The relationship between MLS and U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann reached a tipping point, with the media serving as the go-between in a disagreement that took a nasty turn.
League commissioner Don Garber issued a gag order to Klinsmann in an impromptu conference call Wednesday, reacting angrily to several recent comments from the US coach denigrating the quality of MLS.
'I am just demanding that he refrain from making comments that are critical of our players and damaging to our league,' said a fuming Garber.
The most recent words that inflamed Garber were Klinsmann again criticizing Michael Bradley's move from Europe to MLS as 'a huge disappointment.' This followed similar critiques of Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, with a common underlying message from the US coach: the quality of MLS is hindering the development of his players, and it could affect their selection to the national team.
'Jurgen's comments are very, very detrimental to the league. They're detrimental to the sport in America and everything we're trying to do north of the border. Not only are they detrimental, I think they are wrong,' Garber said, adding his personal anger to the conference call later, 'to think that we're not aligned with our national team coach is disappointing and personally infuriating. And frankly, I don't think it is in line with the shared vision we have with the (U.S. Soccer) federation. .. To think that the national team coach isn't aligned with that is frustrating as hell.'
Garber, who is a member of the U.S. Soccer board of directors, stopped short of calling for Klinsmann's job, but said the German 'needs to think very, very hard about how he manages himself publicly and how he deals with players in our league.'
Garber also circled back to Klinsmann's handling of Donovan at the World Cup, saying he wanted to address it at the time but was recovering from prostate cancer. Before and after leaving Donovan off the World Cup roster, Klinsmann inferred to the media that the striker damaged his career by remaining in MLS.
'I believe that Landon should've been in Brazil because his performance dictated it,' Garber said. 'And if anybody disagrees with that - clearly Jurgen does - then I think his treatment was inexcusable. And I have concerns that his criticisms, particularly of Michael (Bradley), is following that same pattern.
'If Jurgen wants to talk to Michael about what's in the best interest of his career, go ahead and do that. But don't use a media platform to do that. I think that is absolutely unacceptable.'
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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