USA vs. Costa Rica: USMNT absolutely crushed by Los Ticos

Jurgen Klinsmann’s mission to transform the United States men’s national team into one that could continue to compete on the world stage while playing a more stylish brand of soccer is now officially a failure. U.S. Soccer parted ways with Klinsmann on Monday in the wake of World Cup qualifying losses to Mexico and Costa Rica.

For the first time ever, the USMNT has zero points through their first two Hex matches. They’re still slim favorites to finish in the top three of CONCACAF’s final round of qualifying, but face a must-win game at home to Honduras in March, followed by a must-not-lose match against Panama, who have an away win and a draw against Mexico in the bag already.

Jurgen Klinsmann did not become a bad coach last week. He was an inept tactical manager with bad ideas at Bayern Munich eight years ago, and he was that repeatedly for the United States men’s national team. When U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati decided to fire Klinsmann in the wake of losses to Mexico and Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying, it was not because Klinsmann is a bad tactician. Gulati has known that for a long time, but decided on multiple occasions that Klinsmann brought enough other skills to the table to negate that problem.

U.S. Soccer also did not start achieving poor results last week. While the Americans had not lost at home to Mexico in World Cup qualifying in 44 years before Friday’s disappointing defeat, they had lost to Mexico on American soil multiple times, in multiple competitions, under multiple managers. The same goes for matches away to Costa Rica. Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley both had their fair share of disappointments against those teams, but made World Cup knockout stages and won Gold Cups anyway.

The United States national team looked unmotivated and badly outmatched by Costa Rica on Tuesday night in a back-breaking 4-0 loss, putting themselves into a tough position for World Cup qualifying. There’s a lot of bad feeling in the fan base right now, and it’s down to Jurgen Klinsmann to figure out where to go from here and try to send the right messages to both his players and the fans.

This is the first time that Klinsmann has taken responsibility after a major defeat like this — a stark contrast to him placing blame directly on players such as Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, and John Brooks after the loss to Mexico on Friday. Of course, Klinsmann couldn’t help but say that his players “didn’t have the fight” to push back into the match after Costa Rica’s second goal, so maybe he hasn’t completely changed course.

Final: Costa Rica 4-0 United States

Second Half: Costa Rica 4-0 United States

First Half: Costa Rica 1-0 United States

Three goals from Costa Rica has their side in control of the game in the second half.

The United States men’s national team never does well away to Costa Rica. Steve Sampson, Bruce Arena, and Bob Bradley all saw losses in San Jose before Jurgen Klinsmann rolled around, so a defeat there is no surprise.

But the manner of the defeat was embarrassing for the Americans, as they conceded three goals in just 10 minutes during their 4-0 defeat.

Before this round of World Cup qualifiers, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati made it very clear that Jurgen Klinsmann’s job was not on the line.

“We have not had a coach in 27 years that has started World Cup qualifying and not finished World Cup qualifying,” Gulati said. “We’ve never changed coaches in the Hex, and I expect that to be the case here.”

The United States looked as though they were going to make it to halftime tied at 0-0 against Costa Rica. They couldn’t hold out. In the 44th minute, the Ticos took the lead thanks to Johan Venegas and a good assist by Christian Bolanos.

This move started with a bad USMNT giveaway. Jermaine Jones hit a poor pass to John Brooks, leading him to turn the ball over. A series of Americans didn’t put in a serious challenge for the ball, allowing the home team to work it around and eventually find Venegas, the scorer.