Sports

Eric Wynalda on World Cup final, criticism of Klinsmann

Eric WynaldaFox Sports

Fox Sports analyst and former U.S. national team star Eric Wynalda breaks down the Argentina-Germany World Cup final and explains his criticisms of Jurgen Klinsmann with The Post’s Justin Terranova.

Q: How did that Germany blowout of Brazil happen?

A: Every chance Germany got, they punished them. When you look at Brazil, the way they were playing, it was clear they were having huge defensive issues even before Thiago Silva got suspended. I think Brazil was just arrogant, and just made too many assumptions. You got to see the worst of Brazil, and people celebrated it because everyone was waiting for that moment they were going to be exposed. And once it started, it didn’t stop because the Germans are just too damn ruthless. Any other team would have scored two goals and backed off because they’re Brazil.

Q: Do you think Germany is a clear favorite over Argentina?

A: It would be easy to make that assumption, but tactically what we’ve seen from Argentina is they are really hard to score against. They’ve gone over 200 minutes without conceding a goal. It makes for an interesting final.

Q: What’s your prediction?

A: I am going to go with my heart here, and I want Lionel Messi to win. I want to see the best player in the world be the champion of the world for the sake of the game, even though I think Germany is the better team. As pedestrian as he was against the Dutch, he gets a second lease on life here.

Q: You’ve been one of Jurgen Klinsmann’s bigger critics.

A: My comment was the last line of our national anthem was “Home of the Brave” and our team was not reflective of that in the game against Belgium. We were almost scared. What we have to do is be American. Our team could’ve gone a little further in this competition if we would’ve been brave, had some belief in themselves a little bit more. The whole country singing the song, “I believe” and the only guy who didn’t believe was Klinsmann and that’s probably why we exited the competition the way we did.

Q: Do you think the team needs a new manager going forward?

A: I don’t want to discount all the good work Klinsmann and his staff did. I just think we failed in one game. Huge steps were taken in the right direction, but I wanted there to be more and in that last game against Belgium there should’ve been more of a willingness to play.