Matthew Doyle Rips Klinsmann To Pieces With Detail

His piece is a lengthy article and he holds no quarter.

Some of the points:

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First four-game home winless streak against CONCACAF opponents since 1965

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First loss to a Caribbean opponent in World Cup qualifying since 1969

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First loss to Jamaica, ever

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First home loss to Jamaica, ever

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First time US U-17 team missed the Youth World Cup

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First loss to Guatemala since 1988 -- a Guatemala team that was the lowest-ranked squad to beat the US in the history of the FIFA Rankings

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First US coach in 25 years to fail to record a single win in official competition against a Top 10 side

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Worse record vs. Top 20 sides in official competition than any of his four predecessors

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Under Klinsmann's stewardship, the US missed back-to-back Olympics for the first time in 50 years. Klinsmann had prioritized Olympic qualification from Day 1, and while you can fudge his responsibility for the 2012 failure at least a little bit (that came before he was technical director), he has to own the 2016 misery. It was his hand-picked top assistant, Andreas Hertzog, who guided that particular ship to the bottom of the ocean.

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And it was Klinsmann himself who blithely, hypocritically and high-handedly dismissed his critics.

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This was a pattern -- throwing specific players under the bus after bad defeats -- that was repeated throughout his tenure, to the point that USSF president Sunil Gulati even had to comment publicly about it. It was to no avail, however, as Klinsmann persisted with that particular tack to the bitter end when he trashed John Brooks after the home loss to Mexico to start the Hexagonal, then saw the highly rated Hertha Berlin center back put in perhaps the single worst performance of any US defender in the modern history of the program four days later at Costa Rica.

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Klinsmann's inability to accept responsibility and willingness to use the guillotine on his own players did, according to multiple anonymous USMNT players, cost him the trust of the locker room.

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"We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann," wrote all-world fullback Philipp Lahm in his autobiography. "There was very little technical instruction and the players had to get together independently before the game to discuss how we wanted to play. All the players knew after about eight weeks that it was not going to work out with Klinsmann. The remainder of that campaign was nothing but limiting the damage."

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Talk to US players now, and they'll tell long stories about resistance-band training, empty stomach runs, three-a-days and yoga classes under Klinsmann. Precious few have offered stories of detailed film sessions or intense, meticulous tactical work.

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the team played a regressive brand of bunker-ball even more unapologetic than what Bora Milutinovic trotted out way back in 1994 with far fewer resources at his disposal.

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The failure to bring a back-up for Jozy Altidore to Brazil 2014 was inexcusable, while the omission of Landon Donovan was self-defeating.

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Donovan, in his final 11 national team starts, registered eight goals and eight assists. That includes a spin as the Golden Ball winner at the 2013 Gold Cup -- to date Klinsmann's only trophy as a manager -- and a 1 goal/1 assist effort in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Mexico to clinch a spot in Brazil.

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Klinsmann was 9-1-1 in official competitions in which Donovan played, and 19-12-5 in games he didn't. Remember that, and his choice not to bring Donovan to Brazil, when folks talk about Klinsmann's winning percentage and the particularly great results from 2013.

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Klinsmann's teams were utterly inept against foes of that caliber in games that mattered. He failed to register a single win against a Top 10 team, becoming the first US manager unable to take that hurdle since Bob Gansler was coaching a roster full of mostly college kids in 1989 and 1990.

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Steve Sampson: 450 mins vs. top 10, held the lead for 21.1% of the time
Bruce Arena: 810 mins vs. top 10, held the lead for 22.2% of the time
Bob Bradley: 720 mins vs. top 10, held the lead for 25.5% of the time
Klinsmann: 570 mins vs. top 10, held the lead for 1.6% of the time

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He goes further into details regarding lineups, player selection and management, and specific players like Fabian Johnson and Michael Bradley, among other things.

full article