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You don't change just to change, Alexi Lalas said. But sometimes, you must for the potential impact and the effect that a change can have on a team and its players. And the question swirling around the slumping state of American soccer is this: Does the U.S. men's national team need that change?

This nightmare 0-2 start in the Hexagonal round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying has the turned up the heat significantly on head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who opted to utilize the opening match against bitter rival Mexico to tinker with a lineup formation that hadn't been deployed by the U.S. in a competitive match in several years. The result? A 2-1 loss at home in a stadium that became synonymous with dominant wins over Mexico in Columbus, Ohio.

Four days later, the U.S. were pummeled on the road at Costa Rica, 4-0. The worst shutout loss in World Cup qualifying since 1957. For the first time ever, the U.S. has lost its first two matches of the Hexagonal. Never has the U.S. started with fewer than three points in the first two outings of this qualifying round.

And it's been 15 years since the U.S. lost consecutive World Cup qualifiers.

"I just think that this team right now looks stale, this team as I said looks uninspired and this team looks confused," said Lalas, a FOX Sports analyst and former national-team regular. "I like to think of it in terms of the World Cup. Is this staleness, is this lack of inspiration and is this confusion something that is momentary, or is something that is going to continue and ultimately manifest itself at the worst possible time? And that's where I have real trepidation and concern."

Two of the most taxing qualifiers are indeed out of the way. Eight remain. It's not just that the U.S. started 0-2, it's the manner in which the Americans looked against the top competition in the region. Against Mexico, Klinsmann's 3-5-2 formation was disjointed and allowed Mexico to take an early 1-0 lead. Sure, the U.S. equalized early in the second half and were on the front foot, but that was after a shift to a familiar 4-4-2 look.

Assessing the face-plant of the last week cannot be viewed through the lens of a single game, Lalas preached. That first match led to the trouncing in San Jose.

"Jurgen talks about the value of putting players and seeing players out of their comfort zone," Lalas said. "And I can respect that, because maybe you discovered things you didn't know or maybe you force a player to improve by putting him in situations where he has to adjust and react and he becomes better in that. But on Friday night, against your biggest rival, in Columbus, in the first game of the Hex, that is neither the time nor the place to be experimenting or to have players or a team out of its comfort zone."

So is it time to make a move? Should U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati cut bait with the coach he so desperately wanted to take over and change the landscape of American soccer five years ago? Lalas said prior to the Mexico loss, he was asked to weigh in on the hypothetical nature of a possible 0-2 start. He didn't think Klinsmann would be in trouble.

Ditto for Brian Dunseth. In those final 25 minutes at Costa Rica, Dunseth said, he saw a team quit on one another.

"I haven't seen a team that disconnected in a national-team jersey in a very, very long time," said Dunseth, a regular analyst on Real Salt Lake broadcasts as well as SiriusXM radio. "I can't even remember the last time I saw a team that disconnected."

After that four-day span, the U.S. sit at the bottom of the qualifying table. A massive goose egg to show for it, including a minus-five goal differential. And now the wait. The U.S. has four months between qualifiers — the next coming at home against Honduras in March. If there ever were a time to move on from Klinsmann, conventional wisdom would state it's now. The appropriate time would be allotted to a potential replacement coach to become acquainted — or reacquainted — with the player pool ahead of the annual January national-team camp.

"Yeah, I'd put money down that change is going to be made," Lalas said. "And I didn't expect that on Thursday night. I didn't anticipate the way in which the U.S. went out and lose these two games."

Klinsmann has been under fire for a while — this is just the latest mystifying decision to backfire. Despite advancing out of a difficult group stage at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the results for many were overshadowed by the manner in which the U.S. seemed to have been outplayed. Pressure mounted after the fourth-place finish at the 2015 Gold Cup. It continued after the loss to Mexico in the Confederations Cup at the Rose Bowl last October, not to mention the U.S. has failed to qualify for back-to-back Olympic tournaments.

After five years, the revolution Klinsmann promised has yet to come to fruition. The style of play isn't a step above what the U.S. was under Bruce Arena or Bob Bradley.

"I think there's still massive strides to be made, but maybe it's just me growing up in the system and playing under both and Bruce and Bob, there's no discernible growth that I've seen under Jurgen," Dunseth said. "I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. I actually mean that as a tip of the hat to both Bruce and Bob. I think both of them had way more success than we are willing to give them credit for."

Arena happens to be out-of-contract at the L.A. Galaxy. So with the U.S. stumbling and Klinsmann under the microscope, the most logical candidate to take over for the next two years — if the decision is made to let Klinsmann and his salary of a reported $3 million a year go — it seems is Arena.

"I think he is a natural type of choice in that you're going to have someone come in that understands the process, understands the players, doesn't suffer fools, is very pragmatic and doesn't worry about aesthetics," Lalas said. "From a practical standpoint, he will qualify the team and I think he has something to prove even if he is given a second shot at this."

If Klinsmann is indeed out, and U.S. Soccer is thrown into further flux, what would his legacy be? His accompanying job as technical director has been admirable, implementing several dual-national players to come in and make a name for themselves with the program. The jump hasn't arrived, and he said under his watch, it would. Lalas said if Klinsmann is given the boot, he believes U.S. Soccer would be left in better condition than when he took over in 2011.

"And that's important," he added. "But when it's Jurgen, because of what was promised, because of the price-tag, because of the massive amount of resource and energy and because he was given a second [World Cup] cycle, you have to go deeper in that and say, 'Has the progress been because of Jurgen Klinsmann or was it just a natural type of evolution that was going to happen regardless?' That's where I think you get into some interesting conversations. I don't think he's fulfilled the promises he made coming in."

ckamrani@sltrib.com

Twitter: @chriskamrani