After Euro 2000, Germany was in a pretty poor state, having finished bottom of their group. In a joint effort between the DFB (Germany's national team organization), the Bundesliga I & II (Germany's top two pro soccer leagues), and the club teams, Germany overhauled their youth development system. This involved investigating other nations and how they developed players, creating new training regimens, and enhancing their scouting to ensure the best young players got into the best systems. This has helped them develop players like Thomas Muller, Andre Schurrle, Mats Hummels, Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler, Toni Kroos, and Mario Gotze, all emerging stars that are 25 years old or younger.

If you're interested in more, this article from the Guardian does a good job of looking at how Germany now approaches their youth system. Rather than focusing on only recruiting the biggest and strongest at all positions, they now are putting more emphasis on speed and technical savvy in attack (seen with players like Kroos, Schurrle, and Ozil). They still favor big players in the defense, but are spending more time on making sure their defenders are also good technically rather than just physical bruisers.

The real beauty of watching Germany now is you can see the transition as it is happening. A player like Per Mertesacker is the epitome of the "old" Germany. Big, strong, but slow and not very good technically. Physically dominating, but not nearly as skilled as the new guard defenders like Benedikt Howedes or Mats Hummels, who are big (but not as big) but far more quick, agile, and capable on the ball. Miroslav Klose played more of a role than Mertesacker, but epitomizes old school Germany. Still fairly big and strong, he picks his spots well and is brilliant in front of the goal, but unlike Thomas Muller, isn't nearly as capable in distributing the ball or helping the play develop to others. Both have their uses, but whereas Klose is a butcher knife in front of goal, Muller is a Swiss Army Knife.

The first time USA tried to hire Klinsmann was in 2006 after Arena's disastrous World Cup. Klinsmann stepped down after his semifinal run with Germany, seen as a huge success, and was immediately the favorite for the USA job because he lived in California and had ties to USA soccer. However he wanted control over our youth system, which Sunil Gulati, head of the USSF (United States Soccer Federation) was unwilling to give. We went with Bob Bradley instead, and while he had a successful run, nothing really changed or improved. Bradley did a decent job, but Gulati always wanted Klinsmann, so when USA lost a 2-0 lead over Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup Final to fall to a 4-2 defeat, Bradley was fired and Klinsmann was given the reins.

Enough history lesson, back to your question. In 2013, Klinsmann re-upped his contract through 2018 and gained the title of Technical Director. This is what he coveted in 2006 and I'm pretty sure was something that he knew was coming when he agreed to take the USA job in 2011. It will allow him to start overhauling our youth system, and is a big part of why he's been tied so closely to MLS. Klinsmann knows that the strength of the national team will be tied to the strength of our domestic league. To build that strength, it has to come from homegrown players. Over the past 10-15 years MLS has sent the occasional player on to greatness overseas. Dempsey, Bradley, Howard, and others have had varying levels of success. But it wasn't a mistake that Klinsmann's roster focus had so many German-Americans. Fabian Johnson came up in the youth system that has helped make Germany so successful -- he played on Germany's Under-21 team that won the Euro Championship in 2009 with Ozil, Neuer, Howedes, Hummels, and Boateng. Julian Green, Timmy Chandler, and John Brooks all also spent some time in that system and learned the game in the new German style.

MLS is starting to improve their academies and I am confident Klinsmann is going to try to continue that. DeAndre Yedlin has been one of the most successful homegrown players -- a player that came up in a team's youth system and made it all the way to the national team, but there are many others. Guys like Wil Trapp, Kellyn Acosta, Erik Palmer-Brown, Jose Villarreal, and Harry Shipp among others are fruits of our slowly improving youth system that look like potential stars of the future. Look for even more overhaul and Klinsmann gets more comfortable with his technical director role.

Okay...on to the attacker question. The simple answer is that there aren't many of them in the world. But I think for us specifically, it's because of the focus of our team. When you don't have a great team, you always tend to build through the defense. That's why over the past 25 years, the USA has been regarded as having a stout defense and solid goalkeepers. Because if you are strong there, you can usually at least hold out for a chance to steal a game or at worst get a draw. It isn't sexy, but it does the job. Further, the most gifted natural athletes in our country are more likely to play football or basketball. The sports are simply more popular, and kids see a more clear path to wealth through those sports. All the more reason the youth system is important. I especially look at basketball. Those players that are too small for the NBA? The 5'8" point guards, the 6'4" power forward with a rock solid frame, those guys are suited perfectly for the game of soccer. If the improved youth focus can get those kids to play the beautiful game from the youth level, you'll see that player develop.

That's why Klinsmann has started trying to find dual-nationals. Players like Julian Green, Aron Johansson, Mix Diskerud, and Gedion Zelalem (more on him shortly). They grew up as top-level athletes in their country as offensive players. As great as guys like Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey may be, neither of them are guys that will ever be the best player on a Premier League team, or good enough to play for Madrid or Barcelona. If we can start developing youth players, maybe one can become that guy. Or if we can get players into those academies overseas at a young age -- we have a good start as American youths Josh Pynadath (11 years old) and Ben Lederman (13 years old) are currently playing professionally in the Real Madrid and FC Barcelona academies, respectively.

But until those guys develop, our best hope is to pluck a dual-national. Which is where Gedion Zelalem comes in. He's a highly regarded 17-year-old that has already played first-team minutes for Arsenal, one of the top teams in England. He also has German heritage, but his father has lived here since 2006 and recently applied for citizenship. Under US law, Gedion would gain citizenship as soon as his father does. He could be that breakout player in 2018, and along with Julian Green and a few other overseas youngsters (Rubio Rubin in Holland, Sebastian Lletget in England, Paul Arriola in Mexico, and former Marquette commit Andrija Novakovich in England) gives us some hope that maybe one of these kids will develop into the player we all thought Freddy Adu might be but never was.