Arena takes on the challenge of a soccer salvage operation
Who has the hardest coaching job in sports?
That’s easy. Bruce Arena, the once and current coach of the U.S. men’s soccer team.
Hey, Bruce: Come fix a team you thought was headed in the right direction when you left it a decade ago, get immediate results and qualify for the most important sporting event in the world. No problem, right? “It’s different,” Arena said in a recent interview at a Bay Area hotel. “Typically, you have plenty of time to experiment a little bit and get to know the players, they get to know you and you see how they play in international matches.”
But there’s no time. Arena will lead his team into a crucial World Cup qualifying match against Honduras at Avaya Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and the Americans play in Panama four days later. Though he had a January training camp with U.S.-based players, the first time he sees his full squad together will be Monday at its
first training session in San Jose.
“It’s gone as well as it can go,” Arena said. “It’s a lot of legwork. It’s a really interesting exercise to go through, trying to piece together a team in a short period of time.”
Arena was hired Nov. 22, after Jurgen Klinsmann was fired, two unsuccessful years into his second World Cup cycle. Arena took over with the United States sitting dead last in qualifying in the “Hex” — the final six teams remaining in the CONCACAF region.
In November, the U.S. team lost to Mexico at home, 2-1, and in Costa Rica, 4-0, the defeat that sealed Klinsmann’s fate. The minus-five goal differential puts the U.S. in sixth place, behind Trinidad & Tobago. It’s the first time the United States has lost the first two games of pool play.
There are eight more games remaining, split between home and away. The U.S. can still make it: The top three teams qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and the fourth-place team will face an international playoff game against a team from Asia. So the Americans still have plenty of chances to find their way to Russia in 2018.
“I don’t know if we’re hanging on by a fingernail, but we’re getting close,” Arena said. “If there were two games left, I’d be really concerned. I think we can close the gap.”
It’s not the situation anyone would have projected for the U.S. team a decade ago when Arena’s contract was not renewed and he was replaced by Bob Bradley. At the time, Sunil Gulati, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, said he was seeking a “fresh approach,” after the U.S. team had a disappointing finish at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, not making it out of group play.
Despite the finish, the American team made its greatest strides under Arena, who took over after a disastrous 1998 World Cup. In his eight years, Arena won 71 games and got the U.S. team to its best-ever finish, making it to the World Cup quarterfinals in South Korea in 2002. Under his guidance, the Americans rose from 23rd in the world rankings to fourth.
Under Arena, the Americans developed a trademark style: aggressive and physical. Under Arena, promising young talent like Landon Donovan blossomed. Under Arena, it looked like the team was establishing a winning tradition and was headed in the right direction.
But, in truth, the United States was treading water. It lost in the round of 16 in both 2010 and 2014. Player development is still a question mark, with Klinsmann relying heavily on foreign-born players who have dual citizenship.
So when a desperate Gulati looked for someone to fix the team and get it on track for Russia, there was no searching for a “fresh approach.” Instead, he reached into the past.
“Bruce was at the top of the list,” Gulati said last year.
Arena, 65, has never lacked for confidence. He knows what he’s doing. He has coached in MLS since he left the national team and is familiar with the players. For the past three months he has visited England, Germany and Mexico and crisscrossed the United States, meeting with players.
He will lean on an experienced roster, with forward Clint Dempsey and goalkeeper Tim Howard in camp. Arguably the two most important American players, both have been struggling with health issues. Dempsey hasn’t played for the U.S. team in nine months, due to an irregular heartbeat. Arena is even bringing in ageless DaMarcus Beasley, one of the “kids” who helped him win in 2002, who understands what Arena is all about.
Arena had speculated about using Fabian Johnson in midfield rather than at left back, but he won’t get the chance to do either. Johnson — in terrible timing for the national team cause — was injured last week playing for his German club team, and Graham Zusi was called in to replace him.
“We have a Plan A and B and C, and in a lot of cases we’re going to have to go with Plan C,” Arena said.
The whole setup is Plan C. This is not how the Americans — who thought they would have made it further than one quarterfinal appearance by this point — expected to be trying to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
It’s the hardest job in sports. But Arena is up to the challenge.