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America's Milli Vanilli World Cup Team

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From the NYT:

How Jurgen Klinsmann Plans to Make U.S. Soccer Better (and Less American)
By SAM BORDEN JUNE 4, 2014

The coach of the American national soccer team, former German superstar Jurgen Klinsmann, has a strategy to fill the team up with Milli Vanilli-type exotics: part-black dual German-American citizens, descendants of American servicemen in West Germany who were raised by their German mothers. His idea is to get black nature and German nurture.

It’s pretty clever. Will it work?

 

26 Comments to "America's Milli Vanilli World Cup Team"

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  1. “”””””””””””””””It’s pretty clever. Will it work?””””””””””””””””””

    Sure, why not? It already works among European/some S.American nations (e.g. those that finish in the quarter, semi and finals of the WC every 4yrs) and most of them are comprised of majority white rosters.

    Also, it tends to work for the US Women’s National Team as well.

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  2. says:
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    It depends on your definition of “work”. Will this make US team a world champions? – no. Will it result in a better team overall? – very well might. Team USA is in the absolutely worst possible group – two European teams that are perpetual contenders for a medal and an African team that is consistently in Top 4 in Africa. Just getting out of that group would be an unbelievable achievement.

  3. And the genius is if this new-style U.S. team fails to make quarters, we can just… blame it on the rain!

    Interestingly, former NFL Jets coach Herman Edwards was of this lineage. Also, what does “raised by their mothers” mean? That the dads simply absconded like they do in the U.S.?

  4. says:
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    Did you see his comments regarding the Landon Donovan cut? He made an interesting, if cold, comment. I guess that’s the German way:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/jurgen-klinsmann-donovan-cut-2014-6

    “‘This always happens in America,’ Klinsmann told me, waving his hands in the air. ‘Kobe Bryant, for example — why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?’”

    “He came back, and he was playing in M.L.S., and people say, ‘Oh, he’s playing well,’ but what does that really mean? This is where M.L.S. hurts him. He was playing at 70 percent, 80 percent, and he was still dominant. That doesn’t help anyone.”

    “I watched the games. What was I supposed to say? That he was good? He was not good. Not then. No way. So he had to wait.”

  5. That’s pretty common for even good European teams. Take players you need on a technicality. Loaded Spain added Costa, who is naturally S. American, I believe.

  6. Steve, I know this new blog thing just got underway but I don’t like that there are so few comments on all the posts. Maybe you put up too many of them at once?

    What do you think explains the fall off? I’ve read most of the new posts and there are few comments on any.

  7. For a sport where the public mostly pays attention once every four years, there’s something to be said for taking the most famous name in American soccer for one last hurrah, especially if you don’t think you’ll even make it to the round of 16.

  8. It’s better to have good players and good team play than players of a particular ethnicity. Go watch what all-white Denmark did to Nigeria in 1998. Does Spain — perhaps the most dominant team of the last few years — have any black players? Germany occasionally has one or two, also now, but they have never been the best or even very important to the team.

    Klinsmann seemed to get a lot of credit for Germany’s 3rd place in 2006, but I could never really understand why, since Germany is usually pretty good, and expectations are high. He then flopped embarrassingly at Bayern München.

    For 2014, by all appearances the US is in a tough group, with mostly players with little international experience. It will be a surprise if they do not lose all 3 group matches.

  9. I don’t think the number of new posts has affected the comments.

    Maybe ask Ron to install Disqus. This commenting system is worse on mobile than the native Blogger one you were using at iSteve.

    Good for Klinsmann. The issue with Donovan, apparently, is that his head isn’t in the game anymore.

  10. “especially if you don’t think you’ll even make it to the round of 16″

    He’s building this team for the next WC; this is just the practice round. He did the same in Germany, eliminating the famous-but-aging players, in favor of giving some younger guys experience, in order to have a fighting chance the next round.

    His whole game is very long-term because he wants to take home an actual cup. There’s a reason why everyone loves this guy. He’s in it to win and he doesn’t put up with grandstanding. I suspect he sometimes drops players so that they have time to eat some humble pie. It’s all about the team, with him.

    As for your article, it’s just such a mixed-race heavy team because most US dual-citizens are Army brats. I doubt that was intentional and the more interesting question is why mixed-race Army brats outnumber white ones in the European clubs.

  11. “but I could never really understand why, since Germany is usually pretty good”

    Because everyone could see that we were running up against a talent wall, and Klinsmann came in and got us over it. People were already declaring German national soccer DOA and he got the fans openly crying tears of joy in the streets and driving up and down the town waving German flags and honking. Nobody had seen anything like that since das Wunder von Bern.

    He gave us back our national soccer pride and even raised the overall patriotism. That was the first time in my life that I felt proud to be a German, and many Germans my age feel the same way. The younger team also drew in a younger generation of fans. What he accomplished took over eight years of hard work and dogged perserverance.

    If y’all don’t want him, we’d be glad to take him back.

  12. I think some see this move as a look-a-head to the following 2018 Olympics, as well. Why not start enforcing the team concept and youth movement now?

    Those advocating to keep Donovan because “he is a star” remind me of what David Stern did to the NBA. He shamelessly promoted stars at the expense of team play and ruined the league for me for about 20 years.

