Bob Bradley, the new US MNT coach
I think Marcelo Balboa and Dave O’Brien had a lot to do with Klinsmann not coming on board as coach for the US MNT. Hearing their commentary during the World Cup must have scared the bejesus out of him. He must have thought that the US soccer world is peopled with ignoramuses like them.
This hurts. It means the one great coach who had all the credentials of achieving success has turned us down. Klinsmann was a California resident married to an American, so there would be no problems with his living here for extended periods of time. A fitness fanatic with a penchant for hiring US fitness gurus and techniques that are readily available here. A fantastic striker for Germany with a killer instinct for goals and a knack for diving when things weren’t going his way. Imagine teaching all those tricks to the likes of Clint Dempsey and Brian Ching. And of course, his phenomenal success as Germany’s coach in which he made it downright cool to watch German soccer, unbridled and creative, after years of boring precision and possession. Klinsmann was a highly personable coach who was not afraid to show his emotion on the sidelines. A refreshing change from Bruce Arena’s usual dyspeptic look and aversion for the media.
I can’t even imagine how this plays out in the real world. Here we are beckoning frantically at David Beckham to come and spend his last few years left as a player, in the MLS, as we relax our salary cap for that one exceptional player. This we hope will be the precursor to many other big name players signing on who are slightly past their peak. The Glazers want to build Manchester United West around Beckham. Toronto is the latest MLS addition with its own stadium. Things are moving along, assuming a life of its own on the domestic front.
Meanwhile, we can’t attract a single big name coach to coach the national soccer team. Ultimately, the answer distills down to what these changes mean in the context of national success. The turning down of the US job by Klinsmann means one thing. For all the good things happening in the MLS; in the rest of the world US soccer still means squat. It won’t be long before foreign players look at us and say, ” Enough with the wooing, but tell me why you can’t beat Jamaica? ”
Bob Bradley, I am sure you will be a fine coach for the US national team. No offense meant.
3 comments on “Soccerblog opinion: Klinsmann turning down the US job really hurts”
The real trick with Bradley is that he’s another MLS coach.
Sure, Arena was but he’d just come off back to back MLS Cups, and Bradley hasn’t won an MLS Cup since 1998.
Something else to consider is that although Bradley put Chivas in the play-offs; they are paying well above the salary cap.
4 Mexican World Cup vets+ Razov, Marsch, and Regan + John O’Brien= easily over the salary cap
If Bradley couldn’t win an MLS Cup with an inflated roster, how far will he take the U.S. National Team?
Also, how closely has Bradley followed the development of Americans in Europe?
Will we see Feilhaber, DeMerit, Adin Brown, Jeremiah White, Robbie Rogers, or Johann Smith?
There are many questions to be asked of Bradley; that people would not ask of a Klinsmann or Pekerman
The Crossbar.
I think Bradley would have been a good coach for the US Men’s team ten years ago, but I think we’ve seen it consistently proven that American coaches, right now, do not have the knowledge or the skills or whatever to take the American game and put it on par with the international game. That’s the problem I see.
FC Blaze
I think they should go after Pekerman. He has refused the Colombia coaching job and if there is one person who feels the pulse of the youth squads, it is Pekerman. A number of US players are in their twilight of their careers and a player like Johann Smith would benefit tremendously from Pekerman’s mentorship.