Sunil Gulati Comments on Jurgen Klinsmann's Job Security

The United States men's national soccer team has failed to break through under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, and U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati addressed the boss' job security in advance of the team's Tuesday evening Copa America Centenario showdown against Costa Rica. 

Speaking to reporters in Chicago, Gulati didn't offer up an ultimatum regarding Klinsmann's future with the Red, White and Blue following a 2-0 loss to Colombia in the opening game of Group A play last Friday. However, he did say U.S. Soccer would take a step back and evaluate things as play at the Copa America progresses, according to the Washington Post's Steven Goff:    

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We had some good results last spring that were friendlies, we had some wins coming into this event, but it’s the official competitions that matter the most and we haven’t been up to where we would like to be. We will look at everything after this competition. I don’t get too high or too low based on one game, especially in this tournament against a very good team [Colombia]. So we will wait and see how the next two games go and hopefully some additional games after that before we assess where things are again. As human nature, we do an assessment after every game, after every half, after every sequence of plays, but we try not to get too up or down.

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According to Goff, Gulati also said that "no one has ironclad job security" and stressed the need for the USMNT to come up with statement wins in its biggest international competitions:

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There are some things in his role as technical director that we think we’ve made good advances in, but we need to win games, and we need to win games in competitive play. The first few years we obviously did that [Gold Cup, World Cup], but last summer in particular with the Gold Cup and the reprieve we had [CONCACAF Cup], we didn’t get it done.”

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To Gulati's point, the Stars and Stripes have repeatedly produced disappointing results in international competition ever since they defied the odds and qualified for the knockout stage in the 2014 World Cup after being placed in the Group of Death. 

Most notably, the U.S. fell to Jamaica, 2-1, in a Gold Cup semifinal last July. That loss preceded a 3-2 CONCACAF Cup defeat at the hands of Mexico in October, which shut the USMNT out of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. 

Date	Final Score	Competition
July 8, 2015	USA 2, Honduras 1	Gold Cup
July 11, 2015	USA 1, Haiti 0	Gold Cup
July 14, 2015	USA 1, Panama 1	Gold Cup
July 18, 2015	USA 6, Cuba 0	Gold Cup
July 22, 2015	Jamaica 2, USA 1	Gold Cup
July 25, 2015	Panama 1, USA 1 (Panama wins 3-2 on penalties)	Gold Cup
Oct. 11, 2015	Mexico 3, USA 2	CONCACAF Cup
June 4, 2016	Colombia 2, USA 0	Copa America

The U.S. Soccer Federation signed Klinsmann to a four-year contract extension in 2013 that was designed to keep him in the fold through 2018, but failures in Copa America group play could complicate his standing with the World Cup just two years away. 

However, resilient showings following a disappointing opening effort against Colombia could buy Klinsmann the time he needs to help his side find form before World Cup qualifying resumes.