U.S. Soccer Fires Men's National Team Coach Jurgen Klinsmann

U.S. Soccer announced Monday that it has fired men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann following two straight losses to open the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Klinsmann took over as America's coach in 2011, following the World Cup in South Africa. During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the USA escaped the "group of death," which included traditional powers Germany and Portugal, before losing in the knockout round to Belgium.

But a rocky campaign since — including a 2-1 loss to Mexico and an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Costa Rica last week in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia — ultimately led to his demise.

"Today we made the difficult decision of parting ways with Jurgen Klinsmann, our head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team and Technical Director," U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said in a press release.

"We want to thank Jurgen for his hard work and commitment during these last five years. He took pride in having the responsibility of steering the program, and there were considerable achievements along the way."

Despite the two losses, though, the next U.S. Soccer coach will find him or herself in a comfortable position to qualify for the World Cup. Mexico and Costa Rica are considered two of the best teams in the group that also includes Panama, Honduras and Trinidad & Tobago. The top three teams after a round-robin group stage automatically earn a place in the quadrennial world soccer tournament.

The reported favorite to replace Klinsmann is Bruce Arena, who coached the national team from 1998 to 2006 and currently coaches the L.A. Galaxy.

Sports Illustrated reported that Arena could be announced as the new coach as early as Tuesday.

Image via Nathan Forget, Flickr, used under Creative Commons