November 28, 2018
The Big Pond #07: Klinsmann in California

Jürgen Klinsmann talking to Kerstin Zilm
© SilverLakes

He is a soccer legend in Germany as player and as coach: Jürgen Klinsmann. After leading the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup, he also coached the U.S. men’s soccer team from 2011 to 2016. But now, Klinsmann is anything but retired: In the summer of 2018, he created the SilverLakes Cup, an international youth soccer tournament in Southern California. 

Youth teams from Mexico, the United States and Germany competed at the first SilverLakes Cup in Norco, one hour east of downtown Los Angeles: Two teams from Mexico’s Liga MX, the Guadalajara Club Atlas and the Club Tijuana, participated; the American Major League was represented by Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and Real So Cal; and for the German Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, the VfB Stuttgart and current German U-19 champion Hertha BSC Berlin were playing. 

For The Big Pond, Kerstin Zilm talks to initiator Jürgen Klinsmann, players and coaches of the teams and to some spectators – who are all happy about this international tournament. Or as Dortmund coach Benjamin Hoffmann describes the German perspective on this event: “It’s not only the tournament, it’s also to get in touch with American people, how they live, get to know the people better – so maybe the boys learn something out of that to make them better men.”
 

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