A German in New York

by Kunle Demuren

To almost no one’s surprise, after Bob Bradley was fired as coach of the US men’s national soccer team last week, Jürgen Klinsmann was appointed as his replacement. While the team had made substantial progress and achieved some great victories under Bradley, there was a feeling that he had taken the team as far as he could. It remains to be seen whether that was due to the limitations of the players available or those of Bradley’s tactics.

Klinsmann’s appeal to US Soccer derives in large part from the fact that he is already very familiar with America and American soccer (a point US Soccer president Sunil Gulati emphasized), since he has lived here for over a decade, and has worked with several MLS teams in that time. He also has a reputation for getting the German national team playing a more attacking, free-flowing style, but American fans who expect the USA to start playing exactly like Germany should temper their expectations. Klinsmann repeatedly implied in his introductory press conference that he would take in a wide scope of opinions from people in the American game to determine how they would like their team to play. Beyond that, Americans should also remember that Klinsmann is not a tactician or even a real technical coach. Rafael Honigstein, a German soccer correspondent for The Guardian, has repeatedly referred to Klinsmann as a “project manager”, rather than a coach in the traditional sense. Klinsmann is someone who will be good at providing an overall direction for the men’s team and hopefully provide insight that can help the development of the next generations of American soccer players.

Klinsmann’s limitations as a tactician mean that the one decision that could have the biggest impact on whether his tenure is a success is the appointment of his main assistant. It is absolutely imperative that he does not repeat the mistake that he made at Bayern Munich in appointing Martin Vazquez as his main assistant. Vazquez had no experience of European soccer, and was not especially known for any sort of tactical nous, which contributed to the failure of Klinsmann’s tenure at Bayern. The challenge for Klinsmann is that he will need to appoint someone with tactical knowhow who can also connect with the American players, based both here in the US and abroad, and will be able to adapt his tactics to the demands of the international game. Let’s be honest: it won’t take much in the way of tactics for the US to qualify for the next World Cup. If the US wants to really make a splash at the World Cup, however, clever tactics will be needed.

Two potential choices for Klinsmann’s assistant are Preki, the Serbian-born US international who most recently managed Toronto FC before being fired last year, and Sigi Schmid, the current Seattle Sounders FC manager. Whether either man would want to take an assistant job when they could be a head coach somewhere is unclear. However, both would be good choices for an assistant because they both have a reputation for tactical knowledge and are deeply familiar with the American game and many of the players in the player pool. Further, Preki has played abroad (with Red Star Belgrade, and Everton and Portsmouth in England) and could bring some new perspective. Schmid, while he has never worked abroad, has worked with Klinsmann before when managing the USA under-20 national team and his teams have been well known for exciting and successful attacking soccer. There have been concerns about Schmid’s man management, but partnered with the charisma of Klinsmann, that should not be a major problem.

Klinsmann emphasized in his press conference today that he was going to take his time figuring out his staff and getting established in the job (I think it can also be assumed that this extends to figuring out which players he wants to use). The USA’s next competitive fixture is about a year away, giving him plenty of time to do that. In the short term, American fans should expect their team to probably play a bit more expansively, and for some younger players to get chances to show what they can do. Americans should not expect the team to become a top team like Mexico right away (in fact, I think they will probably lose next week’s friendly against Mexico in Philadelphia). This is a long-term project, and hopefully Klinsmann is the one to get this next stage of development of the beautiful game in this country going.