By Jared LauniusU.S. Soccer fired Bob Bradley today, and one thing we can all agree on – perhaps the only thing we can all agree on, based on what I've been reading – is that we were all caught off guard by it. The Gold Cup Final loss to Mexico is over a month stale and most of us, I think, kind of thought if U.S. Soccer was going to sack Bradley, it would have been done in the couple weeks following the match.
But, things that shock us at first tend to make more sense as more thought is put into them and, sure enough, if you tilt the firing into a bit of a different light, you can certainly talk yourself into the idea the U.S.S.F. decided after the GC Final it was going to fire Bradley, but wanted to wait until a replacement was secured before doing as much.* That's the popular theory, at least, as is the idea said presumed replacement is Jurgen Klinsmann, a long-time Sunil Gulati temptress.
*And can you really blame them? The last two courtships of Klinsmann – following the 2006 and 2010 World Cups – were annoyingly long, drawn out and rather difficult to watch. Keeping everyone in the dark for attempt number three is a pretty commendable move, all things considered.
Now, this is the part in the post at which I tell you the following thousand or so words all operate, more or less, under an assumption. It's a pretty safe assumption, I think, but the powers that be have yet to confirm Jurgen Klinsmann will be the next coach of the United States Men's National Team. So yeah, that's probably worth noting. You know, the facts.
Anyway, yes, it certainly looks like the sidelines at USMNT games will look a bit swankier and certainly a lot less sweat pantsier. Bradley is out, Klinsmann is probably in, and the next few days you'll all be reading a lot about exactly what will happen with the national team during this cycle. Some people know Klinsmann will fail. Some people are certain he will succeed. Other people will be to charmed by his accent to form much of an opinion.
Now, one thing I should probably mention about myself is that I don't really know anything about anything. Not about soccer, at least. I don't know what will happen throughout the coming cycle under Klinsmann. I don't know if he will improve the youth development system. I think he'll probably try, but I'm not sure how he'll fare. I don't know if he'll make player and personnel decisions that won't make me wad up the nearest piece of paper to me and throw it across the room the way Bradley's did or not. I don't know much of anything, really, except the gin in my mom's basement is delicious tonight and that I'm excited to see what happens under Klinsmann.
I also don't think, though, that much of anybody else really knows either, though some will tell you they do. That's not to criticize them – there's a lot of people out there that are paid money to make ascertations about what will happen going forward, and I salute them! Maybe they know more than I do. I just have a hard time believing they really can be so sure. And here's why:
What I Do Know About Jurgen Klinsmann, A List:
-He was a spectacular striker in his playing days, a near 20-year career that took him to some of Europe's biggest leagues and most prestigous clubs. He was capped over a hundred times by the German national team and was on the 1990 West Germany team that won the World Cup.
-His first coaching gig was as German national team coach. He took over the side after it failed to get out of group play in the 2004 European Championships. As Germany was to be host of the 2006 World Cup, Klinsmann didn't have to go through qualifying matches. His lone competitive matches before the World Cup, then, came in the 2005 Confederations Cup, where he coached the host nation to a rather meh third-place finish. In the World Cup the following year, Klinsmann's Germany won its group, beat Sweeden and Argentina – the latter, it should be mentioned, on penalties – in the knockout stages and lost in extra time to eventual champion Italy in the semifinals. His side then won the third place match versus Portugal.
Klinsmann's success in guiding the host nation to a third place finish was well-received, so much so that Klinsmann was given the Bundesverdiestkreuz by the German government, which I can only hope is an honor matched only by its remarkable name. He then resigned on good terms, citing his family as the main reason he didn't want to continue on with the everyday grind of national team duty.
Klinsmann's legacy – an overall success, as I understand it – was predicated on his willingness to push forward with a youthful side and for improving the youth development program in Germany. Pundits will point out then-assistant and current German coach Joachim Low was responsible for the team's tactical success, and that is supported by Germany's continued success following Klinsmann's departure. It's also worth remembering his nation hosted the 2006 World Cup. I'm not saying Germany was necessarily expected to take third place, but I think anything short of the quarterfinals would have been a pretty huge disappointment.
