What I wrote then?

Jurgen Klinsmann needs to be fired as soon as possible if the U.S. national soccer team is going to make any real improvement ahead of the 2018 World Cup.

The latest?

A 3-2 shootout defeat to Panama in the third-place game at the Gold Cup. Yes, Panama. A team that had beaten the U.S. only once before.

(This, after the 2-1 loss to Jamaica, which had never won on American soil, in the semifinals.)

The U.S. team that played against Panama looked like a batch of guys who didn’t much care if they won or lost, and were outplayed by something very much like Panama’s second unit. It almost had the look of a team that had quit on its coach.

Consensus seems to be that Panama deserved to win, even though a Clint Dempsey goal halfway through the second period erased a 1-0 Panama lead.

As noted two days ago, Klinsmann needs to do more losing for Sunil Gulati, the U.S. Soccer Federation president, to even consider getting rid of “his” guy.

Gulati said after the match that Klinsmann is not in trouble, citing friendly victories over Germany and The Netherlands earlier this summer as evidence of Klinsmann’s success.

Gulati, then, was doing what second-tier soccer nations do — taking meaning out of friendlies. Rest assured, neither Germany nor The Netherlands made that mistake.

Klinsmann needs to go.

The sooner the better.