One of the greatest soccer players ever played her final minutes in New Orleans Wednesday night. Abby Wambach of the USWNT is the world's leading goal scorer with 184 goals and has found success at every level of the ladder, from club to country. Her long tenure has given her perspective on her career and the national team program for the men and women's sides. On the eve of her retirement, she spoke out, as she is wont to do, about Jurgen Klinsmann's management of the men's national team on Bill Simmons' podcast.

"I would definitely fire Jurgen [Klinsmann]. Sorry Sunil [Gulati], sorry, U.S. soccer, but I don't think Jurgen and this litmus test on him has worked."

It hasn't been a good year for Klinsmann and the national team at almost all levels. The senior team crashed out of the 2015 Gold Cup in spectacular fashion with a semifinal round loss to Jamaica followed by a loss in the 3rd place game against Panama. A few months later, the U.S. looked down right dreadful in the CONCACAF Cup against Mexico, losing out on a chance to go to the 2017 Confederations Cup. Friendly results weren't much better and the beginning of World Cup Qualifying was mixed at best with 4 points from the first pair of games. Meanwhile the U-23 team failed to qualify for the Olympics and must defeat Columbia in a home-away series down in Brazil before the Rio Games next summer. The U-17 side crashed out of the World Cup impressively. The one saving grace was the U-20 side falling to the eventual champions (Serbia) in the quarterfinals.

Like many pundits and fans, Abby is criticizing Jurgen for his lack of results though she takes it a bit farther by specifically calling out his recruitment and continued use of foreign trained and sometimes foreign born, players. "And I love Jermaine Jones, I love watching him play, and I love Fabian Johnson, and he plays in Germany and is actually killing it right now after being sent home for 'faking an injury.' But I just think that this experiment that U.S. Soccer has given Jurgen isn't one that personally I'm into."

While every U.S. coach has recruited dual nationals to supplement the team, Klinsmann is particularly noted for being able to bring high-end talent to the program such as Gedion Zelalem, Julian Green and Johnson, amongst others. Of particular interest is that Jurgen is also the U.S. first Technical Director and specifically tasked with improving the youth system. Recruiting players trained abroad can be interpreted as his lack of faith in the domestic academy system, doubly so considering the youth teams haven't had any success under his tutelage.

FIFA rules allow for any player to represent a country they have citizenship for, per the laws of that particular country. For many of the new recruits, they were born in the US and left at an early age or have citizenship via other mechanisms such as being the sons of foreign based soldiers. Whatever the case, they're as American as apple pie, as the saying goes. They're willing to represent the U.S. at the international level which is enough for most fans. Some have felt that players based overseas are getting minutes over domestic based, and trained, players despite repeated poor showings. A popular example of this is Ventura Alvarado, a Liga MX based defender who was a starter throughout the Gold Cup despite his poor performances while MLS' Omar Gonzalez rarely saw the field.

Wambach isn't alone in taking Klinsmann to task over this. U.S. coaching great Bruce Arena expressed similar thoughts back in 2013: "Players on the national team should be American. If they're born in other countries, we aren't making progress."

While trophies at the youth level don't mean anything at the senior level, just look at all the success Nigeria and Mexico has at the youth level compared to the senior, it is an indicator that the program is headed in the right direction. Ultimately what will spell success at the youth level for Jurgen is how many players from the youth ranks become regulars at the senior level. So far during his 4 years in charge, that number is perilously small. If he wants to silence his critics, he'll need to improve the youth teams and integrate the top talent from those squads into his senior side.

He'll have plenty of minutes to hand out in 2016 from Camp Strudel in January, friendlies in the winter before the Copa America in June and World Cup Qualifying throughout the year.

Meanwhile the world bids farewell to one of the all-time greats. A two time Olympic Gold Medalist, World Cup Champions, FIFA Player of the Year, youth champion and the international goal scoring leader. Her comments are likely to keep on coming though.