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U.S. Men's National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann tweets 'Go Germany Go!!'

(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

With his team out of the World Cup, Jurgen Klinsmann is apparently not too shy about rooting for his old team.

Throughout the tournament, Klinsmann faced questions about his relationship with the German team and its coaches which he predictably downplayed. But with the United States home, he let it all go when the Germans jumped out to an incredible 5-0 halftime lead.

On Twitter, American fans were quick to shake their heads at him — after all as a coach isn’t your only loyalty supposed to be towards your own team?

Perhaps. But pretending Klinsmann never rooted for, cared about, played for or coached the German national team is ridiculous. And he’s not the first coach to remember his old loyalties for a game.

Years after North Carolina coach Roy Williams left Kansas for Chapel Hill, he was criticized for cheering on the Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament among other times, something he argued wasn’t the wrong thing to do.

“It’s not immoral to love two institutions,” Williams said in 2013. “When I was a coach at Kansas, it was my favorite school. North Carolina was my second-favorite school. I happen to be coaching at North Carolina now, and it’s my favorite school, and Kansas is my second-favorite school.”

Whether Klinsmann roots for Germany or Brazil, it doesn’t change that the United States is out of the tournament. And while there might be a lot of questions about his coaching after the loss to Belgium, it shouldn’t be questioned that he also wants to win games.

So maybe the tweet wasn’t the smartest thing for him to do, politically at least. But knowing that one day Klinsmann will leave the USMNT, it should be more comforting for fans to have a coach who is passionate about his team enough to love it when he’s gone rather than one who can pretend he never really cared at all.

[sigallery id=”d747df5121a97375e19194846941ea51″ title=”Germany vs. Brazil” type=’sigallery’]

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