Former U.S. team manager Jurgen Klinsmann said he was not surprised that he was fired from his job this past November and added that he preferred to take the high road of moving on rather than ponder whether the decision was fair, according to a report.
The U.S. began the most recent round of World Cup qualifying with back-to-back losses to Mexico and Costa Rica. Those defeats proved to be more significant than the successes in his win column. Former LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena was hired as his replacement.
He replaced Bob Bradley in the summer of 2011 and won 44 matches over the next four years, including a Gold Cup. Under Klinsmann, the team advanced to the knockout stage at the 2014 World Cup and reached Copa America Centenario semifinals last summer.
"No, I was not surprised. I can read people. I can read statements. I can read between the lines," Klinsmann told the LA Times of the decision from U.S. Soccer. "The fact will remain we were let go because we lost two games."
The results left the U.S. at the bottom of the six-team regional CONCACAF group with eight games to play. The top three teams qualify for the World Cup, while the fourth will enter a two-legged intercontinental playoff against a team from the Asian confederation for one of the final spots in Russia.
Klinsmann said he did not stop to consider whether U.S. Soccer was right or wrong.
"In the professional world, you don't have the right to put it that way," he said. "If the people that pay you, at the end of the day, think you lost two games and [they] decided to go in a new direction, you've got to give them the OK to do so. That's part of your job. It's not about if you think it's right or wrong."
He said he was keeping an optimistic attitude.
"When a moment comes like that you obviously will reflect and summarize what you did, and then you look forward," he said. "Soccer is like any other environment. When one door closes, the other ones open up. So I will be starting to look out there and see how other opportunities come up.
"It was, in a way, an incomplete picture that was given," he said. "And you will never see if anything will be complete because it's just kind of cut off.
"It just shows you how abrupt the business is. Incomplete may be the best word."
Klinsmann took charge of the U.S. men's squad in 2011 and led it into the knockout stage at the 2014 World Cup.