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Transmogrified Tiger wrote:Identified is probably the wrong word, but in that realm. A number of players have the choice to choose between a couple countries, e.g. they were born in Germany to American parents, or they were born abroad and immigrated to the US when they were young. Klinsmann did a good job of recruiting those players to play for the US, Jones, Green, Zelalem, Brooks, Johansson, Pulisic, F. Johnson, Gooch, probably others I'm forgetting. Another coach probably wouldn't have gone 0-fer(I don't want to oversell Jurgen's impact), but Klinsmann is charismatic and has cache in Europe from his playing days so that was a net positive. His problem was that he couldn't make much happen once they were all on the roster.

thrill wrote:I'm extremely skeptical of the Klinsmann as recruiter narrative. I think he was probably good at it, but not as important as Nike, Adidas, the player's agent, attraction to American culture, family ties, and the opportunity to regularly contribute rather than possibly never make the German NT, etc.

If Giuseppi Rossi were 18 right now, there's no way he'd pick Italy. It's a completely different landscape for young American soccer players now.

Klinsmann explained away the losses in public. In private, his excuses were even more bold; he told Gulati that he was convinced that the Gold Cup was fixed so Mexico would win, setting up the big-money playoff match against the U.S., a viewpoint that exasperated his boss.

It was around then that rumors began circulating that the USSF was prepared to jettison Klinsmann if the U.S. lost its last match of 2015, a year-ending qualifier on the road against Trinidad and Tobago. With Gulati in attendance in Port of Spain, the Americans managed a scoreless tie, and Klinsmann kept his job.