By Miles Park ’16, Sports Editor

Brazil 4 USA 1. Mexico 3 USA 2. Costa Rica 1 USA 0. The last 3 results for the United States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) and coach Jürgen Klinsmann have not been pretty. After being embarrassed on home soil by Brazil and its star forward Neymar, the USMNT missed out on a glorious opportunity to qualify for the 2017 Confederations Cup held in Russia, losing 3-2 to archrivals Mexico in heartbreaking fashion after a late extra time winner from Mexico’s Paul Aguilar. Adding to the misery, Costa Rica dominated Klinsmann’s side from start to finish, defeating the US 1-0 at Red Bulls Arena in a game that was only attended by roughly 9,000 fans. That string of results dropped the US to 29^th in the FIFA World Rankings, piling more and more pressure onto Klinsmann.

Jürgen Klinsmann was brought over from Germany to the US in order to bring the USMNT to the top of world soccer. Klinsmann became a German soccer legend during his illustrious playing career, where he started as a striker for the German national team and numerous club teams. He then turned to managing, coaching the German national team from 2004-6 before taking over German Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich from 2008-9. When Klinsmann was hired in 2011, the idea was that he would bring with him the style, tactics, and culture that made Germany a perennial world powerhouse. Over the years, US soccer has become known for organization and athleticism rather than creativity and flair, a team filled with good athletes rather than great soccer players. Part of the reasoning behind Klinsmann’s hiring was that he would bring an outside philosophy which could reshape the nation’s soccer structure from the foundation up. That, however, has proven far easier said than done. Many blame the US’s inability to produce superstar talent on the country’s youth setup, which drastically different than those of most soccer powerhouse’s. While the youth setup may be an issue, the fact remains that soccer is simply not nearly as popular as other sports in the US. While the MLS (Major League Soccer) has grown in popularity in recent years, the league is still far behind rival sports leagues including the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL.

The height of Klinsmann’s reign thus far came on June 26^th, 2014, when Germany beat the US 1-0 in Brazil. Although they lost, on that day the USMNT secured a birth into the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup, surprising most by advancing out of the so-called “group of death”. That group included the aforementioned Germany along with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and a strong Ghana side, both of which were given better odds to advance than the US. Klinsmann turned out to be right when he said, “There’s a reason they call it the ‘Group of Death’. Because we’re in it too.” Unfortunately, he also turned out to be correct when he said, “[the USMNT] cannot win this World Cup, because we are not on that level yet,” as the US bowed out in the round of 16, losing 2-1 to Belgium. Still, the team’s World Cup run built up a tremendous energy around the team as Noah Nazmiyal 16’ remarks, “the World Cup got a lot of my friends who weren’t soccer fans really into the national team and the sport of soccer as a whole”. Yet just over a year later the team suddenly finds itself in flux. Former team cornerstones Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, DeMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, and Jermaine Jones are all past 30 and aging quickly. Klinsmann has already phased out the retired Donovan and realizes that many of his former stars may not be available or productive in 2018 for the next World Cup held in Russia. This has left Klinsmann cycling through younger players in the hopes that they establish themselves as his new cornerstones. The problem is that few if any of those young players have made much of an impact leaving Klinsmann with an unstable and ineffective squad of players. So as the USMNT gears up for the 2016 Copa America held on American soil, coach Klinsmann is left with far more questions than answers.