country, came shortly after Sunil Gulati and Dan Flynn, two of the federation’s top executives, met with Klinsmann at a hotel in the Los Angeles area. U.S. Soccer did not immediately name Klinsmann’s replacement, though it is expected that Bruce Arena — a Major League Soccer veteran who led the national team from 1998 to 2006 — will take the job through the end of the current World Cup cycle.

“While we remain confident that we have quality players to help us advance to Russia 2018, the form and growth of the team up to this point left us convinced that we need to go in a different direction,” Gulati, the U.S. Soccer president, said in a statement. He is expected to elaborate on the thinking behind Klinsmann’s dismissal during a conference call with the news media on Tuesday afternoon.

Klinsmann did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Despite Klinsmann’s confidence in his role, his firing was not a surprise. The United States sustained two painful losses in its opening games of the final round of regional World Cup qualifying this month, starting with a 2-1 loss to Mexico, which was the Americans’ first defeat in a home World Cup qualifier in 15 years. Then came a 4-0 thrashing at Costa Rica last Tuesday in which Klinsmann’s team looked alternately disorganized, dispirited and — perhaps most damningly — uninterested.


Klinsmann disputed the notion that the players had given anything less than a full effort in that game, but the outcome ultimately served as a tipping point. After an embarrassing performance in the 2015 Gold Cup, a regional championship tournament, and a painful defeat against archrival Mexico several months later in a high-profile showdown, the most recent losses — the first time that the United States has dropped its opening two games of the final qualifying round — were too much for U.S. Soccer.

From the start, Klinsmann, 52, was a polarizing figure as the United States coach, attracting both praise and disdain from hard-core fans throughout his five-year tenure.

He arrived to much fanfare in 2011, finally agreeing to a contract after Gulati had pursued him on and off for years. Vowing to elevate the national team program in a way that “suits the American game,” he led the team through a successful qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup, but he was criticized for saying in an article published in The New York Times Magazine that he did not believe the Americans had any chance to win the tournament, as well as for his decision to leave the popular veteran Landon Donovan off the final squad he took to Brazil. Klinsmann also drew the ire of fans and American soccer officials alike for a string of comments denigrating the American professional league, Major League Soccer, even as it produced nearly half his roster.

Drawn into one of the most difficult first-round groups in Brazil, the United States beat Ghana, tied Portugal and lost to the eventual champion, Germany, but advanced to the knockout round on goal difference. The Americans were eliminated by Belgium in extra time in the round of 16, nearly winning a match in which they were significantly outplayed.

Some thought Klinsmann’s tenure should have ended then. In many countries, the national team coach generally keeps the job for no more than one four-year cycle; Klinsmann himself stepped down as coach of the German national team after just two years despite leading his home country to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup.

Yet Gulati, with approval from U.S. Soccer’s board, actually gave Klinsmann a contract extension for another four years even before a single game was played in Brazil. It was a surprising show of confidence, and in the new deal Klinsmann also was made technical director of the federation, further strengthening both his power and his connection to U.S. Soccer.


It did not take long, however, for criticism of Klinsmann to escalate during his second cycle. His tactical knowledge, his penchant for using players out of position and his habit of blaming his team for defeats — instead of blaming his lineup selections or his own game plans — became perpetual talking points among those agitating for a change.

Klinsmann rarely seemed concerned about his job status, however, not even after last week’s Costa Rica defeat.

“I’m not afraid,” Klinsmann said in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday night. “What you need to do is stick to the facts. Soccer is emotional, and a lot of people make conclusions without knowing anything about the inside of the team or the sport. I still believe we will get the points we need to qualify, and I am even confident we could win the group.”

He added: “The fact is, we lost two games. There is a lot of talk from people who don’t understand soccer or the team.”

That sort of perspective was seen by many in the American soccer community as arrogant — or at least dismissive — and it, combined with a new round of erratic or disappointing performances, only fueled Klinsmann’s critics. Gulati, the federation president, and Flynn, who is U.S. Soccer’s chief executive, came to their decision Sunday night after consulting with members of U.S. Soccer’s board of directors. They traveled to California early Monday to deliver the news to Klinsmann in person.


The firing represents the first time since 1989 that U.S. Soccer has changed coaches in the middle of a World Cup qualifying cycle. If Arena returns as expected, it will be from a successful nine-year tenure as coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy, the second team (after D.C. United) that he has led to multiple M.L.S. championships.

Arena would have some time to meet his new team and orchestrate the initial steps of his attempted revival. The Americans’ next scheduled games are two more World Cup qualifiers, home to Honduras and away to Panama, in March.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/sports/soccer/jurgen-klinsmann-fired-us-soccer-coach.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsports&action=click&contentCollection=sports®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0