USMNT road to 2022 thread

big news mates

http://wtop.com/sports/2015/10/us-to-move-forward-with-hosting-2016-copa-america/

It’s confirmed. The 2016 Copa America, the 100th anniversary edition of the tournament, will be held in the United States. The prestigious South American soccer championship, run by CONMEBOL, will partner with CONCACAF to host many of the best countries from both regions in the tournament, which will be played across the United States from June 3-26 in various venues. Copa America Centenario will feature the following countries: • Argentina, • Brazil, • Chile, • Colombia, • Ecuador, • Uruguay, • Bolivia, • Paraguay, • Peru, and • Venezuela. In addition to the CONMEBOL countries, USA and Mexico are automatic qualifiers. Costa Rica and Jamaica will also participate. Lastly, the two final teams will be determined via a playoff to be played in the near future. Earlier this year, 24 metropolitan areas showed interest in hosting matches during the tournament and submitted a proposal to U.S. Soccer
 
That's great, can't wait to go to a game here and root against Mexico, hopefully they draw a fun S American team like Chile or Colombia
 
Copa%20America%20Centenario%20-%20Full%20Schedule%20Graphic.png
 
terrible choice not to have any of the later round games in Pasadena

when are the rest of the seeds decided?
 
Hmmmmm so in terms of foreign hot pussy as fans?

What nations will we see in Philly and NJ?
 
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Geoff Cameron was desperately missed. That said, 4-0 is grounds for termination for JK.

Braves your better informed than me, if we do axe Klinnsman who are the most likely candidates to step in for him ? I've heard Bruce Arena and I can live with that.
 
Arena would be the obvious, but Gulati fired him in 06 so maybe not. Arena would take it in a heartbeat.

Marcelo Biesla would also be a good get, rumor is he was interested last summer, ( when we should have fired JK)

I'm optimistic that JK is gone, but It wouldn't surprise me if they stick with him.
 
If the federation is serious about football/soccer then there is absolutely no reason JK should still have a job, zero
 
sounds like everyone thinks he's fired, but the guy has 9 lives

I follow a ton of soccer writers , analysts, etc on twitter. Its blowing up, but yeah you are right, I've seen these blow ups about 10 times during his tenure lol
 
I'll play devil's advocate, the guy is getting European talent to play here at least. He obviously won't be an x and o guy, but to make the US viable it was going to take an overhaul that isn't a 4-6 year fix. Of course, I can't stand him, so there's that...but the blueprint is at least there finally. Just gonna take a bunch of time, but we want immediate results.

I won't be upset either way, and defending is incredibly poor. Brooks was shit tonight.

Guess I'm looking for a path, not an immediate result.
 
Havent been this shocked inawhile at an international score

This is right up there with argies bombing their qualification

No match in qualifying till late March now and Honduras at home is must win

Maybe they dont fire him now, but they have to at least reach out to some top guys and gauge interest
 
You have s couple of big beat writers calling for the firing which is a first in his tenure . Encouraging sign, but I won't believe it until it happens
 
I'll play devil's advocate, the guy is getting European talent to play here at least. He obviously won't be an x and o guy, but to make the US viable it was going to take an overhaul that isn't a 4-6 year fix. Of course, I can't stand him, so there's that...but the blueprint is at least there finally. Just gonna take a bunch of time, but we want immediate results.

I won't be upset either way, and defending is incredibly poor. Brooks was shit tonight.

Guess I'm looking for a path, not an immediate result.

I give him some credit for the dual nationals , though I think most would have come anyways. Also, a lot of that groundwork is done when they are young and not by JK( John brooks is one example). I also like how he is not afraid to play young players, a lot of coaches are. Only two things I like
 
who are the realistic replacement candidates and what backgrounds do they have? Klinsmann came from TV after a successful playing career but also after being disgraced as manager of Germany, right?Arena seems to be a retread (obviously) and I don't think I want to go backwards at all, but i barely know who Sunil Gulati is so i can't begin to make predictions. I'd assume we have no shot of landing EPL/Bundesliga/La Liga/Ligue A managers, so do we go to MLS? Is that doable or is it embarrassing?I also am surprised about Brooks's performance last night after he seemed to be great for us in matches previous to this. I guess you can have a bad night on the pitch, but that was excruciating
 
No time for a "project " manager, we are 20% through WCQ, so I think you need someone with experience with coaching national teams. Dumping a new guy in the mix with only club coaching experience would be a bad decision

All signs point to Arena being the guy, he was outstanding at rebuilding the squad after the 98 wc disaster
 
Don't think there is any chance they fire him. The fact is they are still going to make the WC. Hell be gone on mutual terms after that.

