“I’ve been a member of the national team for 15 years and I’ve never had as many managers and players cut off as I did in the days of (Jurgen) Klinsman.”

The U.S. will co-host the 2026 World Cup in North Korea and the U.S., and currently has Mauricio Pochettino as a strong candidate. Currently, chances are high that he will be appointed.

Then legendary American goalkeeper Tim Howard delivered a message to Pochettino, who will become the new head of the team. He also had a very familiar name with him. It was Jurgen Klinsmann, former coach of the Republic of Korea.

According to the Daily Mail, Howard said, “I was with the national team both before and after Clinsman. I was with the national team for 15 years, and the coaches and players were never as cut off as I was with Clinsman.”

“Clinsman tried to do everything, but there was no soccer in it. I went to Versailles, went to the 9/11 Memorial, and went on a boat trip. I was told to sing the national anthem at lunch, and I decided when I should go to bed and when I should get up. I also decided what to wear,” he said. “We did not allow ourselves to eat sweets with sugar in them, and we strictly set a curfew. We tried to change our breathing, and we made them run on an empty stomach at dawn.”

Howard’s Clinsman diss continued. “Clinsman tried to do something, but he didn’t teach us a lot of soccer. So we brought the players together with Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan and Altidore and relied on each other to win the game,” he said.

The message was criticized for Klinsmann from the beginning to the end, but it was also a message for Pochettino. Howard said, “You have to understand the American players. You have to not think about yourself. Every culture is different. No matter where you coach them, you have to know what drives them.”

Klinsmann spent five years at the helm of the U.S. from 2011 to 2016. He won the gold medal by beating Panama in the 2013 Gold Cup and advanced to the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Up until then, Klinsmann didn’t seem to have a big problem. However, he lost credibility after being caught by Jamaica and Panama in succession after advancing to the semifinals of the 2015 Gold Cup. Since then, he was dismissed due to poor performance in the qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. The U.S. failed to overcome its slump during the Klinsmann era and ultimately failed to move to Russia.

Meanwhile, Klinsmann repeated the same mistake after taking the helm of the Republic of Korea in 2023. Even though he had the most splendid lineup in Korean soccer history, including Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in, he drew concerns for his below-expected performance throughout the warm-up match. There were no visible tactics, and it was just soccer that depended on the players’ individual abilities. Consequently, it was serious enough that he won his first victory in September since taking the helm in March.안전놀이터

Nevertheless, the Republic of Korea, along with Japan, is considered the favorite to win the 2023 AFC Qatar Asian Cup. The only weakness is Clinsman. Concerns have come true, and the team was sluggish throughout the group league, and suffered a 0-2 defeat and disaster, overwhelmed by Jordan, who met in the semifinals.

Klinsmann failed to unite the South Korean team, but rather was irresponsible, shifting the blame. When the internal division broke out due to the “table tennis gate,” he was not like a leader, putting all the blame on Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in, let alone solving the problem.

South Korean soccer is still faltering after the “Clinsman incident.” After two temporary systems, it is currently preparing for the third qualifying round of the North-China World Cup under the Hong Myung-bo system. Even this has a big problem in the process, so it is not being trusted.