Klinsmann's nomination as coach and his push to have US players contract themselves to European clubs in order to improve themselves is sound advice. However, the coach's rejection of Donovan from the team in lieu of other candidates put out the message that it was Klinsmann's way or the way out. In addition, Klinsmann was influential in bringing five players from Fußball-Bundesliga. A coach and players with little ties to US soil being hired to bring a US win is representative of the current status of our country.
I have been told that I'm bigoted in the sense that these men are just as American as anyone else. But honestly, John Brooks was born and raised in Berlin & has had his entire football career in Germany. The same which can be said of Fabian Johnson and Timothy Chandler who are German natives who have never set foot on U.S. soil aside from possibly training camp, a football game, or vacation purposes. Two 'exceptions' might be Julian Green was born in Tampa Florida, but moved to Germany when he was two & has had his entire football career in Germany and Jermaine Jones who although lived for a period of time in Chicago & Greenwood has began his professional career at the age of eighteen in Eintracht Frankfurt II and learned to play football as a child living in Germany. These talented men have been reported to put up at least half of our total goals on the board.
To which comes the second question, what's the problem if they are giving us results? The problem is that Jurgen Klinsmann has gone on record as saying we don't have a shot at winning unless we played the game of our lives seven times in a row. The coach we recruited doesn't even pretend to entertain the notion that we have a shot and has such a condescending view of football in our country that he influenced players to contract themselves to European leagues because playing in a second tier league over there would benefit them much more as players than playing in any league in the United States.
It is hard to root for Team America when Team America itself is representative of our countries lack of support for itself. Considering how globalization has impacted the US market, American industries are pushing manufacturing and most of 'what was' our economy off seas to other countries. It's sad that privatization of business overseas is now as American as recruiting a German football team. In a documentary, Robert Reich (labor secretary who served a sexual philanderer) takes an iPhone from a student and asks the viewer where do you think the money of purchase goes. To which he shares the following split up:
We don't produce iPhones in this country. We have China who gathers the raw components from other countries and assemble them for us to advertise, sell, and design financial instruments to maximize the profits. Reich contributed another bit of information (that has yet to be formally refuted) that fifty years ago, the typical GM worker got paid $35 an hour in today's dollars. General Motors at the time was the largest employer in America. Today the largest employer in America is Walmart and the typical Walmart employee earns $8.80 an hour. What happened to General Motors?
General Motors has moved employment overseas. To put it into numbers, their December 31st 2011 annual report showed that 74,500 jobs are in the United States while 122,500 positions are for abroad. A common retort is that the move abroad is to cut down on labor costs so that the United States can enjoy high quality US cars for lower prices. Despite this the company was called for a hearing in May due to their refusal to replace a 57 cent spring that would cost around $100 million to fix in 2007 which had the known effect of resulting in the ignition suddenly failing and causing the vehicle to come to an abrupt stop. The government came out in April of this year stating that they lost around $11.2 billion in funds when they bailed out the company. Treasury Department spokesperson Adam Hodges said, "The goal of Treasury's investment in GM was never to make a profit, but to help save the American auto industry, and by any measure that effort was successful."
Do I have to come out and make this point? Selling Americans cars that kill them should not be considered saving the American auto industry. Telling us that the 'industry' is saved when the industry is blatantly trying to run away from America, refuses to cut back profit equivalent to a couple thousand cars, and only uses Americans to purchase cars that were made on the cheap is actually a very American thing now if we are a country that now identifies with having its citizens extorted by government funded extortionists (Government bank bailout, Too Big to Fail).
I believe that the United States can compete internationally, but there needs to be heavy restructuring of our government and our industries. It isn't a coincidence that America currently has a third world case of income inequality compared to other countries. Just like it isn't a coincidence that our manufacturing has moved overseas, our unions have collectively weakened, and our politicians now get lobbied not only more frequently but also harder than ever before by industries in healthcare, automobiles, food, and firearms. I don't believe that lacking a patriotic backbone is a flaw in our national identity because the America we currently live in doesn't believe that it can right itself from the very wrong path that it's taking. It's possible that we never had any respectability to begin with, however I believe that the past decade has led us in even a worse position with our country having no real sense of fiscal responsibility (China debt, deregulation of banks, expanding provisions for lobbyists) and political sensibility (Iraq War fabrication, Armed and Dangerous, IRS tax scandal, Oversight over abuse of tax payer dollars) there's no sense of national identity.
We have a German coach leading an American team that he believes will not win. We have an American industry that doesn't believe the American job industry can lead to real profit. We have a national debt that continues to grow exponentially because no one believes it can actually be paid off. We have a democratic system that believes every congressman & senator has a right to be equally bribed because everyone wants to pad their own pocket since none of them believe the system can actually be changed.
Allow me to segue this train of negativity, I support cheering for America, the America that actually believes in Americans and not some quasi-hired mercenary team from Germany that isn't even confident their injection will bring about a win. Cheer for the 2010 team that made it through Klinsmann's cut and at the end of it all fire the ****ing asshole and tell him that he can coach a team that he actually believes can win. Jesus Christ. Go USA.