He doesn't know what hes doing. Mates we aren't a great team by any stretch but we have solid players who are playing on some of the best teams in the world and he doesn't have a fucking clue how to use them. We should be a strong #2 behind Mexico in CONCACAF right now but we looking middling at best. I'd quit the team until he left.
 
Should start building around Pulisic now

Whatever formation he works best in play it and fit in the rest

Id also cap tie ccv as soon as possible. like braves said should of last night
 
Should start building around Pulisic now

Whatever formation he works best in play it and fit in the rest

Id also cap tie ccv as soon as possible. like braves said should of last night

surprised it took so long for him to get in the lineup and that we haven't done this yet

[wtf is cap tie ccv? I was thinking put a guy with the initials CCV in to get a cap to tie someone in the USMNT history books, but that can't be right]
 
Csmeron Carter vickers

Outside Pulisic probsbly best us prospect, plays cb at Tottenham and hes 18 or maybe 19 now, at spurs they say he is best cb youngster they hsve had in 10-15 years

He could be playing in the championship on loan now but the coach has said he wants to keep him even though hes playing less because he wants his best prospects to lewrn his system

My guess is by or right after world cup hes starting for the US

However by cap tie we mean get him in a a game for the US so he can't play for anyone else. his mom is English so they could technically call him up

So far hes been loyal to the Us but plenty of guys change their minds, JK should just remove sll doubt and lock him in by playing once
 
i remember Costa changing from Brazil to Spain or maybe i flip-flopped the countries, couldn't CCV do that? Or are you saying that's a nuisance that he may not want to go through so it lessens the likelihood of changing
 
oh, thought he had played in the matches that counted and he needed to appeal to FIFA. Guess that's what Jermaine Jones had to do as referenced in that article :shake:
 
Just get mercenary coach for 2 years, like South Korea and Australia did with Hiddink. Worked out very well for both of them. Get the best guy out there and pay him a bucketload. Worry about the long term coach after the WC
 
Just get mercenary coach for 2 years, like South Korea and Australia did with Hiddink. Worked out very well for both of them. Get the best guy out there and pay him a bucketload. Worry about the long term coach after the WC

Not going happen when they still owe JK like 6 million.
Arena is fine, knows pretty much all the players and has the experience of qualifying..

Arena isn't longterm, guy is in his 60s
 
mercenary coach doesnt make much sense either because the team isnt exactly old

its a young team so I imagine expectations in 2018 are probly close to just getting out of the group?

even in his 60s though, that can be long term internationally its a light schedule, I could see him for this world cup and 2022 as long as its not a disaster
 
odd how things quickly change. I do remember how a lot of folks on here were calling me out when I wasn't impressed with the USMNT in any WC and had to chill the fuck down. Now there's internal affairs that have been brewing for years.
 
Ultimately you can only throw the players under the bus so many times, and his weird obsession with yoga and shit


Under Klinsmann's stewardship, the US missed back-to-back Olympics for the first time in 50 years. Klinsmann had prioritized Olympic qualification from Day 1, and while you can fudge his responsibility for the 2012 failure at least a little bit (that came before he was technical director), he has to own the 2016 misery. It was his hand-picked top assistant, Andreas Hertzog, who guided that particular ship to the bottom of the ocean.

And it was Klinsmann himself who blithely, hypocritically and high-handedly dismissed his critics.

“It’s a good thing you have so much comments and opinions because it shows you that a lot more people care,” Klinsmann told the Washington Post in 2015. “They care about the game, they care about the national team. They care about saying their opinion. Do they understand really what happened in the Gold Cup? Some of them absolutely do and a lot of people don’t. I take it, it’s not a big deal. But it also explains we have a long way to go to educate people on the game of soccer still in this country.”

Yet it was Klinsmann himself who exited that tournament complaining about officiating calls that were, upon multiple reviews, correct. It seemed he was the one in need of an education on the laws of the game, as well as the US's history of handling teams like Jamaica even in the face of multiple difficulties.

On top of the excuses, it was Klinsmann whose team was repeatedly out-shot, out-possessed, out-fought and out-played against the likes of Panama, Honduras and even Haiti.

A month after giving that quote, the US lost again -- this time to Mexico, and this time with a trip to the Confederations Cup on the line. Down went another one of Klinsmann's stated goals, and another of destructive peccadilloes popped up: He seemed to blame the loss on fullback Fabian Johnson, who had to be subbed off after 110 minutes of playing through a calf injury.

"I had a very severe word with Fabian Johnson, and I sent him home today," Klinsmann said at the time. "He can rethink his approach about his team."

This was a pattern -- throwing specific players under the bus after bad defeats -- that was repeated throughout his tenure, to the point that USSF president Sunil Gulati even had to comment publicly about it. It was no to avail, however, as Klinsmann persisted with that particular tack to the bitter end when he trashed John Brooks after the home loss to Mexico to start the Hexagonal, then saw the highly rated Hertha Berlin center back put in perhaps the single worst performance of any US defender in the modern history of the program four days later at Costa Rica.

