"Meanwhile, US Soccer seems to be stagnating at a moment when signs of forward progress are needed most. To go three months without a figurehead to look to for organizing the national team seems like an eternity in soccer...Just an idea of what kind of direction the national team is planning on taking in the post-Arena era would be good to see."
Now that Giddings mentions it, yeah, that would be good to see.
It's certainly not time to panic - not by a mile - but the silence on this hire gets loud enough once one has their attention drawn to it. If FoxSoccer's Jamie Trecker can be believed (yeah, I know the answer for many soccer fans), bagging ex-Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann remains the chief obsession. Well, that's all fine and good if he's available and interested, but what if he isn't? Or what, should Trecker's source be credible, if Klinsmann sets the stakes too high?
Even if it's not truly time to shit or get off the pot, I doubt I'm the only one who thinks Klinsmann isn't likely pull off the soccer equivalent of, say, re-inventing the wheel between now and 2010. The time will come soon enough - I'd say by the Gold Cup - when it will be necessary to take that shit. If nothing else, we might to make an offer to a candidate we can get - be it Trecker's short-list of the Columbus Crew's Sigi Schmid, or the Houston Dynamo's Dominic Kinnear, or someone else entirely like DC United's Peter Nowak, or Chivas USA's Bob Bradley - that would allow them a year or two to show their stuff that could earn them a longer-term contract. To make this work, US Soccer would have to pull their weight by scheduling very challenging tests for this coach - think the Copa America - in order to make the rest meaningful.
While I'm not yet where Gidding is, I'm glad he thew out some cold water. Let's hope it hits the right people.
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