Jürgen Klinsmann has rejected Bob Bradley’s claim that the former Germany star was jockeying to succeed him as USA coach a year before Bradley left.
Bradley made the claim on Friday when he was introduced as the new coach of Swansea City. He said of Klinsmann: “When he did commentary on the 2010 World Cup, he was already jockeying for the job.”
Bradley was fired as the national team coach in 2011, shortly after a 4-2 defeat by Mexico in the Gold Cup final. He was replaced by Klinsmann, who had been out of work since leaving Bayern Munich in 2009. On Monday, however, Klinsmann insisted that he hadn’t been angling for Bradley’s job.
“No. I mean it’s simply not true,” Klinsmann said in a press conference before his team’s friendly against New Zealand on Tuesday night. “I could have taken the job in 2006. I could have taken it in 2010. And then we got together in 2011 to finally figure out a way to make this happen. So I was not jockeying anything.”
Klinsmann was effusive in his praise of Bradley, who, in accepting the Swansea job, becomes the first American to coach in the Premier League.
“I wish Bob the very, very best,” Klinsmann said Monday. “I think it’s a big, big moment having an American coach coaching a Premier League club. I think it’s huge. And he’s an awesome guy. He’s a good person, and I just keep my fingers crossed for him.”
The match against New Zealand is USA’s last run-out before they play Mexico in World Cup qualifying in November. The top three from the six-team qualifying “Hex” advance to Russia by right, and the fourth-placed team faces a two-legged play-off against a team from Asia.
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani suggested last week that the confederation’s format be changed for future World Cups to allow more nations to play deeper into the four-year cycle.
But Klinsmann opposed that idea, insisting that USA and other regional powers are hurt by fewer opportunities to face quality international opponents.
“If we want to get better, we need to play with the best teams out there from South America or from Europe,” Klinsmann said. “What does that mean? For us it means, it would be the opposite direction.”
The New Zealand game comes a year and a day after Klinsmann’s team lost to Mexico 3-2 in extra time in the playoff for a berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup.
New Zealand lost to Mexico 2-1 on Saturday. Klinsmann said wished his team could have scheduled a friendly against stronger opposition, but Europe and South America had World Cup qualifiers scheduled and few teams were available.
“Ghana wasn’t allowed to come because they play one game in Europe and they’re not allowed to play a second game in another continent,” he said. “We go the list up and down. Believe me, we’re trying to get the best opponents as possible.”
