Klinsmann pleased with U.S. soccer debut

If osmosis is possible, Jurgen Klinsmann may be just the ticket for U.S. Soccer. The former German scoring ace noted after his coaching debut with the American national team Wednesday night that, "Unfortunately, I'm too old to play, so the second best solution, I guess, is coaching. And I really enjoyed it."

At 47, he is as energetic as during his 17 years as one of the sport's most acrobatic, efficient strikers. He is upbeat, able to find numerous bright spots in Wednesday's 1-1 tie with Mexico, encouraging signs not readily apparent to most of the modest crowd of 30,138 at Lincoln Financial Field -- a large portion of them wearing Mexican green.

The Americans were badly disjointed, nervous both on and off the ball, until second-half substitutes summoned a 73rd-minute goal that changed the tone a bit. The game hardly appeared to be an improvement over repeated slow starts under the recently fired Bob Bradley, whose 43-25-12 record at the helm was no embarrassment.

But Klinsmann, on the job only two weeks, couldn't reasonably be expected to produce instant miracles, much less instant cohesion. Most obvious was his exuberant attitude, accentuating the positive meant to filter down to his players.

"Soccer's a game full of mistakes, just like life is," veteran team leader Landon Donovan said. "And the only thing you can control is how you react. I think, too often, as players, we get frustrated and get down on things. But he's made sure this past week that everything was positive, and I think that showed on the field. Even though we went down a goal, even though we were under pressure a little bit in the first half, we kept going and, in the end, we were the better team, and it showed."

Klinsmann, while repeatedly praising the Mexicans' abilities, called Oribe Peralta's 17th-minute goal, when he hooked his foot around U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley to flick Andres Guardado's corner-kick into the net, "more like a coincidence than any real goal.

"I think that besides that surprising goal, they really didn't have real chances," Klinsmann said. "And that was [due to] a real good defensive job. What we were lacking in the first half was putting pressure on them, going into their third and creating chances."

What appeared to be repeated turnovers by the Americans, aimless passes and scrambling to defend Mexico's constant presence in the U.S. half of the field, Klinsmann saw as "an amazing learning process that the players went through in just 90 minutes, because we gave them certain tasks before the game."

With his quickly assembled staff of "guest coaches," which included former U.S. World Cup players Tab Ramos, Claudio Reyna and Thomas Dooley, Klinsmann stressed an early focus of defending the "high-pressure Mexican side, which is not that easy. And then we gave them tasks to move, step-by-step more forward, to get more confident and put Mexico under pressure, and that's what we saw in the last half hour."

Or, at least, in the last 17 minutes following a lightning-strike-out-of-the-blue goal by Robbie Rogers.

"Mexico is a very, very good team we have a lot of respect for," Klinsmann said. "I think we can be very satisfied with that performance."

There was "no time," Donovan said, "to do anything tactical this week. I think that's why in the first 30 minutes you saw some disarray. These guys were just trying to figure out what's going on. We were given some ideas by Jurgen, but in the flow of the game, you have to make your own decisions.

"At halftime we figured out some things that needed to be done, we adjusted properly and did much better. As far as the confidence, the energy, the willingness to get back in the game."

Rogers, the Columbus Crew midfielder who was a late injury replacement on the roster and was playing only his 15th game for the national team, scored into a wide-open net on a nifty pass from another Major League Soccer player, FC Dallas' Brek Shea, himself in only his third U.S. game.

"I was excited to get in [to the U.S. camp]," Rogers said, "to work with Jurgen, to get a chance to play. My warm-up was, like, two minutes and I was on the field [and scored one minute later]." Having Klinsmann "is great," Rogers said. "It's a new start for everyone."

All the players, veterans and providers of new blood, "are trying to get a feel for him," goalie Tim Howard said. "He's trying to get the vibe from us. He's got a new coaching staff, the small details are different."

For the next national-team game, against Costa Rica in Carson, Calif., on Sept. 2, "It'll be good to kind of get in for a week and get to know each other a little more," Howard said. "It's been good, it's been upbeat, so there's a positive feel. The longer we can get together, and that's not easy [with the talent pool spread to pro teams from Central America to Europe], it should be a good exercise."

Wednesday's showing hardly was one that would have the rest of the soccer world shaking in its boots as the 2014 World Cup qualifying process approaches. Klinsmann acknowledged that there are "many, many areas where [the Americans] can improve. But still, I think they really deserve compliments now."