After a horrendous start to the world qualifying campaign, the US Soccer Federation fired Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann was hired as the head coach and sporting director of US Soccer in 2011. He brought a fresh mindset and new philosophies to the team as the first foreign manager of the national team since 1995. Klinsmann inherited the team after Bob Bradley was fired following a Gold Cup finals defeat on home soil. The first two years of Klinsmann’s tenure were marked by a series of friendlies, which were highlighted by the team’s first ever win over Italy and an impressive win over world second-ranked Germany. 
Following the period of friendly matches, Klinsmann’s team entered the 2013 Gold Cup on the heels of a five-game winning streak. The US won the tournament with a perfect record and amassed the longest winning streak in US history at 12 games. The team continued its stunning play en route to an 11-2-3 World Cup qualifying record for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. However, the US team was rewarded with misfortune as they were drawn into the group of death along with Portugal, Ghana, and Germany. In spite of this tough match-up, the US entered the group without worrying over predictions which placed them as one of the teams that would not move on to the knockout stages. They impressed many who had doubted them and moved on to the next round, but could not overcome the Belgium team in the round of 16.
After the World Cup defeat, the US team experienced a year of sub-par friendly game results, but the prospect of winning the 2015 Gold Cup calmed the angst. The tournament became a disaster for Klinsmann as the US team was shocked by Jamaica in the semifinals and embarrassed by Panama in the third-place match. The fourth-place finish was the team’s worst result in a Gold Cup since 2000. Klinsmann’s year was further dampened by a lost to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup, which denied the US a spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup. This intensified the shouts for Klinsmann’s dismissal, but they quieted after the US made a semifinal run at the Copa America Centenario.
Klinsmann was given one more chance to show his ingenuity, but it backfired when he tinkered with the team’s formation and allowed Mexico to break the dos-a-cero course. Since 2001, the US has played Mexico four times in Columbus, Ohio and each time won 2-0, a score that translates to dos-a-cero in Spanish and became the term used to describe the phenomenon. Four days later, the US traveled to Costa Rica, but the bad luck seemed to have traveled with them as they were thrashed 4-0. This was the last failure that the US Soccer Federation tolerated, and they replaced Klinsmann with former LA Galaxy coach, Bruce Arena. Arena previously coached the US from 1998 to 2006, so his experience cannot be questioned, but his appointment seems to be an interim hire to get the team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. 
Although the US team had a myriad of great wins throughout Klinsmann’s five years in charge, the US team did not surmount its world soccer position from 2011. In fact, the team seems to have stagnated since the 2013 Gold Cup win. If we look at the FIFA ranking, the US was ranked 29 in the world when Klinsmann was appointed and 24 when he was dismissed. It is not easy to rapidly climb the FIFA ranks, but during the same time Iceland moved from 120 to 21 in the rankings. Under Klinsmann, the US could not measure up to the most competitive soccer teams in the world. Aside from a handful of exhibition wins, the US could not compete with the top nations when it mattered in tournaments. 
There is no doubt that soccer has grown as a sport in the country and the fanatical following is immense, but in the world stage, our team has not taken many steps forward to improve its global position. The US is almost always the underdog in intercontinental soccer tournaments, but I can’t recall the last time the US basketball team was not a favorite to win any game. Even though soccer has gained tremendous popularity, it is still not viewed as one of the major professional sports in the US.
This attitude is one of the great impediments that hold US soccer back. If a large portion of the population does not support its national soccer team, we cannot expect the team to perform well on the world stage. In Iceland, the soccer federation bolstered the country’s coaching education and built more than 20 outdoor turf fields and more than 100 indoor facilities. This soccer revamping started in 2000, allowing an entire generation to come of age today and demonstrate the advantages of this project. The United States has not made this kind of investment in soccer, which is hurting the national team because we are not developing stars like other countries are. 
When kids aspire to become great basketball players, they look up to NBA stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry. If kids are baseball players, they want to hit like Mike Trout or pitch like Max Scherzer. However, when young kids wish to be like the best soccer players in the world, they think of foreigners like Messi, Neymar, or Ronaldo. When kids talk about their favorite soccer players in the world, they don’t mention their local MLS players, nor do they say any national team player. It’s always the players in Europe that get that title.
Perhaps the US Soccer Federation might want to address the need to change the American attitude towards soccer, and the dysfunctional youth and developmental systems before they blame another head coach for the team’s short comings.