Benny Feilhaber reacted to Jurgen Klinsmann's firing like you'd expect he would
On Monday, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati announced his decision to fire Jurgen Klinsmann as senior men’s national team head coach and the federation’s technical director. It had been almost a week since Klinsmann’s American side got embarrassed in a 4-0 loss at Costa Rica to fall to 0-2 in the final round of World Cup qualifying. Perhaps Gulati was waiting for cries for Klinsmann’s dismissal to die down.
[ Arena takes over | Klinsmann out | Where it all went wrong | Lessons learned ]
U.S. Soccer tweeted the news of that it had parted ways with Klinsmann at 3:11 p.m. ET. Three minutes later came this not-so-subtle reaction from the Twitter account of one of Klinsmann’s biggest critics.
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— Benny Feilhaber (@b_feilhaber22) November 21, 2016
Taking glee in the demise of Klinsmann is none other than Benny Feilhaber, the Sporting Kansas City midfielder who had been critical of Klinsmann for not choosing Major League Soccer stars, including himself. Feilhaber, who scored a memorable game-winning goal against Mexico in the 2007 Gold Cup final and was on the field for Landon Donovan’s last-gasp strike against Algeria at the 2010 World Cup, had not played for the U.S. since a friendly against South Korea in February 2014. During that time, Feilhaber enjoyed what he called the “best soccer” of his career. In January, he stated he was “at peace” with his exile from the USMNT.
“If I’m not getting an opportunity with the national team now then I need to accept that it’s not going to happen,” said Feilhaber, 31. “At least not under Jurgen Klinsmann.”
Klinsmann’s response to Feilhaber was far from flattering. “We gave him the opportunity a couple of times in our environment and he was never able to put a stamp on the game,” Klinsmann said. “That’s why he’s not invited here, because he’s not on my level, not consistent enough.”
Ouch.
On April Fool’s Day, Feilhaber had one last laugh when he wore the shirt of a certain German legend for Sporting K.C.’s “Jersey Friday.”
Great team picture today!! #jerseyfriday ???? pic.twitter.com/EBaDkinulC
— Benny Feilhaber (@b_feilhaber22) April 1, 2016
So, with the Klinsmann era over, one of the USMNT’s most bitter disputes has come to an end.
The aforementioned Donovan had a much more public beef with Klinsmann after being left out of the U.S.’s 2014 World Cup roster. But the USMNT’s all-time leading scorer took the high road with his reaction to Klinsmann’s ouster.
Never want to see someone lose their job. I have no doubt that this talented group of players will qualify for Russia '18 #USA ????????????????????????
— Landon Donovan (@landondonovan) November 21, 2016