But that will not be enough to silence the critics of Klinsmann and his regime, which covers all aspects of the game’s elite development in this country.
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Costa Rican striker Joel Campbell nearly turned a U.S. giveaway into a goal in the 59th minute when his 25-yard blast forced Howard to parry the ball over the net.
Klinsmann took over the Americans from Bob Bradley in 2011 and the team is 42-21 with 14 drawn since his arrival.
The best opportunity of the night for the Americans came courtesy of Tim Ream in the first half.
What should have been a celebration of the US Men’s National Soccer Team on Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena instead is an up-close look at a program in turmoil with questions about the effectiveness of high-profile coach Jurgen Klinsmann hovering over his head like a red card. The senior team has lost four of its last six matches on home soil, including competitive elimination games against Jamaica and Mexico and dismal friendly defeats against Brazil and (on Tuesday) Costa Rica, to go along with a penalty-kick shootout defeat to Panama (which technically counts as a tie).
Still, there was a bit of good news for the U.S. The under-23 team beat Canada 2-0 on second-half goals by Marc Pelosi and Jordan Kiesewetter and will play Colombia in March for a spot in next year’s Olympics. “Going forward they will probably rotate”, he said.
In the 70th minute, substitute and former Philadelphia Union player David Myrie got to the endline on the right and put in a low cutback that Campbell pushed into the lower left corner of Tim Howard’s goal, with Danny Williams trailing the play. Campbell, who has struggled for playing time at Arsenal, scored his 11th global goal but first since Costa Rica played Uruguay in last year’s World Cup. In the fifth minute, he made his first save of the calendar year for the red, white, and blue on Marcos Urena’s weak effort. “I was just wanting to get a shot and just get back into the swing of things”.
The US will return to action on November 13 when they kick off World Cup qualifying against St. Vincent & The Grenadines at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. They are special. When do you play the next time in front of 93,000 in a one-off game like that? We’ve been hammered with the narrative that the U.S. is closing the gap on the world but I’m not sure the American youth setup reflects this.
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“Sooner or later the clouds will pass by”, he said, “and we’re going to find a few sun again”.
