The 2 friendlies were good performances, but the US played very defensively and hesitantly in last year’s World Cups and all of the friendlies following it up until this past week. I’m not all that impressed. Like I said, he’s no Bruce Arena, who actually played attacking soccer and led us to a Quarterfinals of the World Cup, with those same players who aren’t playing on the best teams or best leagues in the world.
France came ready to play… 3 goals in 16 minutes, 4 in the first half (vs. Mexico).
England, also is up 2-0 on Columbia.
If the results hold up, France would win the group with England #2 and Columbia would be 3rd place, but qualify for elimination round (and likely play the US, depending on how Group E’s results go this evening).
The Germans think he’s such a great coach that he got fired from their national team and Bayern Munich.
Tell me specifically what Klinnsman is doing to remake American soccer. To think that a coach that sees players for like 20 days a year is more important than the entire developmental system of a league is bizarre to me.
We were in the Group of Death though last year and we advanced out of group second to champion Germany and ahead of CR7 and Ghana. We exceeded expectations, no?
He quit the German National Team because his family live in Newport Beach, California.
He is insisting that all teams in the national pyramid play tactically consistant football. This will help younger players faster adapt to football with the MNT. He is trying to get the MLS to get in line with the rest of the world on their schedule. He wants players playing in the best leagues to help with their development. He was right to kick Donovan off. He was aging and a slacker. LD also quit in the middle of qualifying.
Meant to say CR7 and Portugal.
MLS will never be on the same schedule as “the rest of the world.” There isn’t even such a thing. The Scandanavian countries and Russia don’t play in the Winter. Mexico doesn’t play a Fall to Spring schedule.
You’re claiming that Klinsmann dictates the tactics for all the clubs in the US? Or attempts to? I’m not sure how that would work, but it definitely isn’t happening. It never will, can, or should happen. A very large amount of USMNT players play abroad too, he definitely doesn’t have any influence on how Hoffenheim or Aston Villa plays.
Wanting players to get the best competition isn’t a Klinsmann thing. That’s what every coach of the US ever has wanted.
Donovan could down a quart of vodka and outplay Davis. He tore up MLS after being left off the team. It was the wrong decision and it was blindingly obvious after Altidore went down.
So he’s revamping the US system by saying he wants two things that he can’t control and that haven’t happened and reiterating what every coach has said for the past 30 years?
Costa Rica look overmatched by Brazil, but have held on to a 0-0 scoreline at the half. But they need a win to advance.
Spain up 1-0 over South Korea in the other game.
EXACTLY like this. If it isn’t clear from the article, Klinsmann wanted this authority the first time the USSF talked to him about being the USMNT coach; they said no, and he didn’t take the job. The second time around he got what he wanted, and it’s clear he wants to try to reform the way youth soccer is developed in this country. Whether he can pull it off is a different thing, but at least he has the authority to try.
If you give Klinsmann 100% of everything US soccer does, and it seems like you want to, it amounts to basically hiring a consultant to review academies and increasing the difficultly to get an optional license. Those are good things, but don’t you think that the people running the academies, the clubs that coach young players 4 days a week for a decade, are more important in the development process than someone that ordered an external review?
Of the 79 clubs in the US Soccer academy system, only 1 is coached by a US Soccer coach. The academies started and expanded before Klinsmann ever became coach too.
Meh.
Costa Rica come up short, and South Korea breaks Spanish hearts to end up #2 in the group.
So the Final 16 are set (in bracket order):
China vs. Cameroon (Saturday)
USA vs. Colombia (Monday)
Germany vs. Sweden (Saturday)
France vs. South Korea (Sunday)
Brazil vs. Australia (Sunday)
Japan vs. Netherlands (Tuesday)
Norway vs. England (Monday)
Canada vs. Switzerland (Sunday)
So if we assume the higher ranked team win all the round of 16 matches, we’re looking at quarterfinals of:
USA vs. China
Germany vs. France
Brazil vs. Japan
Canada vs. England
But of course that’s looking past some serious soccer. I’m particularly looking forward to Brazil (who I hate) vs. Australia (my wife is Australian, and the Aussies have looked very solid). Germany vs. Sweden is two elite-level teams in theory, but Sweden has not looked great so far. Norway vs. England is another one that’s very close on paper.
Three of the top 16 are debut teams and two other are teams that were previously eliminated in the first round. And other than Ecuador, the other debut teams gave some good games, even if at the end they didn’t make it past. But that is also the case with the men’s cup.
Also, I hope Brazil’s team gets a bit better recognition, considering their male counterparts are currently losing to Colombia in Copa América, while they blazed and finished the first round without losing. I doubt it, sadly.
In the Copa America Colombia just beat Brazil :eek:
Germany and France shouldnt happen in the quarters 
I don’t want to particularly single you out, but while I enjoy watching the game (and had both Brazil and Costa Rica and Brazil and Colombia streaming), I find it annoying that in this thread, which is for discussion of the Women’s World Cup, people keep bringing info on other cups. Because I don’t remember that sort of hijack last year, in the thread for the World Cup. Perhaps it was there, buried beneath pages detailing the games and players, but it didn’t stick out to me as much as this and other comments.
And in this case, it resonates more, because I’m sure they’ll give a hell lot more of attention in Brazil to the fact that they lost to Colombia in men’s soccer in a regional tourney while they advanced undefeated in the Women’s World Cup.
There are several different competitions going on at the same time. Rather than have several threads this seems to be footie central for all international football talk. It might also draws some who would never pay much attention to the WWC to take notice.
We’ve made it out of the “Group of Death” in past WC’s as well, while playing far more attacking soccer. Merely making it out of the group is not a cause for celebration for the US anymore. If you look at our Opta stats, our possession and shots were lower than any world cup since 1994.
:rolleyes: Please. Donovan was the best US player in the 2013 Gold Cup and was far better than a number of options Klinsmann chose. Klinsi was just trying to make a power play and our performance suffered, as he tried to put Bradley into the Donovan role, which was decidedly out of position for Bradley.
The US has lucked out in its draw. I mean that’s a fairly easy path to the Semis… watch now we screw it up because we can’t score ;).