Jurgen Klinsmann has been named as Bob Bradley's successor today. Yesterday I gave three skills that I thought absolutely imperative to any new head coach: elite-level experience, tactical nous, and the ability to accurately assess skill levels of players.
Regarding the first of these, elite-level experience, Klinsmann more than fits the bill. Not only was he a world-class player in four elite leagues for a decade and a half, he also managed the German national team to a World Cup semifinal (and eventual third place) on home soil in 2006. Bruce Arena coached the USMNT to a solitary point that year. Klinsmann, then, has far more experience at the highest level than any head coach in recent history.
With respect to the second qualification, tactical nous, Klinsmann's resume is a little more unclear. It's been written in a number of places that Klinsmann's assistant with the German national team in 2006, Joachim Low (now head coach), was the man primarily responsible for the brilliant tactics played by Germany in that tournament that saw them go so deep into the knockout stages. Nobody had been expecting Germany to progress particularly far in the tournament, but they played brilliantly. The fact that Low has had such immediate success (Euro 2008 finals, World Cup 2010 semifinal - lost to champions Spain in both competitions), has lead to even more speculation that it was he, not Klinsmann who was the mastermind of the 2006 team.
Finally, the third skill set I deemed imperative was being a capable judge of talent. Although Klinsmann's ability to judge talent hasn't ever been tested in the way it will coaching the USMNT, he compensates for this unknown with the fact that he was the only foreign head coach on the market who has significant experience in American soccer. Klinsmann has lived int he US for some time, and has been consulting with Toronto F.C. in MLS. Klinsmann's additional experience in American soccer does give him that added edge.
But Klinsmann possesses another skill in great abundance that I think may result in his success as head coach of the USMNT: Klinsmann is an excellent motivator. He consistently gets the best out of his players, something that many, myself included, felt Bob Bradley failed to do with alarming consistency. Bradley never seemed to be much of a disciplinarian and Klinsmann may be stricter, but he is also, undoubtedly more motivational. Nobody could possibly have less charisma than Bob Bradley and fans always got the sense that his lack of charisma probably accounted for some less than fully motivated displays by the team. Again, this is an area in which Klinsmann will not have such problems.
In many ways, Klinsmann's appointment was inevitable. If the rumors are to be believed, Sunil Gulati, president of the USSF, had approached Klinsmann twice previously, first in 2006 when Bob Bradley was hired, and again when Bob Bradley signed a new contract just last year. Klinsmann was always going to be Gulati's man. Time will tell if the fact that Gulati got him was actually a good thing for American soccer.
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