Jurgen Klinsmann, who lives in the US, had his comments on the state of US Soccer both present and future and didn't mince words.
"Looking at the game yesterday you had three really quality players that did not live up to their expectations, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. They were not there. It was not their game last night and if they do not step up to the world stage then you cant expect Michael Bradley and the other ones to pull it all off. I think its really important that they lay out a philosophy for US Soccer and say where do we want to go. I mean hopefully the US will get the 2022 World Cup… and so you need to know how to develop the players.
It is very difficult within the American culture to talk about that topic because you are the only country in the world that has the pyramid upside down. That means you pay for having your kid play soccer, because your goal is not that your kid becomes professional soccer player because your goal is that your kid gets a scholarship in high school or college. Which is completely opposite from the rest of the world…and it is a tough one because soccer is very similar to basketball you need it out of the lower class environment.
Soccer worldwide is a lower environment sport. We all got up from moderate families and fought our way through. You need to keep this hunger throughout your life and I compare it to basketball because all these guys are coming form the inner cities so you need to find ways, whatever they may be to connect with the Hispanics, connect with everyone and get the kids that are really hungry. To get the kids on a technical level that are able to perform and what I mean by technical level is first touch. The first touch yesterday was not there and you cannot afford those in the WC."
"Looking at the game yesterday you had three really quality players that did not live up to their expectations, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. They were not there. It was not their game last night and if they do not step up to the world stage then you cant expect Michael Bradley and the other ones to pull it all off. I think its really important that they lay out a philosophy for US Soccer and say where do we want to go. I mean hopefully the US will get the 2022 World Cup… and so you need to know how to develop the players.
It is very difficult within the American culture to talk about that topic because you are the only country in the world that has the pyramid upside down. That means you pay for having your kid play soccer, because your goal is not that your kid becomes professional soccer player because your goal is that your kid gets a scholarship in high school or college. Which is completely opposite from the rest of the world…and it is a tough one because soccer is very similar to basketball you need it out of the lower class environment.
Soccer worldwide is a lower environment sport. We all got up from moderate families and fought our way through. You need to keep this hunger throughout your life and I compare it to basketball because all these guys are coming form the inner cities so you need to find ways, whatever they may be to connect with the Hispanics, connect with everyone and get the kids that are really hungry. To get the kids on a technical level that are able to perform and what I mean by technical level is first touch. The first touch yesterday was not there and you cannot afford those in the WC."