  13. Serbia tried something like this by attempting to naturalize a Brazilian, Cleo, a few years ago. After all, Croatia had their own Brazilizn, Eduardo, who became a Croatian by way of marriage. Alas UEFA put the kibosh on that idea by raising the time required for citizenship against Serbia. By the time he would be allowed to join the team he would be ready to retire.

  14. The Dutch team that won Euro 88 had a number of players that were half black half Dutch.

  15. “Well, now I know which team I absolutely won’t be cheering on.”

    You’re not going to root for the American team because they’re not white? I’ve seen your blog, and I’m not surprised, but it still seems a little excessive.

    Look, I’m not generally a fan of ‘diversity’, particularly with multiculturalists trying to encourage them to be disloyal, but as long as we’ve got people here we should try to assimilate them and make the best of the situation. (We are actually a lot better at this than the Europeans if we actually try.) If you play for the American team, you represent the USA. I’m not rooting for another country in a soccer game against the USA.

    I actually think it might be good for the USA team to be bad, though, for another reason. Simply put, there are lots of Latin American countries that resent the heck out of us but think ‘well, at least we can beat them in soccer’. If we take that away from them, it may increase anti-American sentiment–Latin Americans take their soccer pretty seriously. And Latin America may not be powerful, but it is in our backyard. I could easily see China making overtures to Brazil if we beat them in soccer or something. Better to let them whip us at something like sports that isn’t really important to the long-term future of our nation.

    Any thoughts?

  16. Lyov Myshkin [AKA "lyovmyshkin"]
    says:
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    Klinsmann has been consulting with the Chamber of Commerce apparently to solve his own labour shortage.

    PS Doesn’t this overlook the fact that most of the greats of the game have been European?

  17. Priss Factor [AKA "Aunt Esther"]
    says:
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    So, what is the implication?

    NYT implicitly believes that blacks are naturally better at running and that whites are naturally better at management(or using brains)?

    Doesn’t that point to racial differences?

  18. says:
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    “For a sport where the public mostly pays attention once every four years”

    How long will this be true? Is soccer going to be bigger than the NHL (probably) or NBA (could happen) … ?

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2014/05/13/nbc-says-4-9m-in-us-watch-premier-league-last-day/9056437/

    NEW YORK (AP) — NBC says 4.9 million viewers tuned in to watch U.S. English-language coverage Sunday of the 10 matches on the final day of the English Premier League season.

    The total was up 172 percent from the previous high of 1.8 million for coverage on the last day of the 2011-12 season on ESPN2 and nine Fox networks. NBC said Tuesday the figures include anyone who watched at least 6 minutes.

    The combined average viewership of the games on 10 NBCUniversal networks was 1.8 million, up 107 percent from 869,000 on the final day in 2011-12.

    In data released Tuesday, NBC said 31.5 million viewers saw Premier League coverage on its networks this season, up from 13.3 million last year, when U.S. rights were shared by Fox and ESPN.

    NBC and NBCSN averaged 438,000 viewers, up 99 percent from last season’s combined average of 220,000 on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer.

    The three most-watched games were on NBC: Cardiff-Swansea on Feb. 8 (1.24 million), Swansea-Manchester United on Jan. 11 (1.1 million) and Manchester United-Crystal Palace on Feb. 22 (1.06 million).

    The top-rated market for NBC and NBCSN combined was Washington, D.C., followed by New York; Baltimore; Boston; Seattle; Richmond, Virginia; San Francisco-Oakland; Norfolk, Virginia; Providence, Rhode Island; Philadelphia; and Chicago.

  19. What he accomplished took over eight years of hard work and dogged perserverance.

    Quite the trick on his part — he only took the job in 2004.

    He gave us back our national soccer pride and even raised the overall patriotism. That was the first time in my life that I felt proud to be a German, and many Germans my age feel the same way.

    There’s something awfully pathetic about that.

  20. There’s something awfully pathetic about that.

    But entirely predictable. They’ve been subjected to denazification for the past 69 years.

  21. says:
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    “Well, now I know which team I absolutely won’t be cheering on.”

    Wow, I can’t believe you won’t be cheering for England, your pseudo-birthplace.

  22. At the risk of being called anti-American , Team USA could have drawn the group Australia has drawn (USA and Australia were in the same pool for the draw ) -that is Spain, Netherlands and Chile

    I’d say the vast majority of folk who are not Americans would consider that a more difficult group. But I do realize that this is an American site and no American would accept that view

  23. says:
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    Team USA could have drawn the group Australia has drawn (USA and Australia were in the same pool for the draw ) -that is Spain, Netherlands and Chile

    I’d say the vast majority of folk who are not Americans would consider that a more difficult group. But I do realize that this is an American site and no American would accept that view

    It’s as difficult a group as the one that has Germany, Portugal and Ghana. Chile is not a soccer powerhouse in Latin America is one difference. The rest is about equal – as of today, there is no way to tell who’d win in a tournament that consists only of Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain competing.

  24. Yeah, it’s pathetic, but Germans aren’t allowed to express national pride without being suspected of trying to take over the world. Even waving the flags was a novel experience for most of us. I painted the stripes on my cheeks, sang along to the anthem, and felt like a rebel. Amis can’t understand what a defining moment that was for us.

    As for the eight years, this guy didn’t come out of nowhere, coach for two years, and then disappear. He’s been a major influence in the team for over a decade, which is why they hired him even though he no longer lived in Germany.

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