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The key for Jürgen Klinsmann will be to not reinvent the wheel of American soccer, but rather combine the American players who already have the proven-technical ability to play one-to-two touch soccer with the newer players who demonstrated through club play, friendlies, or through training camps that they have the skills needed to mesh with the already proven high-level American players.

Since just after the 2006 World Cup, the United States Men’s National Team has had the most success when the midfield was made up of Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Benny Feilhaber, but the midfield was always held back by a weakness in the center of the defense and a weakness in the final third.

When Benny Feilhaber was unavailable during the 2011 Gold Cup, Bob Bradley turned to Freddy Adu to get the United States into the final with Mexico.

With Landon Donovan currently taking some sort of a break or perhaps simply not wanting to play for Jürgen Klinsmann, the United States still has players like Joe Corona, Benny Feilhaber, Jermaine Jones, and Freddy Adu to start in the midfield.

Now, Jürgen Klinsmann is in a position to field essentially the same midfield, which has had success since the 2006 World Cup with a more-skilled and athletic defense and attack. Klinsmann should take advantage of the fact that he has the benefit of having better defenders and strikers than Bob Bradley had during most of his time as the coach of the United States Men’s National Team.

When Jürgen Klinsmann became coach of the United States Men’s National Team, he should have known that the combination of players like Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Feilhaber, and Adu performed the best against high-level competition.

Even without Donovan, Klinsmann still has Bradley, Dempsey, Feilhaber, and Adu who are all proven-players at the international level.

Klinsmann should take this knowledge of the midfielders in the American player pool and incorporate strikers like Terrence Boyd and Juan Agudelo in addition to attacking midfielders like Joe Corona and Mix Diskerud.

In the most recent World Cup qualifier against Honduras, Klinsmann picked arguably the strongest defensive back four at his disposal, but in the next qualifier, Klinsmann should consider starting Maurice Edu in place of Omar Gonzalez at center back and perhaps Eric Lichaj in place of Timothy Chandler at right back with the caveat that both Chandler and Gonzalez appear more than capable of playing well at the international level.

STARTING XI PROPOSAL:

Goalkeeper: Tim HOWARD (#1)

Right Back: Timothy CHANDLER or Eric LICHAJ (#2)

Right Center Back: Maurice EDU, Omar GONZALEZ, or Jermaine JONES (#3)

Left Center Back: Geoff CAMERON (#4)

Left Back: Fabian JOHNSON (#5 / #6)

Defensive Midfielder: Michael BRADLEY (#6 / #5)

Right Attacking Midfielder: Joe CORONA (#7)

Central Attacking Midfielder: Benny FEILHABER (#10)

Left Attacking Midfielder: Clint DEMPSEY (#8)

Striker: Juan AGUDELO (#11)

Striker: Terrence BOYD (#9)

***The numbers do not correspond to Jürgen Klinsmann’s numbering system, but rather they correspond to a numbering system that does not require a midfield destroyer and a box-to-box midfielder.

*Possible Substitutes to use against Costa Rica depending on how the game goes: Freddy ADU, Jermaine JONES, Eric LICHAJ, Omar GONZALEZ, Perry KITCHEN, Dax McCARTY, Brek SHEA, Eddie JOHNSON, Jozy ALTIDORE, Zach LOYD, Brad GUZAN

 

Formation: 4-1-3-2

————————– Howard—————————-

 

———————Edu———-Cameron—————-

 

 Chandler————–Bradley——————-Johnson

 

———–Corona——Feilhaber——Dempsey———–

 

——————Agudelo——–Boyd———————-

 

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© Colin Reese