USMNT fans hate Jurgen Klinsmann because he won’t stop lying

Jurgen Klinsmann isn’t getting fired for losing to Mexico. He won’t get fired before his contract expires, unless he fails to qualify for the World Cup. U.S. Soccer owes him millions of dollars and they don’t want to pay him and another coach at the same time.

So why do so many people want this seemingly adequate, if unspectacular coach to get fired?

It’s because of the absolutely absurd things that come out of his mouth. American soccer fans have listened to a steady stream of trash for four years, and they’re really tired of it. Here’s a selection of reactions to his press conference after Saturday’s Mexico loss, including my own.

His presser after the USMNT lost to Jamaica in the Gold Cup was probably worse. He said that his team did well to get through the group (!?!?!??!!), that this is all a process and that they’d learn lessons from the experience. What lessons they were supposed to learn when he blamed the referees for the loss and insisted he wouldn’t make dramatic changes ahead of the playoff against Mexico isn’t clear.

And then there’s the thing we always come back to: His introductory press conference. Here’s what Klinsmann said about changing the USMNT’s style of play and integrating a Latino influence.

“There’s so much influence coming from the Latin environment over the last 15, 20 years that also has to be reflected in the U.S. national team. Soccer in a way reflects the culture of a country. Having studied the U.S. culture over the last 13 years, it’s quite a challenge, because you have such a melting pot in this country. One of my challenges will be to find how a U.S. team should represent its country, what should be the style of play -- is it more of a proactive, forward-thinking style of play or is it more of a reacting style of play.”

This is the problem with Klinsmann. Not necessarily the mediocre results or the boring play, but the consistency with which he talks out of his ass. He’s had the team for four years and 76 games, they’ve made no progress towards playing the style he’s talked about implementing, and yet he keeps talking about the “process.” First-year coaches get to use the “process” excuse. When fourth-year coaches trot it out, there’s some (well deserved) backlash. When they also outright lie about how well their team is playing and blame referees from previous games for bad results, fans bust out their torches and pitchforks.

Forget results, tactics and youth development for a second. For four years, Klinsmann has been saying things that are indisputably false. He says them over and over again even though no one believes him.

Four years is a long time to listen to a coach lie. It’s grating. Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena had lots of flaws and none of Klinsmann’s pedigree, but they said things like “we weren’t good enough” and “we know we’re not going to create many chances, but we have to finish the ones we get” once in a while, and we respected them for that.

Klinsmann is everything people hate about Arsène Wenger and everything people hate about José Mourinho rolled into one person. It’s not clear if he’s genuinely delusional or totally disingenuous. I’m not sure which one is worse, either. But I do know that we’re stuck with the garbage that comes out of his mouth for three more years, for better or worse.