From the Associated Press:
Now that the United States Soccer Federation's (USFF) perennial coach-in-waiting finally has the job, Juergen Klinsmann (picture) will be expected to kick-start a stagnant men's national team.
The USSF hired Klinsmann on Friday (yesterday morning, Singapore time) a day after firing Bob Bradley.
The US almost hired the former German star striker and coach of the national team twice - first after the 2006 World Cup and again last year, before giving Bradley a contract extension which turned out to be short-lived.
Klinsmann's first game as US coach will be on Aug 10, against arch-rivals Mexico in an exhibition in Philadelphia.
Qualifying games for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins next June.
Former US defender Alexi Lalas, who worked alongside Klinsmann for ESPN at last year's World Cup, expects him to inject energy but insisted that he was not a miracle worker.
"It's not as if all of sudden, because Juergen Klinsmann is coach, that we're going to have an American Lionel Messi drop into our laps," Lalas said.
Klinsmann and his wife, Debbie, live in California with their two children, Jonathan and Laila.
"His greatest weapon is the fact that he understands the American people more than any other foreign coach possibly could," former US star Eric Wynalda said. "If you're going to make the move, he's the perfect choice."
“LIKE A JEDI KNIGHT— no, better than that— A TEMPLAR KNIGHT. This is a FLASH OF PURE INSPIRATION, and let me tip my hat to the genesis of this goal: Ibarra. Lionel only absolutely LIGHTS IT UP here, he LIFTS OFF IT, FLAMETHROWERS IT PAST poor Reny Vega. It’s just as well Reny didn’t get a hand to that because it would have TAKEN IT OFF HIS WRIST. Superlative football and an out of this world BERNINI SCULPTURE of a finish." GOL TV Commentator Ray Hudson
