Jurgen Klinsmann's time as United States manager is over. U.S. Soccer fired Klinsmann on Monday, ending a five-year reign, but one that was supposed to continue for two more years.
What eventually did Klinsmann in?
Historic losses
It's not just that Klinsmann's U.S. team had been losing since the 2014 World Cup. It's who they lost to and how.
Their 2015 Gold Cup semifinal loss to Jamaica was their first to a Caribbean team on home soil since 1969. Their March loss to Guatemala was their first defeat at the hands of Los Chapines since 1988. Their loss to Mexico on November 11 was their first home World Cup qualifying loss to their rivals since 1972. And their 4-0 loss to Costa Rica four days later was their worst shutout loss in qualifying in more than three decades.
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Playing players out of position
Klinsmann spoke often about pushing players out of their comfort zones. That's all well and good, but Klinsmann took it a little too far. Playing Alejandro Bedoya as a defensive midfielder, Matt Besler as a left back and Michael Bradley as an attacking midfielder were just some of the times when he put players out of position, they struggled, and then Klinsmann refused to take the blame for putting them in bad spots. Constantly playing players out of position made the team worse and it made some players unhappy.
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Rifts with players
Klinsmann's decision to leave Landon Donovan off the 2014 World Cup team didn't ingratiate him to many, but that was just one of many moves that seemed to cause issues with his players. He also pushed Carlos Bocanegra out of the national team when he was still captain, feuded with Benny Feilhaber and routinely threw players under the bus in press conferences. As early as 2013, there were reports of players being unhappy with Klinsmann.
The problems again came out after the Americans' recent loss to Mexico. Klinsmann said that Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones weren't good enough in the match, but minutes later the two said that the team wasn't comfortable with Klinsmann's tactics and the roles weren't very clear.
This came weeks after Kllinsmann made comments about Bob Bradley, Michael's father, and Bradley made it clear that he saw his best role as a deep-lying midfielder, something Klinsmann rarely used him as.
It's safe to say that player relations were strained, especially at the end.
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Feuding with most everyone
Klinsmann said that he thought it was important for the media and fans to put more pressure on the national team, and to demand more. That was all well and good until the media and fans criticized him — then he said that people in the U.S. didn't know the sport well enough to criticize.
Klinsmann also got into a public feud with MLS commissioner Don Garber, leading to an unusual back and forth through the media in which the two sides criticized each other and the comments.
By the end of his tenure, there weren't many people in American soccer left that Klinsmann hadn't talked down to or insulted.
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Tactical misfires
When Klinsmann was hired, one of the biggest question marks was his tactical acumen. There were reports that, while managing Germany, Jogi Low handled much of the tactics and that it wasn't an area where Klinsmann was very strong. Whatever happened in Germany, it was clear with the U.S. that the Americans had tactical issues. The 3-5-2 that Klinsmann chose to play against Mexico was horrendous and backfired horribly, but it wasn't the only tactical misstep he made. The Americans were often out-coached and looked unable to adjust to what opponents did do them.
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Communication problems
It was commonplace for Klinsmann and his players to give two completely different answers to the same questions after matches. Klinsmann would say a player had to do one thing and the player would say that he was trying to do something else. They were often on different pages and whether it was Klinsmann or the player who was right or wrong, the constant clashes in expectations and roles highlighted the team's communication problems.
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Fans turned on the team, if they even showed up
Klinsmann said that he wanted a more engaged and criticial fan base. Well, he got it.
The last 18 months of Klinsmann's tenure was marked by fans questioning his management and some even demanding he be fired. By the last week, the vast majority of fans had put pressure on U.S. Soccer to demand Klinsmann be sacked. Never before had U.S. fans put so much pressure on the federation for change.
Whether the federation made a change because of that pressure or not, they certainly took notice of the tens of thousands of empty seats at U.S. matches in the last two years. Fans were irate with Klinsmann, but they also stopped showing up to matches and nothing speaks louder than lost revenue.
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The World Cup is in doubt
There are a lot of factors that went into Klinsmann's firing, but U.S. Soccer was always going to give him every chance possible. There was only one thing that would get them to get rid of him — if they thought he might keep them from the World Cup.
Well, with losses to Mexico and Costa Rica to open the final round of World Cup qualifying, that's exactly what happened. The U.S. are dead last in their qualifying group and, above all else, that is why Klinsmann got the boot.
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