This post could have been titled; "2012. Second Most Successful Year in US Men's National Team History" because by a Points Earned Per Game measure, it was. Jürgen Klinsmann has righted the ship after Bob Bradley coached team that was sinking.*
Some notes and interesting facts.
I started in 1988 because that's when this current era of United States Soccer started (not calling it 'modern'). It also marks the start of the US team playing at least 10 matches a year. Only earlier year would be 1973 when the team played 12 games.
Between the years of 1981 and 1983 the team only played two games.
In 2012 the USMNT only played on home turf six times. You have to go all the way back to 1987 to see less than that (when the team only played a total of three games all year). The average is around 11 games at home a year.
Since 1988 the US have averaged around 70% of games at home. 2012 was 43% (6 of 14).
I like what Herr Klinsmann is doing. While he hasn't faced the toughest competition (I rate 2010, 09, 02, 99, 95 as more difficult since 1988) has he achieved historically significant results away from home.
Had this team won in Russia it would hold the title of most points earned per game in US Soccer history. Instead, it's 2nd behind 2005's team (2.25 PPG, 14 W, 3 D, 3 L).
There are lots of different ways to measure success on the National Team level. When you step back and spend some time with the actual results you might find that Klinsmann is doing something impressive.
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I'm no USMNT expert but do find myself digging around her history from time to time. The more I do so the more I realize the US has a very rich footballing history that I hope gets explored more. My data is primarily from the FIFA.com website (and I do realize some early results can be disputed).
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*Three data points in any direction is a trend.
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