Yesterday, I just kinda threw Jürgen Klinsmann’s name out there, almost expecting someone to say in response, “Klinsmann will never coach here, dumbass.” But apparently, there might be something to it. If you’re not a comment peruser, King Dan brought it to my attention yesterday that there is some Klinsmann talk happening. From Nick Webster’s Blog on FoxSoccer.com…
Here’s one to get the rumor mill working overtime. I was at WDR, German state television early this morning talking to Boris Inanici, their ace reporter who has in the past has been embedded with the national team. He told me that Jurgen Klinsmann, the German national team coach will quit after the World Cup regardless of whether the ‘Mannschaft’ wins the whole thing or not.
First things first… Mannschaft. TeeHee.
But oh, that would make my day. Not man-shaft, but Klinsmann… a real, respected, successful international coach with two weird dots above the ü in his name and everything. The Germans are mad at him because he lives in America, and commutes to Germany to coach their international team. Anything short of a World Cup victory is probably going to get him booted out anyway. It just makes perfect sense.
And yes, that’s him pictured above, doing something strange and German. It’s been a popular couple of days here for Germans with potentially embarrassing photos.
And I want to say again that I’m not a Bruce Arena hater… I do sort of hate that I have to stop myself from typing “Arenas” everytime I type his last name. To the best of my knowledge, he and Gilbert share no relation. But I think Arena’s done a hell of a job getting USA Soccer to where it is… the best team in the the CONCACAF region, and a team with a realistic expectation of not being completely embarrassed in the World Cup.
But if you can find a guy to take you to the next level… you have to take that chance, don’t you? Rick Carlise, meet Larry Brown. Sometimes, it just has to happen.
Dan
As I’ve posted elsewhere I’ll blame Arena. We had only 4 shots on goal the entire World Cup? And yet he persisted with playing only one striker. Arena took the US to the pinacle of Concacaaf, but that’s not enough. The fact that we can beat up coutries with one thenth of our population, and be competetive with Mexico, does not mean we’ve achieved all we can. We need to move forward onto the world stage, and that means getting a coach who can help us do that.
I thank Bruce for all he’s done, and I want to see him continue to be a part of the American National Team, but the play at the international level has shown that we need a new general.
June 23, 2006 at 8:25 am
Nils
“a real, respected, successful international coach”
I hope you are aware of the fact that his present job is Klinsmann’s first job as a head coach ever.
I think there is a real chance of Klinsmann coaching the US in 2010, just because he loves California and never had plans to go back to Germany (which spawned some controversy over here). But it will be hard for Klinsmann to leave the German team if they make it to the semi-final or even the final and don’t win the whole thing. I mean, if we win it, he can leave on the greatest success since ’90 and if we screw up in the round of 16, he didn’t reach his goals, but nobody would let him go if he brought us to the semi-final (which is hard enough, considering that Argentina is waiting in the quarterfinal) or the final.
June 23, 2006 at 9:02 am
Fan's Attic
Klinsmann is showing everybody how big the Mannschaft is.
June 23, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Andy
I know jack about soccer, but I would like to point out, based on watching the Pacers the past couple years, that Rick Carlisle is a very bad coach.
June 23, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Jack
Jack here, I don’t know you Andy. Back to the original subject…Klinsi may not be proven, but he has taken the best parts of American soccer (the energy and aggression) and combined them with physical strength and learned talent to produce a dynamic, attack-minded squad(just the idea of an offense brings a tear to my eye). Yeah, Germany may lose to Argentina, but that’s a semi-final game out of its proper place in time anyway. Here’s to US soccer taking the next leap forward. England is Crap and shouldn’t be in the quarters.
June 25, 2006 at 5:45 pm