When Bruce Arena was announced as the new head coach of the United States Men’s National Team, I joined a bunch of US fans and soccer followers and celebrated the news with great optimism.
In retrospect, Jurgen Klinsman’s tenure as head coach was a decidedly mixed bag. There were moments of pure joy, like advancing out of group play in the 2014 World Cup, and then there were the rumors of discontent, weird management style, the defeats to “minnows” of CONCACAF, and occasional bouts of maddening inconsistency. Even if you didn’t like Jurgen, he deepened the player pool in some significant ways and was able to get the players up against bigger FIFA opponents.