ARENA WRITES ABOUT STATE OF U.S. SOCCER
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. » When Bruce Arena was asked to rescue a struggling U. S. national team in the fall of 2016, he was also asked to write a book about how he did it.
He said yes to both requests. Neither one worked out quite the way he had hoped.
“The book,” Arena said, “was going to be that we qualified for the World Cup and getting ready for the World Cup.”
Spoiler alert: The U.S. didn’t make it that far, a stunning 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago in the final match of the 10-game qualifying tournament in October stopping it short of the tournament for the first time in 32 years. It also led to Arena’s resignation as coach three days later.
“There’s absolutely no excuses,” he said then and repeats now.
But on the bright side that failure produced a far more important book. Because rather than walking the triumphant path to Russia, Arena instead confronts many of the issues facing U.S. Soccer and warns that, without serious and substantial change, this may not be the last time the Americans miss a World Cup.
“They just don’t get it, the people that run the sport in our country. And U.S. Soccer has a major obligation to get it right,” Arena said in a phone interview. “There needs to be a change in leadership.”
The book, “What’s Wrong With Us: A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline,” written with journalist Steve Kettmann, is scheduled for release June 12, two days before the first U.S.-less World Cup opener since 1986.
The issues Arena identifies were present when qualifying started and likely would have been swept under the rug had the U.S. succeeded in making it to Russia. The fact it didn’t has led a lot of people to ask why.