Ist Klinsi, ya?

The oft-rumored decision on the new coach of the U.S. National Team has apparently been leaked by German site Blid.de (shown here translated into somewhat comical broken English). It's the worst-kept secret in international soccer, Jürgen Klinsmann, former coach of the German National Team. It will be his task over the next four years to boost a U.S. National team program that is on the rise and has proven itself in regional competition, but has sputtered on the world stage. If Klinsmann is in fact the new hire, expect him to be announced sometime next week in the leadup to the MLS Cup Final.

In my opinion, Klinsmann is a good choice because he has experience with taking troubled programs and turning them into success stories. Last year, Germany's program was in turmoil. I thought the Germans might be out of the World Cup in the second round, the German Press was calling for his head following a 4-1 thrashing by Italy in the lead-up to the World Cup. He turned the program around by making some key personnel decisions (like bringing in Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann to replace aging but loved Oliver Kahn), and die Mannschaft took third place this past summer. To succeed with the Stars and Stripes, he's gonna have to pack up some of that magic along with his Kraftwerk CDs.

Klinsmann also lives in Huntington Beach, CA. While this was an object of derision in Germany, Klinsi now finds himself only a few miles from the U.S. National Team's training facilities at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA, just outside Los Angeles. His relationship with Los Angeles Galaxy owner Phil Anschutz will be integral. Anschutz owns four MLS teams (Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, DC United, and Houston Dynamo), and Klinsmann will likely draw about half his squad from MLS. His knowledge of how the league works likely gave him the edge ver Portuguese coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who reportedly was also in the running. According to Bild, Anschutz personally made up the difference in terms between what Klinsmann wanted and the USSF wanted to pay him.

Aside from an uncanny resemblance to Daniel Craig , the one thing you can expect now from Klinsmann is instability. The 2010 World Cup may be 3 1/2 years away, but qualifying will start in about 18 months. Next summer, the National Team will face stiff regional competiton from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and others in both the Gold Cup and Copa America. While Bruce Arena definitely had his favorite players that were locks for roster spots despite subpar play (Landon Donovan, Kasey Keller), and ignored players with true potential (Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching), and let others hang on too long (Claudio Reyna, Eddie Pope) Klinsmann will likely as his first act say that no one is safe, and no one is guaranteed a trip to Venezuela for Copa America next summer. The 2010 World Cup team will likely be much younger, with Klinsi choosing hungry players with something to prove (Ching, Freddy Adu, Michael Parkhurst, Bobby Boswell, Chris Rolfe, Matt Pickens) over more established old-timers (Pablo Mastroeni). His idea of "veterans" will be players like 30-year old Taylor Twellman, 27-year old Dempsey, 28-year olds DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan), as opposed to this past World Cup which featured 7 out of 23 players over age 33.

The only concerns that I (ever the pessimist) would have is that Klinsmann doesn't really have a lot of coaching experience. His one-year stint with Germany is all the experience he has at the international level. Hell, the man was still playing for Germany at the 1998 World Cup. Also, in Germany, he had fantastic players like Michael Ballack and Jens Lehmann and Lucas Podolski to choose from in his player pool. In the United States, this player pool is not as deep, and he might not be able to replicate the success he had with Germany.

All in all, a good hire.