U.S. ties Serbia in Arena’s return to team
Coach encouraged by performances
SAN DIEGO — Bruce Arena’s second stint as U.S. coach began with the same result as his first, a 0-0 exhibition draw.
The United States had just one shot on target against a young Serbia team on Sunday, the first game for the Americans since Jurgen Klinsmann was fired after a pair of losses in World Cup qualifiers in November and replaced by Arena.
“Clearly we would have liked to win the game today,” Arena said. “But for this time of the year I was encouraged by a number of performances by our team.”
Arena led the U.S. to a 71-30-29 record in his first stint, becoming the winningest coach in American national team history and earning election to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He opened with a tie against Australia in 1998 and was fired following the team’s first-round elimination in a loss to Ghana at the 2006 World Cup, then returned to Major League Soccer and led the LA Galaxy to three league titles.
He used mostly U.S.-based players following a three-week training camp.
“It’s another step along the way,” American captain Michael Bradley said. “We feel good about the work that has gone in the last few weeks in terms of reestablishing what we need to be about and making sure when the big moments of the real games come around this year, that we have a real clear idea of who we are and the ways we can be successful. Across the board, it has been a really good few weeks. Regardless of the results today it wasn’t going to change our feeling on that.”
The U.S. plays Jamaica on Friday in an exhibition at Chattanooga, Tenn., then resumes qualifying.
After losing its first two games in the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, the U.S. hosts Honduras on March 24 at San Jose, Calif., and plays four days later at Panama. The top three nations in the hexagonal qualify for the 2018 tournament in Russia and the No. 4 finisher goes to a playoff, so there is time to recover.
“To be honest with you, if we won 5-0 today or lost 5-0, I’m not sure it would change our world for March,” Arena said. “These games are important, especially for our domestic players. But the games that are going to count are the ones in March. That’s where you can look at me and can get really critical.”
Jozy Altidore became the 17th American men’s player to make 100 international appearances, at 27 years, 84 days the secondyoungest behind Landon Donovan (26 years, 96 days).
Sebastian Lletget, a 24-yearold midfielder, entered at the start of the second half in his national team debut. Chris Pontius, a 29-year-old midfielder, made his debut in the 65th and Jorge Villafana, a 27-year-old defender, in the 69th.
Benny Feilhaber, now 31, entered in the 77th in his first appearance since January 2014. A member of the 2010 U.S. World Cup roster under Bob Bradley, he played in just three games under Klinsmann.
“At the end of the day we could be better with our chances,” Arena said. “We could have been cleaner in the final third of the field, whether that was getting our shot or being cleaner with our passes.”