Having gotten the long-term deal and program control he wanted, Juergen Klinsmann took his first USA Soccer team to Philadelphia last night and got a 1-1 draw with arch-rival Mexico.
But that’s not the point, my friends.
Klinsmann’s team fell behind a Mexican squad weakened by the opening of the European season this weekend before tying it up late on a goal from MLS player Robbie Rogers, set up by a younger MLS play with the unlikely name of Brek Shea.
But that’s not the point, my friends.
The game drew a large, mostly Mexican crowd to Philly’s cavernous Lincoln Financial Field, filling the lower bowl with scattered groups in the upper. There was a near-brawl at one point, and an angry American scrum around the Jamaican ref who missed a clear red card.
But that’s not the point, my friends.
The point was made repeatedly by the coach known as “Klinsy,” in interviews, which ESPN ignored in its build-up and coverage, so focused are they on each game’s final score. The point was that we’re not that good, that we’ve pretended to be good for a decade, and the only way to be really good is to tear up the American grassroots and get our best young players going hard in 11-month seasons, and drilled with the fundamentals.
Bob Bradley was a fine game coach, but he left the cupboard bare for Klinsmann. Our players in the key 18-23 age group have failed to develop. They’re scrubs on second-rate European sides. Guys like Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore and even Landon Donovan (back in the day) have gone over with great fanfare and been found wanting.
Meanwhile Mexico has sent guys like Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to Manchester United and seen them turn into global stars.
That’s the point. If we develop our kids the right way, Klinsmann says, we have a deep enough talent pool that we’re bound to create such stars, in quantity, and challenge the great nations of the soccer world – Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany – on a regular basis.
Do things right, from the ground up, and America can be a “top four” soccer nation. Doesn’t mean we’ll win the World Cup, but we can expect what our women now have – a regular date in the semi-finals, and huge crowds at sports bars debating the finer points of the game.
Meanwhile Juergen Klinsmann smiled and posed, and pumped his fists at the goal. It was obvious he was having a great time, at the start of his greatest adventure in the sport.
But it’s only a start. Success will be measured by how guys like Shea, and younger guys, do in the German Bundesliga and the English Premier League, and Spain’s La Liga, in the next five years. Do they go over there and burn out, like Adu, or do they rise like Chicharito, giving us the respect and excitement we expect in international sport?
It’s on Coach Klinsy now. And I wish him luck with it.
