Houston Chronicle columnist Glenn Davis weighs in on U.S. soccer’s coaching vacancy, starting with a list of names he wouldn’t like to see replace Bruce Arena. Sven Goran Eriksson tops that list, after overseeing a series of dour performances for England at the World Cup. Davis points out how Eriksson was vilified in the English press over player selection, tactics and a lack of control over his star players. “England underachieved and Eriksson’s leadership had a lot to do with it,” he writes, so why would U.S. Soccer want to hire him? Davis thinks they’re using Eriksson as a negotiating tool to reel in bigger names like Juergen Klinsmann and Jose Pekerman, who were both mentioned in a New York Times report a few weeks ago. Klinsmann is the top choice, of course, as a fluent English speaker and resident of Southern California, near the national team’s training center. The German led his home nation to a very respectable third-place finish after his team displayed “fresh ideas [that] have changed German soccer and some might say culture.” Allegedly, Klinsmann has already asked for $2 million, which means the two sides are negotiating. According to Davis, other good candidates for the top spot include D.C. United’s tough disciplinarian Peter Nowak, and Frank Yallop, who’s currently embroiled in a battle for the last playoff spot in the West with the defending champion L.A. Galaxy. Chivas USA’s Bob Bradley is the last name on his list. Bradley is a former Arena assistant who deploys similar tactics.