U.S. National Team Players Just Don't Get Enough Minutes

There's an eye-opening article on SI.com about Americans abroad having a chance to impress new United States men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann--a clean slate if you will. The author makes the point that Klinsmann's philosophy is going to be so radically different from Bob Bradley's that anyone has a chance to make an impact with the #USMNT.

She scores more in Italy
than #USMNT players

Fair enough, and maybe so. Writer Avi Creditor makes his case well noting that Chris Rolfe, for example, has two goals in two games for his team in Denmark, and how Joe Corona is making his case in Mexico with Tijuana. Cool. Good enterprise angle. So is the reporting on how Americans have fared over the first two weeks of domestic play worldwide. Creditor went country by country, player by player providing details on how many minutes each played and whether they scored, etc.

If you ask me, that's the meat of the issue. It's not the opportunity these players have in front of them, but just how few minutes Americans with a chance to make the national squad actually play! In England, where the biggest pool of Americans swim overseas--where the likes of Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Eric Lichaj, Stuart Holden and others play--four of the 15 in England started their games. One, John Paul Pittman of Oxford United in League 2, came on as a sub. The rest were either not on the 18-man roster or were, but didn't see playing time. Says volumes if you ask me.

Let's keep going. Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones - in the 18 for their respective squads and 0 minutes of live action. Same for Steve Cherundulo and Ricardo Clark. Carlos Bocanegra, the U.S. captain, not in the 18 for St. Etienne in France. Same story for Oguchi Onyewu with Sporting.

See where I'm going here? Our "best players" can't get on the field. It's great they're in Europe, being exposed to soccer cultures and supposedly better training and attitude about football. But what's the point if they're playing in reserve games and never getting a sniff of Sunday football?

What world football power operates this way with its players? Xavi and Rooney and Schweinsteiger, they'd be just as good for their respective nations if they sat every Sunday, correct?

To me, this raises tons of questions about the U.S.: Does our player selection just suck? Is the MLS single-entity system strangling national team development? Are we over-rating our best talent; worse yet, are our coaches and federation officials doing the same? They are supposed to be the experts here.

Kudos to Klinsmann for saying he needs more Latino influence in the #USMNT and for promising to play different faces and adopt a new philosophy. Maybe the answer is to open up MLS and make it more appealing and enticing for our best to play here in front of their national team coach. And yes, the U.S. needs more Latinos and more Euros, but only those who are playing ball every Sunday. Which is more than we can say for the Adus, Onyewus and Bornsteins of the world.

Klinsmann, Not U.S., Needs to Win Tonight Against Mexico

Jurgen Klinsmann--Not Bob Bradley

Does Jurgen Klinsmann need to win tonight? You bet your ass he does. Now that doesn't mean the U.S. has to defeat Mexico tonight in Philadelphia, but it had better be a good show. He'd better play some young guys, show some hints of a new philosophy and the defense better not be a sieve. These were all the things that did in Bob Bradley, and to see more of the same would definitely set the Klinsmann Era off on the wrong foot. After all, we don't want smart-ass bloggers to start calling it the Klinsmann Error, do we?

Now seriously, it's humungously unfair for Klinsmann's first game at the helm of the United States men's national soccer team to come against the region's best team and the U.S.' biggest rival in Mexico.Nothing good can come of it unless the U.S. beats Mexico 2-nil. And even then, Klinsmann will be hailed as the savior and all future shortcomings will be judged against this--at least for the time being.

Maybe it's a good time to set expectations; consider this kinda like a tryout. Klinsmann is working with a slew of potential assistant coaches, starting with Tab Ramos, Thomas Dooley and Martin Vasquez. OK. The final 20 players Klinsmann brought to Philly includes some surprises. Clint Dempsey isn't on the roster, while DeMarcus Beasley is. So is Freddy Adu, Robbie Rogers, Kyle Beckerman, Zach Lloyd and Edgar Castillo. Who? Yeah. It's the young guys you've been clamoring for; the players Bradley never developed and never nurtured for 2014 and beyond. Bradley rode the veterans like Donovan, Dempsey, et al. And there's some justification there, mostly self-preservation--and in the end that didn't work.

Klinsmann has been around enough world-class football to understand the importance of playing younger players in meaningless friendlies and urge them to succeed and play at their highest level. This is the best way to evaluate young players; and at least most of these guys play regularly in MLS, for whatever that's worth. At least those are meaningful minutes, unlike Bradley who had no qualms about putting guys like Adu, Oguchi Onyewu and others who barely were on club rosters somewhere in the world, much less playing at all. And for some unfathomable reason were playing and starting on a national team roster! Says plenty about the state of U.S. football.

This might be the first mountain Klinsmann decides to climb. He needs players who are game fit mentally and physically. He needs players who understand the subtleties of game flow and rhythm. He needs players period, and not just players for today, but players for the next two to four years.

If you're a fan, tonight is must-see TV. Don't sweat the small stuff like winning or losing, because tonight it doesn't really matter. Let's see who Klinsmann plays, how the team plays and try to figure out what he likes and doesn't care for in this team. And tomorrow, let's talk about whether Klinsmann, and not the U.S., wins or loses.

Klinsmann's Raw Deal: Coaching in Shadow of a Legend Like Bradley

Jurgen Klinsmann faces this!

Jurgen Klinsmann ain't no Bob Bradley. He's younger, has slightly more hair and has won more World Cups albeit by the narrowest of margins, 1-nil.

Now Klinsmann is further burdened by having to coach Bradley's boys. Y'know, the team he molded into Gold Cup and Confederations Cup finalists. The boys he shaped that "won" their group at the 2010 World Cup and gave Ghana all it had before extra time was just too much for the boys in red white and blue. So much for Klinsmann to bear.

How will he top Bullet Bob's tenacity on the sidelines? How can he beat the way Bradley deftly moved players around the pitch like a Russian chess master? How, by all that's holy, will Klinsmann figure out how to shape the U.S. fullbacks or in heaven's name put the right forwards up top in big games. No one put players in the lineup who hadn't played serious game minutes in months like ol' Bob Bradley did. We're gonna miss that.

No what Klinsmann has to do is follow that legacy left by Bradley. He'll need to look confused, uninspired and dumbfounded at the worst possible moments. He'll need to shoehorn in Ricardo Clark whenever possible into the U.S. lineup. He'll need to put Gooch Onyewu front and center on defense even though big ol' Gooch hasn't played first-division soccer since high school. He'll need to play veterans for today, and screw tomorrow's team. He'll need to make every game a mentally anguishing adventure; y'know, fall behind 1-0, 2-0 in the first 30 minutes and then come roaring back to tie Guatemala, Honduras or, y'know, Algeria.

Following a legend is always the kiss of death for a coach or a pro athlete. Imagine being the focal point of the Chicago Bulls the year after Michael Jordan retired. Or following Bill Parcells or Bill Walsh after winning all those Super Bowls. Jurgen Klinsmann has been dealt a raw hand and I feel badly for him. Not only is he going to coach in Bob Bradley's shadow until at least the 2014 World Cup, but he has fewer than two weeks to get ready for his first live action, Aug. 10 against Mexico in Philadelphia. Poor bastard, his first game is a Gold Cup finals rematch against the dominant team in the region. Well, looking on the bright side, at least it's not in LA.