I attended 4 of the sessions and both games versus Klinsmann’s senior team. Caleb Porter First and foremost, if our praise for Caleb Porter hasn’t been evident, let me repeat, Caleb Porter is legit. Previously, we’ve been judging him solely from watching his Akron team (on TV and in person). Meaning we’ve never seen him [...]
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In his last post, Jacques posed an interesting question: Is it acceptable/effective to select experienced players with incomplete skill sets and little tactical malleability? Or, is the system Klinsmann seeks to implement better served by selecting players with less pedigree but with skill sets better suited to succeed in a possession based system? Experience or [...]
TweetThis is a guest post by Jacques Pelham. You can find more of his soccer writing at the Football Garden. Predictably, there are still many outstanding questions regarding Juergen Klinsmann and the US national team after Klinsmann’s second and third games as US coach. On Tuesday, the US demonstrated sustained effort for 90 minutes and [...]
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This is a guest post by Jacques Pelham. You can find more of his soccer writing at the Football Garden. On Friday, the US showed signs of progress and promise through its possession play and aggressive tactics without the ball. The revamped central midfield looked far superior as compared to the game against Mexico and [...]
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This is a guest post by Jacques Pelham. You can find more of his soccer writing at the Football Garden. The Klinsmann era of U.S. Soccer began in earnest Wednesday with the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team facing Mexico in a friendly match just weeks after a deserved 4-2 defeat against the Mexicans in the [...]
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My Worry is German Soccer Everyone knows Germany is a consistent international power. They’re always a contender. Gary Lineker* once said: “Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.” I think that would suit most people just fine. But you know what, German [...]
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World Cup champ, Euro champ, Germany 2006 coach, Bayern Munich, blah, blah, blah. Looks great from 10,000 feet, huh? That’s the resume/pedigree trap. Don’t fall into it, because it loves to claim victims. Hopefully it’s understood by now that sparkling player resumes don’t correlate with quality coaching. And coaching resumes? Well, we need to be [...]
TweetThis is the first of a multi-part series I’m doing on Klinsmann. I want to stay focused and only talk about one specific theme per post. Now is the time to clearly set up expectations. Be specific! What should his charter be? I’ve stated this before, but let me repeat not only what I think [...]
TweetCONGRATULATIONS! Whether you’d like to believe it or not, this is your triumph. I believe Bob was relieved of his duties in large part due to your collective voices. Like the last point in my optimistic piece, 5 positive influences on US Soccer in 2010, suggested, I had never witnessed such a strong and sustained [...]
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What are the expectations? That is key. I think people are getting it confused. Hiring a manager who actually has a clue will not get us the World Cup final, and perhaps not the quarters this cycle either. That is not the discussion we should be having. That is not the appropriate metric to use. [...]
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