So what is the Jurgen Klinsmann reign over the U.S. Men’s National Team program going to mean for soccer top to bottom in this country?

The answer as given by the man himself during an introductory press conference Monday: “Obviously I can’t give all the answers right now.”

That in itself probably means there will be some changes. Klinsmann expressed interest and praise for the USSF Development Academy Program. He mentioned wanting to work with and evaluate young professional players as young as 18. He credited USSF Technical Director Claudio Reyna’s work in building a new national coaching curriculum.

There were very few specifics mentioned, which is no surprise, but the fact that the new men’s national team head coach is talking a lot about these things indicates there might be some involvement from him, which would be a change. USSF President Sunil Gulati offered that he welcomes Klinsmann’s input in these matters.

All of this indicates probably something less than sea change in youth development programs here, but rather a continued emphasis on reform and perhaps some significant tweaks in what is being done at the moment. Predecessors Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena were not too involved with the player development setup, leaving development of the youth national teams and development academy to others.

“I will be discussing these things in a group with Sunil (Gulati), Dan (Flynn – U.S. Soccer Secretary-General) Claudio (Reyna) and others to see if we can make the right decisions to strengthen and improve at every age group,” was the most pointed comment Klinsmann made on the topic during the brief press conference.  He did add he would like to explore more diverse avenues of soccer talent in the U.S.

Earlier in the day, Klinsmann had talked about cultural differences for youth in soccer that has had a major role in holding back U.S. international fortunes.

“I think there are a lot of different challenges ahead of us, especially on the foundation level and the foundation is youth; how they should be trained, how often they should train, how much time they should spend with the ball, how they should develop their talent, and it all feeds into Claudio’s new role here," he said. "This is really important to be addressed from the beginning because I think this is what is really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the first 10-12 nations around the world, is the amount of time kids play the game. If you have a kid that plays in Mexico 20 hours a week, and maybe four hours of organized soccer but 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood, but if he gets up to 20 hours it doesn’t matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street., this will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things, and I think that’s certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us. If you look at MLS, they took major steps forward. It’s come a long way, but it’s still a hectic style from the college game, which slowly we have to get it more on a technical level, we have to get it on more comfortable level with the ball, and so there are developmental issues. I think there are pros and cons. It’s come a long way, but we have a ways to go still to break into those top 10 in the world. We need to be realistic that we are not belonging there right now, or not yet.”

Klinsmann brings an advanced pedigree to the job, having played in three World Cups for Germany during his standout professional playing career with a number of European clubs including Bayern Munich. He then coached the Germans into the semifinal at the 2006 event, before a less-inspiring sting with Bayern Munich that less than a season.

He has lived in Southern California with his wife and two children for some time, and was pursued as a candidate for the job on two other occasions before agreeing to replace outgoing coach Bob Bradley last month.

The German goal-scorer extraordinaire said he will build a staff over the next couple of months. He mentioned looking forward to working with USSF Technical Director Claudio Reyna and national staff coach Tab Ramos on things (USSF President said these two may be involved with coaching the U23 MNT in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament next year).

He expressed a personal philosophy of trying to learn something new every day, and hopes to build that interest in his players.

From an analytical standpoint, a national team coach will be looked at mostly for the results of the full team in major events, but this appointment’s greatest chance to make a lasting impact may come in the areas of structure and system. As he said himself, we don’t have the answers at the point on what will happen.