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Jurgen Klinsmann was handed the keys to the USMNT on the backend of an exhilarating 4-2 loss to Mexico in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final. The defeat in front of over 93,000 at the Rose Bowl clearly didn’t sit well with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, who used the pretense of throwing away a two-goal lead to sack Bob Bradley and bring in the man he’d long coveted, Klinsmann.
The most tantalizing aspect of Klinsmann’s ability was undoubtedly his reputation as a man capable of rejuvenating sides and his preference for youthful exuberance. Germany had been knocked out of Euro 2004 at the group stage, and hiring Klinsmann ushered in a remarkable turnaround with the next generation of German talent at the 2006 World Cup.
Klinsmann dropped goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn to the bench, omitted striker Kevin Kuranyi and elevated the likes of Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker to world renown.
When Klinsmann took over the USA in 2011, it was widely known that the likes of Carlos Bocanegra and Steve Cherundolo would soon be ending their international careers, but with Bradley having established a core of Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones and Jozy Altidore, it was exciting to imagine how Klinsmann would transform and ultimately add to that strength.
Fast forward five years, and the truth is not at all.
The keys to the game prior to the United States’ 2-1 loss to Mexico were the goalkeeping of Howard, the midfield duo of Bradley and Jones, the striking of Altidore and a question as to how the USA would fare without Dempsey, who was ruled out with a heart issue.
Five years on and nothing had changed. Save for the hype surrounding Christian Pulisic, a new era of American soccer had been definitively put on hold for over an entire World Cup qualifying cycle.
Promising youngsters like DeAndre Yedlin, Julian Green and Lynden Gooch all started on the bench, while Klinsmann went with a tried-and-trusted starting XI. It didn't work.
Placing all of the blame for the USMNT’s lack of player pool development over the last five years at Klinsmann’s feet is ridiculous, but it’s easy to imagine Gulati casting envious glances back to 2002, when Bruce Arena achieved with the national team exactly what Klinsmann was supposed to.
Having finished the 1998 World Cup in last place - 32nd out of 32 teams - Arena was charged with transforming the national team. What Arena accomplished at the 2002 World Cup still stands alone as the greatest achievement in USMNT history.
How he achieved it was by elevating the likes of Landon Donovan, 20, DaMarcus Beasley, 20, John O’Brien, 24, Steve Cherundolo, 23, and Clint Mathis, 25, to vital roles.
The Americans were brash and unafraid throughout the 2002 World Cup and unlucky in the extreme to be eliminated by Germany in the quarterfinals. Under Klinsmann, those qualities had begun to disappear entirely, especially in the 4-0 defeat to Costa Rica.
Gulati knows that qualification to the 2018 World Cup is still, as Klinsmann would say, a 1000% certainty. What’s more important is that there’s still ample enough time to completely change the mindset of the players and the federation before then.
He’s asking Arena to accomplish what he’s done before in ushering in a new era, one that Klinsmann was never able to realize.