Perhaps it was a defense mechanism or perhaps it a hard-wired, Randian belief that the individual is the only essential unit. Either way, Klinsmann's inability to accept responsibility and willingness to use the guillotine on his own players did, according to multiple anonymous USMNT players, cost him the trust of the locker room. And it showed on the field.

His lack of tactical acumen or belief in granular preparation also showed, and was first revealed on these shores in Brian Straus' excellent, exquisitely sourced behind-the-scenes look at the USMNT's struggles at the start of the last Hexagonal.

"[Klinsmann] didn't really say how we were going to play. It was a quick turnaround," an anonymous player told Straus. "He just basically said, ‘Guys, we know the importance of the game. We know it's going to be a tough game down here. They made it a national holiday. They're going do everything they can.

"‘They're going to bite, kick and scratch. They're going to do everything to take you out of your game. But at the end of the day, it's a game. The ball doesn't change. The way we play doesn't change. So just go out there and represent yourselves well.'"

That jibed with stories from Klinsmann's previous two stops, first with the German national team from 2004 through 2006 and later, briefly, with Bayern Munich.

"We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann," wrote all-world fullback Philipp Lahm in his autobiography. "There was very little technical instruction and the players had to get together independently before the game to discuss how we wanted to play. All the players knew after about eight weeks that it was not going to work out with Klinsmann. The remainder of that campaign was nothing but limiting the damage."

Talk to US players now, and they'll tell long stories about resistance-band training, empty stomach runs, three-a-days and yoga classes under Klinsmann. Precious few have offered stories of detailed film sessions or intense, meticulous tactical work.

That the US qualified for the final 16 of the 2014 World Cup in spite of the above speaks to the strength of the player pool -- one of Klinsmann's indisputable successes has been expanding the roster (the other is winning a lot of friendlies), especially when it comes to recruiting dual-nationals. But in so doing, the team played a regressive brand of bunker-ball even more unapologetic than what Bora Milutinovic trotted out way back in 1994 with far fewer resources at his disposal.

The result was a record performance from Tim Howard in goal against Belgium, and a convenient scapegoat in Chris Wondolowski. But it also raised the question of why Klinsmann's inability to pick a coherent roster, and fundamental distrust of attacking players. The failure to bring a back-up for Jozy Altidore to Brazil 2014 was inexcusable, while the omission of Landon Donovan was self-defeating.

Donovan, in his final 10 national team games, registered nine goals and eight assists. That includes a spin as the Golden Ball winner at the 2013 Gold Cup -- to date Klinsmann's only trophy as a manager -- and the final goal in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Mexico to clinch a spot in Brazil.

Donovan's exclusion was not justified, but it could have been mitigated by the inclusion of other attacking players like Benny Feilhaber, Sacha Kljestan or Lee Nguyen, or at least a willingness to move Johnson up into midfield as a way of generating more offense. Instead Klinsmann played Bradley, a natural d-mid or box-to-box midfielder, as a pseudo trequartista; he played Clint Dempsey, a natural second forward or inverted winger, as a lone No. 9; he slotted dogged yet unspectacular two-way players like Graham Zusi and Alejandro Bedoya on the wings, and thus the US generated little possession and even less open play danger.

He set up the team like minnows, and then coached them to be minnows. This gave the lie to his grand pronouncements about attacking attractive soccer first broadcast to the fanbase during his introductory press conference, then with less and less frequency as the years wore by.

If there was hope that would change, Klinsmann would probably still be the boss today. Yet even when things were going well, he couldn't help but tinker with them until they broke. He finally had the US in a pragmatic, balanced 4-1-3-2 for the bulk of this past summer's Copa America, with Bradley sitting in at d-mid to protect the central defense. It led to wins over Ecuador and Costa Rica (the only wins over top 20 teams under Klinsmann), as well as Paraguay.

But poor roster construction meant he scuttled that look for the semifinal against Argentina for a lopsided 4-4-2 with Bradley and Kyle Beckerman playing box-to-box, and the US subsequently took a 4-0 beating. Then came the Mexico game in Columbus two weeks ago, and...


That is not an unfair representation of the post-match spin and blame-shifting. Last Tuesday's 4-0 beating put a bow on the whole thing.

With that the Klinsmann era came to a close, and the trick for whoever the next coach is will be to make certain that trust -- both within the locker room, and with the fanbase -- is rebuilt, that a core and an identity are identified, that stability is achieved, and that tactical ideas are both clear and achievable.

It is not an impossible task. Klinsmann could have accomplished it had he had ever given himself the chance.
 
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