Klinsmann takes heat for MLS comments

Major League Soccer President Don Garber lashed out at the United States men's national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann for saying that United States players returning from Europe to play in the American league could experience a drop in form.

"Jürgen's comments are very detrimental to the league. They are detrimental to the sport of soccer in America. Not only are they detrimental, they are wrong," Garber said.

Klinsmann ignited the controversy on Monday before an international friendly against Honduras when he said that the US national team suffered as a result of standouts Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley deciding to return from Europe to play for MLS clubs.

"Making that decision to go from Roma, a Champions League team, to now Toronto, a team that seems like they're not even qualifying for the playoffs, it's a huge disappointment," Klinsmann said of Bradley.

"I made it clear with Clint's move back and [Bradley's] move back that it's going to be very difficult for them to keep the same level that they experienced at the places where they were. It's just honest," Klinsmann said.

Klinsmann said however that he understood the considerations behind Dempsey and Bradley's move back to the US.

"Now making the step back, I totally get it. It's a huge financial offer, it is also connected to many other elements, and this league is getting better and stronger every year," he said.

Garber questioned whether Klinsmann could be an effective national team coach while at the same time being publicly critical of MLS.

"For him to publicly state issues that the has with Major League Soccer in my view is not something that is going to allow him to effectively serve the role as not just coach but as technical director," Garber said.

Garber also took Klinsmann to task for leaving all-time leading US national team goal-scorer Landon Donovan off the roster for the most recent World Cup.

"I believe that Landon should have been in Brazil, not because he earned it or deserved it, but because his performance dictated it," Garber said. "And if anybody disagrees with that, and some of you might - clearly Jürgen does - then I believe that his treatment was inexcusable."

Klinsmann, who won the World Cup with West Germany in 1990 and coached the German national team to a third place finish in the 2006 tournament, was hired by the US Soccer Federation in July, 2011. He signed a contract extension through the end of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He has not addressed Garber's comments.

bw/crh (AFP, AP, Reuters)