They came to an agreement in time. The U.S. Soccer Federation signed Juergen Klinsmman to be the national team head coach last week. The timing might have been near perfect.
The United States and Mexico meet in an international soccer friendly Wednesday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Klinsmann replaces five-year coach Bob Bradley and takes over a team that many consider needs a change.
Soccer fans will get to see what the German-born coach who lives in a beachfront home in Newport Beach might bring to U.S. Soccer. His squad takes on bitter rival Mexico, the team that embarrassed the Americans in the June 25 Gold Cup final.
You can already see some changes coming to the United States. His roster against El Tri has some Mexican flavor to it. Klinsmann included players in the Mexican Primera División.
José Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Edgar Castillo (América), DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla) and Michael Orozco Fiscal (San Luis).
Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu and Steve Cherundolo, a Mount Carmel High alumn, are on the roster.
Klinsmann left off Jonathan Bornstein, the only Mexico-based player in Bradley's Gold Cup roster. Other notables left off the roster are defender Oguchi Onyewu, midfielder Clint Dempsey and forward Jozy Altidore.
Wednesday's game is the first for both teams since that Gold Cup final in which the United States took an early 2-0 lead only to see it evaporate. Mexico scored four unanswered goals to take the tournament title and clinch a slot in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil. Many of the players in that match are on the current rosters.
Mexico coach José Manuel de la Torre called every starter from that Gold Cup final except for Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, the Manchester United forward who has become a national icon in Mexico. He's recuperating from a concussion he suffered during training on July 26 in New Jersey.
Klinsmann said one of the goals of the roster "and moving forward is to create competition at each position. "There are many players who are established as well as many players who will get opportunities, and we want there to be a healthy contest for spots on the roster."
And perhaps Klinsmman wants to begin changing the brand of soccer the United States has displayed the last decade. Maybe he wants his team to be a bit more tactical and not just be a physical force on the field.
"I don't think there is anything wrong with the team," Klinsmman said during his introductory news conference last week.
"They lost a Gold Cup final against a very, very good Mexico team that over the last couple of years became one of the top 10 teams in the world and have a lot of talent.
"When you come into a situation like this, you analyze every individual player, the team itself and the program, which I'll have the chance to do during the next couple of weeks, to see how I can develop them further. You build on what was built before, and if you look back on the past 20 years in this country, a lot has been built."
But critics say it is not enough.
Klinsmann seems to understand the soccer culture in this country. He said U.S. Soccer is not only built by the organized youth systems but by the players who spent time with a ball at their feet.
He said the U.S. program faces many challenges, especially its foundation, which is youth sports.
The coach said it's important to review how youngsters are trained, how often they train and how much time they spend with the ball.
The coach said that leading soccer nations in the world devote much more time to youngsters playing the game.
"You have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week – maybe four hours of organized soccer and 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood.
"If he gets up to 20 hours it doesn't matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street. This will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field. I think that's certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us."
And it starts this week against the nation that could influence some of the possible changes in U.S. Soccer. A new era of the Mexico-United States rivalry might be in the works.
ivan.orozco@sandiegored.com
[sidebar]Where to watch
United States vs. Mexico, Wednesday, in Philadelphia at 6 p.m. (Pacific time).
ESPN2 and Univision to broadcast game.[/sidebar]
