Another Sad Day For USA Soccer

What an utter tragedy! Un-Bloody-Believable!! The USSF just screwed the pooch big time by allowing this coach to get away. My feeling is that this was about power in the end and the USSF was too stuborn and too arrogant to realize that they ARE in a state of affairs that warrants drastic measures. yes, I mean real drastic. It has long been time for the structure of American soccer to change and they had the perfect man to bring that change right on the end of the hook, and they blew it. Down with Sunhil, down with USSF. I am depressed!!

From Fox Soccer.com

By Not Moving Forward US Goes Backward

Klinsman Bows Out Of Coaching Race

Stunning change of mind for Klinsmann

This is a stunning reversal after a week in which multiple, high-placed sources — including players on the national team — informed both Fox and media outlets in Germany that Klinsmann would be named the next coach.

Tonight, there is confusion among soccer business people who for months had not only predicted but expected that the German former World Cup winner would take the reins of a program badly in need of credibility after a dismal showing at the 2006 World Cup.

Calls to Klinsmann's business partner and representative, Warren Merserau, were not immediately returned.

According to several sources, U.S. Soccer had made Klinsmann a firm financial offer, said to be in the range of $1.85 million and that Klinsmann had accepted it. In addition, to avoid conflict between Nike — a major national team sponsor — and his longtime partner, adidas, Klinsmann had decided to step away from that commitment in accepting the USA job.

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But there had always been the question of whether or not Klinsmann would accept the culture of U.S. Soccer. Power, and the sharing of it, was said to be a consistent theme in the talks and it could be that despite agreeing in principle, the two parties could not settle on an agreement that would give Klinsmann the autonomy he desired.

This is not the first time that a major candidate courted by the U.S. Soccer Federation has walked away from the table.

Photo Gallery... Jürgen Klinsmann's journey

In 1995, Carlos Queiroz — today the assistant coach at Manchester United — angrily and publicly withdrew his name for the position after being kept waiting for several months. During the interim, which ranged from April of that year until August, U.S. Soccer had put Querioz and his assistant Dan Gaspar on their payroll, ostensibly to prepare a report on meeting U.S. Soccer's stated goals by the year 2010.

Queiroz' withdrawal has eerie echoes of today's if proved correct — Queiroz sent an email to a USA Today reporter to announce his withdrawal, humiliating the organization.

It is unclear what next step U.S. Soccer will take at this hour.