In an interview with Reuters, the former Germany coach and striker said it could still be a long journey before Americans saw the desired results.
"We'd like to take the team from a reactive style to playing with a more proactive style. It's a huge change because in the past they were always used to reacting to whatever the big teams played against them.
"This transition will take time," he said near his home town in California before a three-week training camp with players who not involved in European club play.
"To tell the general American public that this is a long-time process is very difficult because Americans, like Germans, are impatient at times and they want to see results," said Klinsmann, whose team have won two matches, lost four and drawn one.
"So while always working with the players in changing their mindset, you've got to provide some results. It's a tricky one. You want to have the results while going through changes."
"Americans are not reactive types of people - it's not in their DNA. So why do you play a style that is not your culture?"
"We may never be able to play a truly controlling type of soccer against countries like Spain or Germany or Brazil. But we want to get closer to playing with them instead of just defending and hoping for a counter - that's not my philosophy and that's not the American philosophy."
"It's still a bit of the 'Wild West' here because U.S. soccer is disconnected from college soccer and college soccer is disconnected from pro soccer," he said.
"Maybe we'll never be able to connect it all perfectly. But a lot is happening. Our goal is to connect the dots everywhere we can."
"It's difficult because there isn't the same mindset here the way European nations or big football nations have in terms of the social pressure they get wherever they go," he said.
Klinsmann, who won the 1990 World Cup as a player and is fourth on Germany's scoring list with 47 goals, said it was also a challenge for Americans to think more globally about soccer.
"We have t
