Jurgen Klinsmann was supposed to make the United States men’s national team better.

Jurgen Klinsmann has not made the United States men’s national team better. After half a decade of collecting a paycheck at least three times as large as that of his predecessor, he has, at best, allowed the team to stagnate. Read the circumstances, performances and results more cynically – or honestly, depending on where you stand on this – and Klinsmann has made the USA worse.

[ Costa Rica-USA: U.S. humiliated in 4-0 loss | Goalkeeper mess | Match tracker ]

Since his succession of Bob Bradley in 2011, who was ousted when the German finally agreed to take over the team after five years of pursuit by U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, Klinsmann has posted mostly passable results in major tournaments. The off-year 2013 Gold Cup was won. Qualification for the 2014 World Cup was secured comfortably, in spite of wobbles early on in the two final rounds.

At the 2014 World Cup, the USA was badly outplayed in three of four games but somehow took a comically superior Belgian side to extra time in the round of 16, courtesy of goalkeeper Tim Howard’s World Cup record-setting 16 saves. The 2015 Gold Cup was a fiasco which ended in an upset by Jamaica in the semifinals, the worst U.S. result in nine editions of the tournament. The 2016 Copa America Centenario released considerable pressure on Klinsmann after a particularly dire run of games. In a spasm of competence, an emphatic victory over Costa Rica and narrow wins over Paraguay and Ecuador salvaged a spot in the semifinals, where Lionel Messi and Argentina ran roughshod over the Yanks in a 4-0 walkover.

The fourth round of 2018 World Cup qualifying, when the Americans first entered the fray, was ponderous, with a 1-1-1 start, before the last three games were won. And now, the final hexagonal round – a six-team, double round-robin that will send three teams directly to Russia and a fourth to an intercontinental playoff – has begun in such disastrous fashion as to imperil an eighth consecutive World Cup berth for a country that has grown accustomed to being at soccer’s big dance.

Friday’s 2-1 loss to Mexico in Ohio was disappointing but understandable, to an extent, given El Tri’s innate superior talent. Tuesday’s 4-0 dismantling by Costa Rica, however, represented a new rock-bottom low in the Klinsmann administration.

“A very, very bitter moment for us – there’s no doubt about it,” he spoke solemnly following the game. “We didn’t imagine going into the hexagonal with two defeats, right in the beginning. This is definitely a moment to reflect what happened in the last 10 days.”

Yes, let’s talk about what happened in the last 10 days.

There’s probably some set of excuses, mitigating circumstances, big-picture perspectives and rationalizations that can be coaxed from the debris of this hexagonal round thus far. And maybe that package of glass-half-full assessments would combine to cast this all in a light that isn’t entirely damning.

Let’s give it a try.

The Mexico game was lost on a single, very late moment – a header by a 37-year-old Rafa Marquez that was of considerable brilliance, even though he was abandoned by his marker. And there’s no great shame in losing to El Tri – not even at home, as they were probably due for a win in Columbus after so many games went the Americans’ way. Playing in Costa Rica is super hard, as evidenced by the USA’s 0-9-2 all-time record there. Games get away from you sometimes, when a team collectively has a horrid day at the office, like on Tuesday.

View photos Klinsmann didn’t have any answers in Costa Rica. (AP Photo) More

Certainly, the two Mexico games and the away tie in Costa Rica are the three hardest matches the U.S. will play out of its 10 games in the Hex. And it got two of them out of the way early. Indeed, so forgiving is CONCACAF that a decent haul of points against Honduras, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago will likely set things right.

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