Watching the match, or hearing the score, is enough to make a U.S. soccer fan wince.

Jamaica 2, United States 1. In the semifinals of the Gold Cup. Played on American soil.

But consider it Step 1 of what cannot help but be an unpleasant stretch for the U.S. national team — if things are to improve later on.

The team has to fail, and more than once, for Sunil Gulati to summon the courage to get rid of coach Jurgen Klinsmann, the German who is so openly and destructively contemptuous of American players and the American game.

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, the leading man on the U.S. soccer beat at the moment, declared it the biggest upset defeat in the history of the U.S. national team.

It was the first time the U.S. had lost to a Caribbean team in the Gold Cup. It was the first time the U.S. had lost to any Caribbean team since losing to Haiti in 1968. The U.S. is ranked No. 34 in the word; Jamaica is ranked No. 74.

But just about no one was surprised, because Klinsmann’s team had struggled through most of this tournament. Despite having the “A” team and home advantage.

Several journalists pointed out that, back in 2011, coach Bob Bradley went to the Gold Cup in the year after leading the U.S. to the final 16 of the World Cup, then was fired when his team lost to Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup.

Klinsmann’s team got to the final 16 of the 2014 World Cup, but went out in the semis of the Gold Cup. To Jamaica.

He will not be fired.

Because Sunil Gulati, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, the man who renewed his coach’s contract through 2018, has so much invested in Klinsmann (both financially and professionally), that “Jamaica 2, U.S. 1” won’t be enough to get Klinsy fired.

Wahl reckons the U.S. must lose in the October “repechage” for a berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup, as well as fail to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, for Klinsmann to be in trouble.

Well, then so be it.

Serious U.S. soccer fans have to grit their teeth and hope the national team fails in the Confederations Cup test, and that Klinsmann’s sidekick, Andreas Herzog, fails to lead the Olympic team to Rio.

Why?

Because U.S. soccer is not going to move forward until it gets rid of Klinsmann, who has a spotty resume in the first place. At Bayern Munich, where Klinsmann was fired after less than one season in charge, Philipp Lahm said Klinsmann, in lieu of strategy, told his players to “express themselves”.

U.S. soccer then can hire someone who will take the American game back to being what it was from about 1994 through 2010 — cohesive, greater than the sum of its parts, and overwhelmingly played by athletes born in the U.S.  Probably an American coach, though it doesn’t have to be.

Klinsmann is particularly contemptuous of Major League Soccer, you may recall, and has criss-crossed Europe (well, Germany, mostly) looking for Europe-based guys he can reinvent as Americans.

(And doesn’t the current team have to have major factional problems? Between English-speaking old-guard Yanks like Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore … and insta-Americans like John Brooks, Timmy Chandler and Fabian Johnson, who speak German?)

Klinsmann has to go. It will happen only if the U.S. team loses more big games.

So, yes, pain before gain. It’s the only way.