“The Klinsmann Conspiracy”
A Conspiracy Theory Within US Soccer And The Future Of The Men’s National Team In A “Post Klinsmann” Era
By: Santos
Back in November the US Soccer Federation surprised many when they came to the conclusion that Jurgen Klinsmann is no longer suitable to lead the US Men’s National Team. Its argued that since 2011 Klinsmann has not done what he promised, which was a quantum leap forward for US Men’s Soccer. The mathematicians and statisticians say the numbers don’t lie and, again, they do not show progress, therefore, Klinsmann was sacked. But are we looking at only half the picture? What other pieces are at play and what is next for the USMNT?
In short, the USMNT is coming off of their best performance in Copa America, finishing in 4th place behind the top FIFA ranked teams in the region: Chili, Argentina and Colombia. Unfortunately, we did not begin round 5 of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in the way most anticipated, however, the road to the WC is long and certainly not over. Considering the venue choice, losing first to Mexico in Columbus, Ohio was quite disappointing, however, Mexico is in their ‘golden era’ of football. They’re fielding one of the highest quality sides in Mexican Football history.
On the road, in San Jose, Costa Rica, the media reported that we got absolutely embarrassed 4–0. But going back to 1975 and not including our most recent face-off, the USMNT holds a 14–14–5 record against the Ticos. Similar to Mexico, Costa Rica is fielding the most talented generation in Ticos’ footballing history. Up front for Costa Rica the electrifying pace and technical ability of Joel Campbell is owned by Arsenal F.C. and currently on loan to Sporting CP. In net the sure hands of Keylor Navas are the chosen hands by Real Madrid manager and the greatest player of all time, Zinedine Zidane.
By no means should we be happy about such results, however, the reality is there are winners and there are losers. We should have probably won against Mexico, however, our record against Costa Rica shows a level playing field between the two national teams, and, as it seems, when a team wins the players are the heroes and when they lose the coach is the villain.
That said, I believe, longterm, there was no better leader than Jurgen Klinsmann. His experience as a player for Germany, lifting the coveted World Cup 1990 Trophy and as head coach of the German National Side where he led the team to the Semi-finals of the 2006 WC, are aligned with the longterm goals of American soccer. “Klinsmann for PRESIDENT!” The question, now is where do we go from here?
24 hours after announcing the removal of Klinsmann, the US Soccer Federation announced the interim Head Coach Bruce Arena to a two year contract. For the first time in history a coach was fired and then re-hired by the same president, Sunil Gulati.
Digging deeper into the new hire. It has been made clear that Arena’s title will only be that of Head Coach, whereas in Klinsmann’s case he held both the title of Head Coach and Technical Director. Two, almost conflicting roles.
Since his inception as Head Coach of the USMNT, Klinsmann was able to also gain the title and power associated with the role of Technical Director of U.S. Men’s Soccer. Inherently, giving him significant say regarding the short term, as well as, long term direction of soccer in America. In short, the Head Coach is responsible for the short term gains at the team level, hence, why coaches change like the weather. While the Technical Director is responsible for the “big picture.” Creating the appropriate infrastructure for developing talent. Essentially, Klinsmann had a vast amount of control over the current and future state of soccer in America. For U.S. Soccer Federation President, Sunil Gulati, this was a big gamble to give one man so much power and influence, and up until November 2016 Gulati had always clearly stood by the choices of Klinsmann. I can’t help but wonder if Gulati may have realigned with other conflicting parties like Major League Soccer (MLS), and, as a result, sacking Klinsmann was a “power play” to regain control largely influenced by the plutonic relationship between the former Technical Director and current MLS commissioner, Don Garber.
On the other side of the picture, the growth of soccer in America is largely shouldered by the MLS. One of the requirements for MLS sides are a full youth academy dedicated to the scouting and training of young players for the professional ranks.
That said, when the Technical Director of US Men’s Soccer publicly encourages players to play abroad, its likely that the MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, will be at odds with such a conflicting personal opinion. In a span of 2 years following the 2014 World Cup, we saw a large exodus of Men’s National Team players from European leagues. Jozy Altidore left English Premier League (EPL) side Sunderland, Micheal Bradley left Italian Serie A side AS Roma, Jermaine Jones left German Bundesliga side Schalke, and Clint Dempsey left EPL side Tottenham for the MLS.
Since the the beginning of his time as Head Coach, Klinsmann, has expressed his personal preference for his top players to be playing in Europe’s top circuits and after the “mass exodus,” when Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey signed contracts with Toronto F.C. and Seattle Sounders, Klinsmann expressed his concern for whether each player will be able to maintain the same level as they had in Europe. Klinsmann went on to say, “the reality is that both players making the step to return to the MLS means that you are not in the same competitive environment that they were before.”
In response, Don Garber said that Klinsmann’s comments about the league were “detrimental,” “wrong” and “personally infuriating.” He went on to explain that he believes that Klinsmann is saying that players who come back to play in the MLS have seen their form diminish. In reality, all Klinsmann seemed to be saying was that the top leagues in Europe still represent a higher playing standard than the MLS.
Furthermore, its been noted that on the Women’s side of the game they’re following the same playbook used to grow the MLS for the past 20 years and, with that said, the U.S. Soccer Federation has an agreement with the Nation Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to help subsidize national team players salaries in an effort to grow the league locally by encouraging the country’s best to play on home soil. I wouldn’t be surprised if that relationship on the men’s side of the game has been “strained” since Klinsmann’s appointment in 2011.
With the balance of power redistributed the future of the USMNT is solely based on the Bruce Arena playbook that took us to the 2002 World Cup Quarter Finals in Korea. The manner in which that is happening is, as quoted by Bruce Arena, “driven primarily by athleticism and aggressive play,” and it has shown in their most recent performances. Currently, the US sits tied for fourth place with Honduras (four points) behind Panama (five points), Costa Rica (seven) and Mexico (10 points). On June 8th the USMNT will play Trinidad and Tobago and three days later head South of the border to face Mexico. The top three nations qualify for next years tournament in Russia and the No 4 finisher plays Asia’s fifth-place team in a playoff for another berth.
As for soccer in America, a relationship that discourages players from playing at the highest caliber, regardless of the league, will ultimately hinder the progress of American soccer on the world stage. The future of soccer in America has been reset to what worked in 2002 and maybe, just maybe, open the door to Russia 2018.