Geoff Cameron Talks Bruce Arena, Jurgen Klinsmann, World Cup Failure with USMNT

Stoke City defender Geoff Cameron has claimed Jurgen Klinsmann would have got the United States to the 2018 FIFA World Cup and blamed the German's replacement, Bruce Arena, for the Americans' failure to qualify for the finals in Russia. 

Arena replaced Klinsmann as United States manager in November 2016 but then oversaw a woeful qualifying campaign which ended with a shock 2-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago in October.

The U.S. men's national team had needed only a draw to reach this summer's tournament but fell to an embarrassing defeat, and Cameron did not hold back in his criticism of Arena, per the New York Times' Marc Stein:

"There's no doubt in my mind that, if Jurgen Klinsmann was still our head coach, we would have qualified for the World Cup...Bruce Arena made decisions that cost us going to the World Cup. And I don't have a problem saying it, because we had the right group of guys.

"Our names will go down as the team that didn't qualify. It's on us as players, but at the end of the day, I'm convinced if they would have kept Jurgen and not done such a drastic change, I think we would have qualified. I know we would have qualified. Instead we've gone backward."

Klinsmann oversaw an impressive run to the last-16 stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil but was then shown the door after a poor run of form.

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Arena took over still with plenty of time left in the qualifying campaign but failed to oversee an upturn in performances, and the U.S. eventually finished behind Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras in CONCACAF's Hexagonal.

It means the USMNT will not be at a World Cup for the first time since 1986, a huge blow for Cameron, 32, and his international team-mates.

Arena resigned his post as head coach after the qualifying failure and a new full-time replacement has yet to be appointed.

Since the defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, the USMNT has drawn friendlies against Portugal and Bosnia and Herzegovina with Dave Sarachan in temporary charge. 

There are no plans to hire a new full-time coach until after the U.S. Soccer Federation's presidential election on February 10 and the wait may extend until after the summer's World Cup, per Steven Goff in the Washington Post.

Whoever does take up the job will have a significant task on their hands to reverse the USMNT's fortunes and see them successfully into the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022.