Tim Howard apparently didn’t much like playing for Jürgen Klinsmann.
The former U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper unloaded on his former coach in an article for the Daily Mail, saying that the team won in spite of the German manager.
Klinsmann was in charge of the USMNT from 2011 to 2016, a period during which Howard was usually the team’s starter in goal.
The ex-Germany coach’s time in charge of the U.S. was full of highs and lows. He led the team to the 2013 Gold Cup before guiding them out of a difficult group at the 2014 World Cup.
But Klinsmann’s methods and popularity with his players were always in question, and he left two games into a World Cup qualifying cycle that ended with the team shockingly missing out on the 2018 event in Russia.
Howard’s column in the Daily Mail was ostensibly about the USMNT reportedly closing in on hiring Mauricio Pochettino, who would be the team’s first foreign coach since Klinsmann.
But in addition to praising the rumored new hire, the USMNT legend had a lot to say about his former coach. For example:
He organized a lot of team excursions. He specialized in fluff and philosophical rhetoric. But there was zero soccer.
We went to Versailles, we went to the 9/11 memorial, we went on boating trips. He made us come into lunch and sing the national anthem. He dictated when we slept and when we woke up. He decided what we wore.
He replaced sugary snacks and enforced tighter curfews. He tried to change our breathing, he sent us on ’empty stomach runs’ at dawn. He hired people and literally made up staffing positions for them.
Jurgen tried to reinvent the wheel but he didn’t teach us a lot of soccer. So we had to on rely on the likes Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore to bring the team together and win games – in spite of the manager.
The lesson for Pochettino to learn from Klinsmann? Understand the American player. Don’t make it about yourself. Every culture has different nuances – wherever you coach around the world. So, yes, players have to be pushed out of their comfort zone, but you have to learn what makes people tick.
After leaving the USMNT, Klinsmann had a brief stint in charge of Hertha Berlin before he took over as South Korea manager last year. The 60-year-old was sacked in February after the Taegeuk Warriors were eliminated by Jordan in the Asian Cup semifinal.
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