New U.S. soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann arrived at his introduction Monday clad in jeans and a blazer, a California-cool look for the German-born Orange county resident with grand sweeping plans to help reshape the sport in his adopted country. He’s waited five years to enact them, and he’ll have to wait at least three more — the 2014 World Cup in Brazil — to see how they fare.
“I’m real excited about this opportunity, this chance to coach the U.S. team. Having lived here for the last 13 years, I’ve got to know the U.S. Soccer environment, the youth, college system, MLS,’’ said Klinsmann, whose wife and kids are American and turned down the job twice since 2006.
“It has been this feeling someday I’d get to coach the U.S. team. I always stayed — because of family reasons — deeply connected with the U.S. This is a big moment for me, and I’m deeply proud I get to be a part of the future of U.S. soccer.’’
He’s been a big figure wherever he’s gone, winning or losing huge. The former striker led Germany to a World Cup title in 1990, then reshaped their developmental system and coached them to a third-place finish in 2006. He talked with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati about the job that summer, but declined when he couldn’t get some of his demands over power down in writing.
After a failed one-year stint at Bayern Munich — who’d won the double the previous year, he declined again in 2010 before finally getting the assurances he wanted.
“We didn’t do this on a handshake,” Gulati admitted.
Now Klinsmann is convinced his blend of foreign success and domestic experience will help him overhaul not only the seemingly-stagnated men’s team, but the at-times fragmented youth system that feeds it.
“I have my own ideas on how to build a program,’’ Klinsmann said. “I deeply believe that soccer reflects the culture of a country. Having studied the U.S. culture the last 13years, it’s quite a challenge, because you have such a melting pot, so many cultures and ideas floating around, the challenge of the youth system being so different than anywhere else in the world.
“America never waits and sees and leaves it to other people what is next; America likes to decide on its own what is next…(I see) using a proactive style, dictating to your opponent…So much influence is coming through from the Latin environment that needs to be reflected in the national team. We want to play possession, dictate the pace, challenge our players to improve technically to be able to keep the ball.’’
And therein lies the rub, because as he admits “Barcelona was not born in the last couple of years. It was born in the early 90s with Johan Cruyff.’’
Klinsmann is regarded as more of an idea man, a leader and manager than a tactician and coach. Think General Lee, as opposed to Stonewall Jackson.
He had an able consigliere in Joachim Löw in Germany, and suffered due to the absence of one at Bayern Munich. It’s unclear who’ll play that role here, with his debut Aug. 10 vs. Mexico in Philadelphia and a staff not to be named until Wednesday, and even then further changes expected down the line.
But rest assured he will have an active hand in reshaping the youth teams; who coaches them, and in what style that coaching is done. With the Under-23 and U-20 jobs vacant, he’ll have a unique chance at input there, and he’s already reached out to a pair of New Jerseyans in Claudio Reyna and Tab Ramos.
Ramos is the interim U-20 coach, and said at last week’s MLS All-Star game at Red Bull Arena that he hopes to continue in the position. Perhaps even more important for the long-term could be Reyna, who holds the newly-created title of youth technical director for U.S. Soccer and will have a huge impact.
“There are a lot of different challenges ahead of us, especially on a foundation level, and our foundation is youth: How they should be trained, how often should train, how much time they should spend with the ball, how they should develop their talent,’’ Klinsmann said.
“It all feeds into Claudio’s new role here. That’s really important to be addressed from the beginning, because I think that is what is still really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the amount of time kids play the game.
“If you have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week — maybe four organized soccer but 16 hours unorganized soccer, just banging the ball around in the neighborhood — that gets up to 20 hours. It doesn’t matter how he plays with his dad or his buddies in the street. This will show later with his technical ability, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things.
“That’s certainly an area where lot of work ahead of us. Because if you look, MLS took major steps forward, it’s come a long way; but it’s still a very hectic style, the college system. We have to get it on a more technical level, a more comfortable level with the ball. So there are all developmental issues. It’s come a long way but we have quite a ways to go still to break into those top 10 in the world.’’