Hold Your Noses And Qualify For Brazil 2014

See, that's the thing about stink bombs. They taint everybody and everything around them, guilty and innocent alike. Intended or not, the whole place ends up reeking. Brian Straus of The Sporting News lit a match and handed it to a dozen, mostly anonymous, disgruntled players in the United States Men's National Team pool. Then the shit blew up. Damage done. I wonder if US Soccer even saw it coming.

Jurgen Klinsmann, courtesy Nathan Forget (flickr)

Now, with two monumental World Cup Qualifiers looming, somebody has to wade through the carnage and set the ship back on course for Brazil 2014. According to the Sporting News piece, Jurgen Klinsmann has practically lost the U.S. locker room thanks to a lack of communication and perceived tactical naivety. He arrived on the scene after the 2011 Gold Cup Final debacle promising change, though never insinuating it would be quick or easy. “Barcelona was not born in the last couple of years. It took 20 years,” he told the New York Times. But, nearly two years later, the project is nowhere near complete. Has enough (or any) progress been shown? That's debatable. Anybody who has watched the Americans under Klinsi undoubtedly has an opinion on these matters.

2011 Gold Cup Final, Pasadena

Of course, reasons and excuses abound. Often, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two. Injuries don't help, of course. But there are other issues that have arisen: club concerns (Bocanegra, Edu, Onyewu,) blooding young or inexperienced players (Cameron, Gonzalez, Shea,) and a certain existential quest for enlightenment. All this, and I'm not even going to touch the allegations about the cliques and preference afforded German-born Americans in the piece. That is for another day. Still, even if we can agree that failures exist, who must shoulder the blame? Ultimately, should the United States fail to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, the brunt will fall on the mantles of Jurgen Klinsmann and the man who hired him, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. Klinsmann will lose his job, though Gulati has the air of a survivor. He's teflon and, not unlike the proverbial cockroach after a nuclear holocaust, he'll likely live on, wounded, amidst the fallout.

Last seen near Cambodia, courtesy Jarrett Campbell (flickr)

But what about the players? Lately, Klinsmann seems to relish challenging them publicly, even calling out some of the most accomplished players.. While often lauded in Europe for their toughness, American players are occasionally viewed domestically as a bit soft, having emerged from the cushy suburban environs of the youth soccer landscape instead of the hardscrabble streets of Rio or Accra or Naples. Klinsmann's message to the entire player pool seems to be: remove yourselves from your comfort zones or you will never improve. “They all want the safety net. They want to always feel comfortable, but if you want to elevate the program to another level, you need to go to a phase of being uncomfortable out there and then deal with that,” he told Brian Straus. Even some of the criticisms relayed in The Sporting News piece are better understood through this prism. Fair enough. There is a time and a place for this type of experimentation and mind game. That time was the preceding two years. And that place was probably not the cauldron of San Pedro Sula, Honduras in World Cup Qualifying.

Still, it's all to play for. Qualification for Brazil 2014 remains in their sights, not too far off in the distance and almost tangible. The grand project can live and thrive anew. For this week at least, though, it's probably best for Klinsmann and players alike to shelve the bigger picture and broader philosophies. Take a shower, scrub off the stench, and look in the mirror. Then get a couple of damn results.