Q&A With USMNT Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann on Training at Harvard, Landon Donovan

Three months removed from its impressive 2014 World Cup performance, the United States men’s national soccer team is back on the pitch. In preparation for its match against Ecuador Friday night in East Hartford, Conn., the USMNT has made Harvard’s Ohiri Field its home for the week. We decided to catch up with head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Q: Now that you’ve gotten to practice here for a few days, what has been your overall impression of Harvard’s facilities?

A: “Outstanding. We’re very privileged to be here and obviously spend a couple of days before we drive over on Thursday morning to Hartford. So far, everything has gone smoothly and everybody seems ready.”

Q: For games such as this one so early in the World Cup cycle, how have you and the coaching staff gone about balancing the roster?

A: “We would like to kind of continue to make this program grow, and [we] can be more flexible. It’s a very interesting time period now because we’re not only building a deeper pool hopefully for the senior team, but at the same time we’re trying to develop talent towards the Olympics in 2016. We decided to leave a couple experienced players out just for the sake of introducing some fresh young players to juggle things around.

“We do what is best for our team. We want to continue with the positive moments that we created in Prague against the Czech Republic with a very young group, so this group is back. We’re mixing it a bit with [players from the] MLS…. We’re very happy to have that group around here, and we want to do well against a good Ecuador side.”

Q: Have you noticed any consequences as a result of failing to qualify for the Olympics back in 2012?

“What you lose is a lot of very, very important international experience for younger players. If you’re not qualifying for the Olympics, they’re really missing out on a huge opportunity.

“The players that went back into the MLS, they had to carry that on their shoulders for quite a while. So we want to make sure that this is not happening again. We want them to have the opportunity to go to Brazil and play those weeks, and take that experience with them to the next step which is obviously the senior national team.”

Q: What can we expect to see from Landon Donovan with this being the last international contest of his career?

A: “We have the understanding with Landon that he obviously starts the game and wears the captain’s armband out of respect for what he did for the program for so many years in an outstanding career. So we want him to enjoy that moment.

“The plan is that he’s playing about half an hour into the game. Two days later, he has a [Los Angeles] Galaxy game coming up, and he’s coming in only on Thursday as well. But obviously it’s a special moment. It’s a special celebration for everybody involved, and hopefully it’s going to be a memorable day for him.”

Q: Have you seen many players like Landon coming out of the American system?

A: “No. I mean Landon had an exceptional career—a very, very special career. Therefore, he gets honored on Friday night, and he should hopefully remember every second of it.

“It’s our goal to find young, new players that fill into those big, big footsteps of a Landon or other senior player that is ready to leave the stage. I think the game is growing at all levels. We’ve made some steps forward, but still, we have a way to go.

“We still often talk about connecting the dots between the youth system and the professional system [as well as] college. We have so many pieces floating around in the United States that still need to get perfected, but definitely it’s getting better. Hopefully, we find the new [Landons] around the block.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jmeagher@college.harvard.edu.