USA vs. Honduras: Americans Must Exercise Patience with Jurgen Klinsmann

Regardless of what happens when Team USA meets Honduras for an international friendly at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday, soccer fans in the States must keep on thing in mind:

Jurgen Klinsmann is not a miracle worker, nor is he "The Special One." Rather, he's a damn-good football coach who has undertaken the monumental task of not just guiding the US Men's National Team to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but also transforming the very fabric of the sport on American soil.

Klinsmann is a man who understands what it takes to win on the world stage. He understands that it's not necessarily about scheme or how aggressive a squad is in its attack. It's not about 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-2-3-1 or any other formation you can think of.

It's about attracting the best athletes to play the beautiful game. It's about restructuring the Team USA soccer program from the ground up, something that doesn't happen overnight.

And certainly not something that can happen even within a few games. Klinsmann has yet to win a match since taking over Team USA in late July, though he's had only three chances to do so thus far. Granted, the team has not looked good or played well in any of its games under Klinsmann. The Americans have struggled to possess the ball while Klinsmann has cycled his players through different looks on the pitch.

Frankly, that's what Klinsmann should be doing at this point. He's been on the job for two-and-a-half months, with only three opportunities to this point to gauge what it is that he has to work with. He should be experimenting with different looks and different players in his starting XI. After all, Klinsmann was brought in to shake things up, to put American soccer back on the map, not simply follow in the solid, if unspectacular, footsteps of Bob Bradley.

Until Klinsmann hits on the right look, he'll probably look like something of a fool, grabbing at straws while putting into action any and every tactic and strategy that crawls across his desk.

But American soccer fans needn't jump on him for it, nor write him off even if he remains winless after Saturday's tilt with Honduras. At this stage of Klinsmann's reconstruction of American soccer, success should not be measured in wins and losses. Instead, the focus must be on possession, passing, defense and spirit on the pitch.

The greater focus of Klinsmann's effort is and must be on filling the pipeline with more and better talent with which to supplement the senior squad down the road. Klinsmann understands the importance of a strong national academy as well as anyone, having enjoyed a remarkable career in international football as both a player and a coach. He knows the value of having a football-crazed populace to draw from, and how to bring the best young players up through the system while training them to succeed in a particular style. He won a World Cup as a player in 1990 and led Germany to the semifinals as a coach in 2006.

At this point, those in America who would criticize Klinsmann would do well to keep their mouths shut and let him do what he wants and needs to do. Klinsmann has an excellent track record and a keen understanding of what it takes to win at the highest levels of football.

That's not to say that everyone should simply go suppliant and bend to every beck and call from Klinsmann. Rather, it's important to give him a legitimate chance to succeed, fail and do everything in between.

Because, at the end of the day, 10 weeks is hardly enough of a sample size to football, where squads are built and groomed over years of intense competition, not a judge the performance of any coach in any capacity in any sport, much less in the arena of international few months worth of friendlies.