Jurgen Klinsmann Looks Likely To Lead U.S. Soccer as Bob Bradley is Fired

It is a day that has been a long time coming.

On Thursday afternoon, United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati announced that the federation was parting ways with men's national team coach Bob Bradley, after five years of service. Gulati said the following in his release:

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“We want to thank Bob Bradley for his service and dedication to U.S. Soccer during the past five years. During his time as the head coach of our Men’s National Team he led the team to a number of accomplishments, but we felt now was the right time for us to make a change.

It is always hard to make these decisions, especially when it involves someone we respect as much as Bob. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

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Bradley took over for former coach Bruce Arena following the 2006 FIFA World Cup after being head coach previously at Ohio University, Princeton University, Chicago Fire, MetroStars and Chivas USA. He has been the subject of criticism from both supporters and the media ever since. It was a five-year hot seat, as there was no denying that Bradley was not the federation's first-choice hire.

Under Bradley, the United States was 43-25-12. The Americans won one major tournament under the Princeton, NJ native's regime, the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He managed the side to the 2009 Confederations Cup Final in 2009 after beating world No. 1 Spain in the semifinals before blowing a 2-0 lead to Brazil.

Days later, the team returned to the U.S., where a team of what would be considered maybe C and D players lost 5-0 in the Gold Cup Final. This is the one event I let Bradley off the hook for.

The Americans qualified as the top team in CONCACAF for the 2010 World Cup, but were horribly outplayed for the better part of the tournament, where they beat Algeria (barely) and drew England and Slovenia, but lost to Ghana in the Last 16.

In all honesty, Bradley should have been fired last year. It was clear that the US was going nowhere soon. Instead, the USSF allowed Bradley a chance at redemption with the 2011 Gold Cup in sight.

He failed.

The United States lost its first ever Gold Cup Group Stage match before limping to the final, where they blew a 2-0 lead and lost 4-2 to Mexico.

Bradley's decisions were suspect during the Gold Cup, especially the final, notably scrambling the defense by bringing in Jonathan Bornstein instead of Jonathan Spector after Steve Cherundolo got hurt.

With the Bradley era at an end, attention turns to the upcoming decision on a manager, which needs to come in the next couple days. The Americans take on Mexico on August 10 in Philadelphia and a coach needs to be in place in time for prematch training, especially since now the players need to learn a new system.

All signs point to Jurgen Klinsmann as the top candidate for the job. Klinsmann was previously the coach of the German national team at the 2006 World Cup, where he led them to the semifinals before losing to Italy at the death.

He has since coached at Bayern Munich, but has most recently been working as a director at Toronto FC in Major League Soccer. It is no secret that he was a major candidate to replace Bradley when Bradley's contract was the subject of negotiation last summer.

Other names have been tossed around, but only to create discussion. Klinsmann appears to be the man for the job and we could see him on the sideline at Lincoln Financial Field on August 10.