Steve Davis: Klinsmann pushes his players to break free of comfort zones abroad

Ox, Shea, Henry, Pong

As word first emerged of Jurgen Klinsmann's desire to direct young MLS talent into training spells abroad, we all assumed this was about players maintaining fitness and gaining a little more technical expertise. Klinsmann directed everyone toward that sentiment through laments of the MLS season's relative brevity, about two months too short in his opinion. But that's a vastly incomplete explanation of what Klinsmann, now in his fifth month at U.S. soccer's highest coaching post, hopes players such as Brek Shea, Tim Ream, Juan Agudelo and others can accomplish through a few weeks abroad.