-After two years off and attempts by multiple clubs to lure Klinsmann back into coaching, he took the manager's job for the 2008-2009 Bundesliga season at Bayern Munich, a team he spent some time with during his playing career. Things in Bavaria, overall, didn't seem to go that well, as Jurgen was let go before the end of his team's campaign. They lost in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League (to, it bears mentioning, eventual champions Barcelona), the quarterfinals of the German Cup and were in third place in the Bundesliga table when he was let go with five matches remaining.
Any season that sees you fired before it ends can't be quantified a success, and indeed, those types of results at Bayern Munich don't generally win you very many fans. I'd argue that 29 league games isn't enough to fire a coach that isn't tanking, but I'm sure the decision-makers at Bayern acted in a way they thought was best, and they definitely were more familiar with the situation that I was.
-Since he left Bayern, Klinsmann hasn't taken on another coaching gig. He's done some consultant work for Toronto FC, but that seems to be it. He lives in California with his lovely family and his nice dog Skip, I'm sure.
So yeah, that's what I know about Jurgen Klismann. His managerial experience, all told, is combined to equal less than three years. He's had two gigs. One was an overall positive, though looking a little closer at in makes you wonder exactly how positive it was, and the other one was an overall negative, though looking at it a little closer makes you wonder exactly how negative it was.
Forgive me, but that doesn't really seem like a whole lot to go off of. I certainly don't think it's enough to tell us Klinsmann will be great, and I certainly don't think it's enough to tell us he'll be a disaster. You can argue he hasn't earned anything, and I'd agree, though that's more just because I don't think there's enough of a track record there to decisively say he's done anything good or bad, not because I think KLINSMANN SUXXXX.
I guess what I'm saying – and I apologize if you feel like you've just been talked in a circle, as I'm feeling a bit dizzy, too – is that I don't think there's anything out there that can tell us how successful Klinsmann will be. The sample is tiny, the results inconclusive.
And I'm not sure what this is all to say about my feelings on Klinsmann's hire. I thought it looked like Bradley's message had gone stale on the players, so letting him go wasn't particularly upsetting for me.* I'm not certain there's a manager available out there that could provide great improvement, and I'm even less certain a manager could do a whole lot anyway, as the player pool, at the time at least, seems to have stagnated. Klinsmann seems like he could do well. He also seems like he could do poorly.
*I should say it's not upsetting from a soccer standpoint. Interesting side story: I'm a Kansas City Royals fan. Laugh. No, really, go ahead, laugh. I'll give you a second. Alright, ready to go on? Yeah, I'm a Royals fan. I'm 22 years old and I've seen a full lifetime's worth of managers fired – four in the last nine years alone. From a baseball standpoint, I've been perfectly happy to watch them all walk away. Part of me though, always pities those guys, and not just because they were fired by the worst team in baseball over the last 20 years. It's sad and a bit scary to watch people get cast into unemployment like that. I always know they'll find jobs, just like I know Bradley will, but I always finding myself pitying the guys who get fired from being paid to coach a professional sport. Is that weird?
All that I really know is that I don't know. And I don't mean that in the way it's literally impossible to know what will happen in the future, as it hasn't happened yet. I mean it in the way that I don't think there's enough of a track record out there for us to truly know what Klinsmann is. I'm not defending Klinsmann or bashing him, supporting the hire or blasting it. I really hope he can improve the youth development program in the U.S. and use his charming accent to coach the Yanks up. That, I'm assuming, is what he's being brought in to do. I just don't think think the jury should be settled on him before he's even coached a match – or, for that matter, before he's even been named coach. Far too often – particularly with Twitter and blogs and everything else – we feel like we have to have a stark opinion from the outset on something, when really, we don't have to. It's OK to let things happen and comment on them as they go along, really.
I don't know what's going to happen with Jurgen Klinsmann, but I know we're all getting our chance to find out really soon. Let's let that happen before we decide how good he was.
