Is Jurgen Klinsmann Set to Become the Next USA Manager?

America still waiting for its German shepherd

Sean O'Conor

World Cup 2006 is now behind us and international teams have opened new chapters, except for the USA that is.

The States, who rose as high as fourth in the FIFA World Rankings in the run-up to the tournament, have not played a game since the summer and have none scheduled on the horizon.

While European sides have kicked off new eras under new coaches and started qualifying for the 2008 European Championships, America has been sat in front of the TV on FIFA international dates.

"It is different not to have any games," Reading winger and US international Bobby Convey told Soccerphile. "I don't even know when the next game is so we'll see when the next game is who the coach is. They don't pay me to choose who should be the coach so until they do I can't tell you who I think it should be."

Why so? You would have to ask Sunil Gulati, president of US Soccer. Indian-born Gulati has been waiting on a certain German gentleman to say yes definitively to his offer to become the next national team coach, after Bruce Arena was relieved of his duties following the World Cup.

Jurgen Klinsmann was always the frontrunner for the US manager's job given his home is half an hour's drive away from America's national training centre in Carson, California. Klinsmann has an American wife and child and has run a sports consultancy business there since retiring as a player in Europe and having resigned as Germany coach to spend more time in the sunshine state, the fit seems perfect.

Klinsmann's prolonged commute across nine time zones while preparing the host nation for the World Cup was an easy stick for the German press to beat him with as his team stumbled unimpressively into the tournament.

Once there however, the Stuttgart-born coach's foot soldiers fought so bravely on their way to a semi-final exit to eventual winners Italy that all was forgiven by an overjoyed German public and pleasantly surprised critics.

US Soccer has interviewed others for the job, including Manchester United assistant Carlos Queiroz and the increasingly desperate-looking Sven-Goran Eriksson, but the smart money is that Herr Klinsmann has had a shoe-in since the end of the World Cup and that the deal may already have been done and dusted months ago.

So why the wait? Klinsmann insisted on a break after the Germany job to spend some time with his family. With an announcement due this month, US Soccer will be the laughing stock of the soccer world if the German legend now jilts them at the altar.

The lack of international action has prompted some concern amid US fans and so a Klinsmann announcement is eagerly anticipated. The winds of doubt blowing around 'Soccer House', the association's HQ in Chicago, turned colder recently when assistant coach Glenn 'Mooch' Myernick tragically died after falling into a coma having suffered a heart attack, at the age of only 51.

'Mooch', a former NASL star and US international himself, was an immensely popular man and the real motivator in the national team set-up whose loss was felt across America's soccer community.

"Definitely very sad news," Convey confirmed. "Mooch was a good guy. He was always there with the national team for so long and the Olympic team. I just wish his family the best. It just proves to you how short life is and how you really have to make the most of everything that you do, enjoy life every day and smile as much as you can."

If Klinsmann takes over as US coach later this month, the tears over Mooch's premature passing should dry up and the complaints over the national team's lack of games will cease, as a new era for football in America opens. Come on Jurgen, your (adopted) country needs you.

Sean O'Conor

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