An inconvenient truth about the firing of Jurgen Klinsmann on Monday afternoon is that it will cost U.S. Soccer several years of progress. This move is entirely about survival. When dangling from the ledge of a building, one does not worry about making the Dean’s List or getting promoted to vice president. One merely looks forward to the next visit to the bathroom.

This is the circumstance into which Klinsmann’s audacity has driven the U.S. men’s national soccer team. The United States has two defeats after the first two of 10 games in the final World Cup qualifying round. The Americans haven’t been this desperate this early since soccer began to really matter in this country a little more than two decades ago.

MORE: These are the moments that derailed Klinsmann era

So the federation will turn to Bruce Arena to straighten out the qualifying mess Klinsmann created, and whatever mission Klinsmann was on as the men’s soccer program’s technical director will be set aside for the moment. This is as it should be, because nothing would set back American soccer more than being excluded from the party at Russia 2018.

The simplest explanation for Klinsmann’s calamities was Klinsmann’s constant chaos. His insatiable drive to prove himself the smartest person in whatever room he entered led to constant tinkering that peaked when he sent out the United States against Mexico for an essential World Cup qualifier Nov. 11 in a formation it hadn’t used in nearly two years and that had been practiced for less than a week.

It would be like Nick Saban ordering Alabama to run the Wishbone in this week’s Iron Bowl, except that it’s insulting to Saban to employ him in that analogy.

MORE: U.S. players react to Klinsmann firing

The only quality in common those two coaches share is their remarkable ability to recruit. Whereas Arena was unable to convince New Jersey-raised Italian Guiseppi Rossi to join the USMNT, and defender Neven Subotic was lost to Serbia while Bradley was coach, Klinsmann helped land such players and prospects as Fabian Johnson, Julian Green, Aron Johannsson, John Brooks, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Gedion Zelalem.

So maybe the better football/fútbol comparison for Klinsmann would be Ron Zook.

“While we remain confident that we have quality players to help us advance to Russia 2018, the form and growth of the team up to this point left us convinced that we need to go in a different direction,” U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a statement. “With the next qualifying match in late March, we have several months to refocus the group and determine the best way forward to ensure a successful journey to qualify for our eighth consecutive World Cup.”

MORE: Klinsmann's ridicule of fans shouldn't be tolerated

There had been so many calls for Klinsmann’s firing of late that there were multiple Twitter hashtags created to accommodate them all: #FireKlinsmann, #FireKlinsi, #KlinsmannOut. Those who defended Klinsmann tended to be of a single variety: The U.S. is mediocre anyway, so why blame it on him?

Klinsmann had been in the position for five years, however, so whatever the team’s level of accomplishment was as much his responsibility as anyone’s. He produced a record that was more or less in line with what his two predecessors accomplished, even as the number of professional players from the U.S. (and dual nationals successfully “recruited” to join the USMNT) increased in various world leagues and MLS.

Although Klinsmann promised upon being hired he would improve the U.S. performance and its style of play, he accomplished neither. Arena (2002), Bob Bradley (2010) and Klinsmann (2014) all coached teams that escaped from their World Cup qualifying groups. Arena needed massive help as his team faltered on the final day of group play, but once the Americans advanced, they defeated rival Mexico and reached the quarterfinals. Bradley’s team nearly was eliminated but won its group on the glorious extra-time goal by Landon Donovan against Algeria, then fell in the round of 16. Klinsmann’s team escaped from the 2014 “Group of Death” by defeating Ghana and drawing Portugal but also lost its first elimination game.

MORE: Maybe Arena can use U.S.'s prodigy better than Klinsmann

Klinsmann did produce results that had been elusive for the Americans: friendly victories on the road in Europe and at Mexico, a draw in a World Cup qualifier at Mexico City’s previously impenetrable Azteca Stadium. He also oversaw disasters unlike anything the Americans experienced under his two predecessors. The home loss to Mexico at the start of the six-team “Hex” round of World Cup qualifying was the Americans’ first in 44 years. They’d only lost to Jamaica once in 22 prior meetings but fell in the semifinals of the 2015 Gold Cup. That was the first time they’d missed the final of that tournament in a dozen years.

And if that unpredictability wasn’t enough, Klinsmann opted to blast fans and analysts who’d called for him to be fired. It had begun with a semifinal-round World Cup qualifying loss to Guatemala but became an avalanche with the losses to Mexico and Costa Rica in the past two weeks.

Would Klinsmann have lost his job if he’d acknowledged he’d blundered by trying the new formation against Mexico? But by blaming the tactics’ failure on poor midfield play by veterans Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley and the loss on a missed defensive assignment by Brooks, he almost certainly lost the team.

MORE: The ugliest moments in Klinsmann era

And then he all but dared Gulati to fire him by announcing to the New York Times that the people calling for his job “don’t understand soccer.”

Does Gulati? Well, he knows this: He’s in charge of the federation, and Klinsmann’s no longer in charge of the team.