Jürgen Klinsmann has been fired as coach of the USA, with US Soccer announcing his departure on Monday.
The announcement came after the US lost successive matches to Mexico and Costa Rica in the qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup.
“Today we made the difficult decision of parting ways with Jurgen Klinsmann, our head coach of the US men’s national team and technical director,” Sunil Gulati, head of US Soccer, said in a statement. “We want to thank Jürgen for his hard work and commitment during these last five years. He took pride in having the responsibility of steering the program, and there were considerable achievements along the way.
“Many are aware of the historic victories, including leading us out of the Group of Death to the Round of 16 in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, but there were also lesser publicized efforts behind the scenes. He challenged everyone in the US Soccer community to think about things in new ways, and thanks to his efforts we have grown as an organization and expect there will be benefits from his work for years to come.
“While we remain confident that we have quality players to help us advance to Russia 2018, the form and growth of the team up to this point left us convinced that we need to go in a different direction. With the next qualifying match in late March, we have several months to refocus the group and determine the best way forward to ensure a successful journey to qualify for our eighth consecutive World Cup.”
Reports within the United States indicate Bruce Arena, who previously coached the national team from 1998 until 2006, will be named Klinsmann’s successor, possibly as soon as this week.
Klinsmann, who managed Germany to a third-place finish on home soil at the 2006 World Cup, was in charge for 98 matches since his appointment in 2011. He won 55 of them, with 28 defeats and 15 draws.
