Over his three years in charge of the US national team, Jurgen Klinsmann has talked a great deal about transformation and revolution.
The jovial German-American has enthusiastically advocated a variety of sweeping changes at all levels of the US soccer scene, making it clear that he sees unmet potential and myriad inefficiencies in his adopted country's system. He calls the US pyramid “upside-down” and urges the nation's players to completely rejigger their expectations of their team and themselves.
Monday's news that Klinsmann is prepared to call Minnesota United winger Miguel Ibarra into his next USMNT camp is the proof that Klinsmann is certainly willing to try more new things in his second cycle in charge, and has already sent shock waves reverberating across the soccer landscape.
If a college player like Stanford striker and Seattle Sounders academy darling Jordan Morris can earn a call-up to the senior national team, and if a promising prospect from the second division like Ibarra can, too, then it almost becomes easier to name who isn't on Klinsmann's radar than who is.
“Jurgen, in his first three years, showed that he was going to look in all places for players, whether it was MLS, Mexico-, European-based players ... and you can expect that he'll continue to do that,” a source with knowledge of the situation told MLSsoccer.com.
“He has been watching NASL games this season. He's aware of the level there. He's watched these players.”
On one hand, that's deeply inspiring to US-eligible players around the world. Those who nurture USMNT dreams but play in less prominent settings can take heart from the idea that Klinsmann really IS watching, or at least has commissioned his global – and growing – network of scouts to dig deep for talent in the hopes that this regime can dig deeper for talent than anyone ever has before, both home and abroad.
Miguel Ibarra (above, right) was drafted by the Portland Timbers in the 2012 Supplemental Draft, but the club never offered him a contract. He joined the NASL's Minnesota United the same year. (Getty Images)
“It’s fun to see that,” Klinsmann told the media during the USMNT's visit to Prague for their friendly with the Czech Republic earlier this month, sounding positively gleeful at the surprise caused by his Morris call-up. “It shows there are different ways to get to the next level. Everybody has his own way, if it’s through Europe, if it’s through college, if it’s through MLS.
“I’ve watched a couple of players in the NASL. They were very talented, but I thought for these kids, it comes a bit too early. This is our job in the national team environment: Our job is to look out there, no matter how we find them – dual citizenship or not – evaluate them and see when is the right time. Or maybe we build that right time personally.”
In other words: If you're good enough, we'll find you. And maybe even cap you.
For two decades, U.S. Soccer has taken a fine-toothed comb to the search for dual-eligible talents across Europe and South America, unearthing prospects who've gone on to make crucial contributions to the program. While the idea of applying that same concept on these shores may seem obvious, his calls to Morris and Ibarra suggest that Klinsmann isn't quite certain that the current model of talent development is working as well as it could be.
And that's a warning.
It's hard not to wonder what former Portland Timbers head coach John Spencer and his now-disbanded technical staff are thinking today, given that PTFC selected Ibarra in the 2012 Supplemental Draft, but later elected not to sign him to a contract. The UC Irvine product soon found a home in Minnesota, and this season led the Loons to the top spot in the first half of the NASL season, booking a place in the league playoffs this fall.
Did the Timbers whiff on Ibarra, or was he just not quite ready for the big time yet? There are plenty of cases of talented players blooming later in their careers - think Kansas City thought Herculez Gomez would play in the 2010 World Cup, or the Houston Dynamo expected Chris Wondolowski to be there in 2014? - but let's give Minnesota United some credit for helping the player develop.
And how many other diamonds in the rough like Ibarra are sprinkled across all levels of the pyramid, just waiting for a club to invest that extra bit of time and tutelage needed to make them shine?
In theory that's the thinking behind Major League Soccer's affiliate initiative with USL PRO, which seeks to bridge the tricky developmental gap between MLS youth academies and senior squads. More development, more minutes, a better US national team.
But Monday's news should put every player, coach and scout in the US on notice to look a little harder at what they've got. If the college game, NASL or perhaps even USL PRO can cultivate talent that Klinsmann believes could be worthy of the international stage, they'll get the call.
