US Soccer Reportedly Has Looked for Jurgen Klinsmann Replacement

With the United States men's national soccer team reeling after a 4-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Costa Rica Tuesday, reports have surfaced that a replacement for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has long been under consideration.

Steven Goff of the Washington Post was the first to report Tuesday that current L.A. Galaxy and former Team USA boss Bruce Arena had been tabbed as a potential successor to Klinsmann even prior to the Costa Rica defeat.

ESPN FC's Doug McIntyre and Jeff Carlisle added Thursday that USA Soccer has been looking at candidates since late last year. Arena, Sporting Kansas City head coach Peter Vermes and U.S. assistant Tab Ramos were named as possible options.

Following the loss to Costa Rica and a previous 2-1 defeat at the hands of Mexico, the United States are last out of six teams in the World Cup qualifying Hexagonal round.

The top three teams automatically advance to the tournament, while the fourth must compete in a playoff. Although there are still eight matches left to be played, the Americans are very much in danger of missing the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

Klinsmann has been at the helm since 2011, and while he led the United States to the World Cup knockout stage in 2014, there have been many recent failures, including a fourth-place finish in the 2015 Gold Cup and a loss to Mexico in a Confederations Cup play-in game.

As pointed out by ESPN's Adrian Healey, the national team appears to be heading in the wrong direction despite boasting plenty of promising talent:

Leander Schaerlaeckens of Yahoo Sports added that Klinsmann appears to have lost whatever support he may have had within the media:

The Americans' next qualifying match is a meeting with Honduras in March, but it is unclear if Klinsmann will still be in the fold at that point.

Arena had his ups and downs with the national team, but he did lead the United States to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2002, which was their best result since 1930.

Based on recent results, however, the act of making a change may be even more important than the potential replacement, as something is needed to galvanize a team that is playing uninspired soccer.

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