Come to the U.S., Klinsi!

Alright, I’ll say it: I’d like Jürgen Klinsmann to be the next coach of the U.S. Soccer team. Although there hasn’t yet been any final decision regarding Bruce Arena’s fate, there is a lot of speculation that he will soon find himself without a job. Naturally, we’re going to need to find a replacement and Klinsmann could be a great land. He took a German team that wasn’t as good as it’s been in past years and reached third place in the World Cup finals. His team simply overachieved and the home grown folk loved them for their soccer intelligence, attacking tactics and discipline – all of which reflects back on the coach. Throw into the mix the fact that Klinsi (the Germans’ nickname for him, not mine…) LIVES IN CALIFORNIA and loves it there and you have a nice candidate for the job should Arena move on or get canned. There is, however, something more and I’m wondering if Klinsmann doesn’t feel it himself. Simply put:

Germany doesn’t deserve Jürgen Klinsmann.

I guess one of the downsides to working in a country that, you know, actually gives a shit about soccer is that one has to cope with a great deal more scrutiny. And the pressure on Klinsmann was intense before and at the start of the World Cup. The Germans got their asses handed to them 4-1 by Italy and almost everyone was calling for a new coach. Then they beat the U.S. C-team by a score of 4-1 and, though it relieved some pressure, it didn’t exactly secure Jürgen’s job because, after all, it was just the US’ C-team. If the Germans had lost that game too, Klinsmann would have certainly lost his job. He was under fire for everything from his training methods to his tactics to his personnel. When he released the World Cup roster, people howled in disgust that he’d selected an unknown named David Odonkor and that he’d picked Jens Lehmann to be the starting goalie rather than Oliver Kahn. All those people have had to politely shut the fuck up considering how far Germany advanced when they weren’t expected to do squat. Now everyone knows and loves Odonkor. And Lehmann only blocked some penalty kicks in the Argentina game; can’t complain about that either.

Now that the German run through the cup is officially over and the unexpected happened, everyone here is calling for Klinsmann to stay. And he’s remained non-committal about the whole affair. Maybe he’ll stay but maybe he’s entertaining other offers. Who knows? What I DO know is that all of his new “friends” are the people who wanted him fired just a short while ago. The tabloid newspaper Bild, which campaigned for his firing, started a drive to collect signatures as a petition to get Klinsmann to stay in his role as Germany’s coach. Germany’s Pope of soccer, Franz Beckenbauer, was highly critical of Klinsmann too and now he’s practically begging for him to stay.

On top of that, there’s the reaction of the “civilian” soccer fan who also wanted Klinsi gone but is now his best friend. But there’s something more at the heart of that as well, something that bothers me tremendously: they don’t even know what they’re talking about. For example, I watched last night’s third place match with Vroni, Kathi and Florian. Vroni doesn’t give a monkey’s ass about soccer but Kathi and Florian were super excited and singing their chants and whatnot. Then, a sub was checking in. “Who’s that?” they both asked. I said rather nonchalantly, “Oh, that’s Mike Hanke.” Later on Kathi asked, “What team does Odonkor play for?” I told them Borussia Dortmund. Later on they both asked what team Thomas Hitzlsperger played for and I answered that question too. Then it hit me: why is it that I know more about the GERMAN TEAM than German’s who were so excited about this game that they had their faces painted and were singing their chants? And this isn’t to say anything bad about Kathi and Flo, they’re both great people and two of my favorite friends here. It’s just that I would label that sort of ignorance the norm rather than the exception and it’s a little frustrating that this is the collective “wisdom” that wants to influence who coaches the national team. Another example: Vroni, Kathi and Flo were all pissed that Lehmann was in net rather than Kahn. They don’t even know their own players so how can you take that criticism seriously? During one of the other games Kathi was calling for Odonkor to get put in and I asked, “Say… weren’t you one of the people who were super pissed at Klinsmann naming him to the team? Why the change of heart now?” She answered it was because no one knew who Odonkor was before the cup. I responded that perhaps that was the reason Klinsmann was the coach and not her. She was anti-Klinsmann and now it’s safe to say she’s pro-Klinsmann. WTF?

Say what you will about soccer in the States but at least we don’t have pseudo-fans. Either people like the sport and the team and can speak intelligently about it or they don’t. Those that don’t like it may develop a casual interest in the World Cup for a moment but they don’t pretend to know enough to call for a coach’s firing or to criticize his methods and tactics.

Come to the U.S., Jürgen. Germany doesn’t deserve you.