Sorry Bruce but they’ve been there, done that and it isn’t working quite frankly.
U.S. men’s national team soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann (who is German), has been taking a lot of criticism lately ever since he dropped American golden boy Landon Donovan from the World Cup squad and stated that his team doesn’t have what it takes to win the tournament this time around.
Well according to World Soccer Talk, L.A. Galaxy and former U.S. national team head coach Bruce Arena took his criticism a step further in an interview with the New York Times by suggesting that Klinsmann shouldn’t be coaching the team period, due to his nationality.
“I believe an American should be coaching the national team,” Arena told the New York Times. “I think the majority of the national team should come out of Major League Soccer. The people that run our governing body think we need to copy what everyone else does, when in reality, our solutions will ultimately come from our culture.”
I understand that Arena is trying to come off as a nationalist but I find this kind of mentality archaic and silly. The U.S. needs to employ top coaches if they want better results on the international level. Unfortunately for them, there aren’t any real standout coaches who have an American passport.
As for his assertion that the majority of the players should come from the MLS, I mean that’s fine and all but if there are Americans playing in the best leagues abroad, why wouldn’t you want that kind of quality in your team? The MLS is growing, but it is still behind the top leagues in Europe in quality by a considerable margin.