For as bad as Klinsmann has been tactically in this cycle, he still does a great job getting those dual-nationals cap tied. There's more to the long game though than 'crootin.
Work rate tonight was exceptional.
So a couple more things here, and I left out a couple of your other comments about tactics and aggression on offense...
So, we'll start with the long game, and recruiting dual cap nationals... and the olympics...
Now, missing the olympics sucks because its the olympics, but face it, U-23 is a strange animal in and of itself. Its certainly not youth or amatuer in any meaningful sense.... like say U-20... I don't know how much they really get to camp and prep, and really the only upside I can think of for the players is to have a stage to impress their club managers and get more PT in that venue, but, I don't know if that really happens. Is it a good thing to miss it? No. Is it a reflection of the senior team's future, no. (Now, watching individual guys might be, like Hyndman for example... but some guys pan out, some don't)
Point is, the player pool development is going to, over the long haul, occur outside of USA soccer. In MLS, in Germany, in England.
Now, the more it happens outside the US, the more it becomes important to have a deep pool of players, as you kind of go through this evolution from say what the 1994 team looked like, and I get that its simplifying but, what was the reality? it was an amatuer team Plus Harkes, Dooley, and probably a couple other guys with some cups of coffee in the Bundesliga and a smattering of other places. Lalas parlayed, I think, that cup into being the first American ever to play in Serie A. Either way, with some pluck and luck, they get to the knockout round.
So, flash forward to 1998... Instead of just training training and training, together, with USA soccer, there's a domestic league, and they have a lot more experience, but, with maybe a few more international players,.... and what happens in the WC? They get smoked.
I'm guessing it takes till about '06 to have a majority of an international group - but again, the challenges of schedules and all that stuff come up, and they get one point in group play, and them to kind of gel together to win their group in '10 with a similar looking team.
In '14, it was a younger squad and almost 50:50 MLS/International players (Though Bradley, Dempsey, etc were back MLS by then)
Point is, as the years go on, the depth of experience does get a little deeper on the core of the senior team, but, anyone here goes back and look at the rosters, and you'll see holes. And I don't think we pine longingly for the days of Steve Sampson...
Point is, the future is that you're going to have almost exclusively International Players (and MLS designated players) as the roster, so, the key to that growth is to have guys playing for European clubs in the places they can grow the most the fastest... As such, U-23 play isn't as important as Bundesliga experience, and getting guys to commit, like John Brooks, Fabian Johnson, Julian Green, Pulisic... guys who aleady have European contracts, and are promising and in a good place to develop... (If he could find a mothereffing left back, it would be great... Castillo is hard to watch at times)
But, same thing, they have challenges and club commitments, so you need an even greater number... both because of schedule restraints and more demanding work load than the good old days of guys getting paid by USSF to practice together... there will be guys that are dinged more.
As to the tactics in Guatemala, I dunno, it was pretty weird but and the result is obviously awful, but as far as generating offense, its clear he'd like to use Yedlin on the wing instead of right back for the express purpose of getting wide and attacking more dynamically... Castillo (like Beasley, long in the tooth though he was) is the same kind of idea, where they're not probably such natural defenders, and they do, with Cameron, Besler, Brooks, and further down the line have PLENTY of central defenders, Parkhurst, I'm forgetting a few more. Probably not the right time to get cute, but he's probably a little frustrated too, he does want to attack, did for Germany too... (to the degree they wanted to shitcan him for not playing D.
And Klinsmann is arrogant and defensive, that doesn't help. And if they don't qualify, yes, let him go. But, in a short period, what's the solution. Sven Goran-Erickson? Tab Ramos? We don't get to have Joachim Low replace him like Germany does. I don't want to be the dick here, but, sometimes, as far as we've come in this sport, we don't want to be Arkansas or Wisconsin football, walking around like we're a 10 in the bar when we're really a 6 (but since we're Americans, and rich and vain we can afford some plastic surgery, show a little pluck and pass for an 8 most of the time)
