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| Bruce Arena's in-tray: the key issues for USA's new coach to address Bruce Arena's in-tray: the key issues for USA's new coach to address | |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Bruce Arena returned for his second go-round with USA on Tuesday, taking the helm from Jürgen Klinsmann after the team’s disastrous start to the Hexagonal phase of World Cup qualifying. Few question Arena’s chops: he is the USA’s most successful coach, a member of the Hall of Fame and a five-time MLS Cup winner. | Bruce Arena returned for his second go-round with USA on Tuesday, taking the helm from Jürgen Klinsmann after the team’s disastrous start to the Hexagonal phase of World Cup qualifying. Few question Arena’s chops: he is the USA’s most successful coach, a member of the Hall of Fame and a five-time MLS Cup winner. |
| In hiring Arena, US Soccer has but one immediate goal in mind: qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. And that has many of the same fans who pushed for Klinsmann’s ouster fretting that, in reaching back to the USA’s past, the Americans may be missing a trick. Certainly, Arena has some work cut out for him. Here’s a quick look at the key issues facing the next manager of the United States. | In hiring Arena, US Soccer has but one immediate goal in mind: qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. And that has many of the same fans who pushed for Klinsmann’s ouster fretting that, in reaching back to the USA’s past, the Americans may be missing a trick. Certainly, Arena has some work cut out for him. Here’s a quick look at the key issues facing the next manager of the United States. |
| Repair relations with the players | Repair relations with the players |
| Things went south in a hurry for Klinsmann: when the Americans took the field in Costa Rica, they looked a haggard, uninterested bunch. Klinsmann had lost the locker room, and even from the outside it was easy to see why. The former manager had made bold moves to shake off the past – like leaving Landon Donovan off the roster for Brazil, but he also had a tendency to throw his guys under the bus. (Exhibit A: an infamous interview given to the Wall Street Journal prior to the Copa Centenario.) Arena is known for being caustic and sarcastic – but he is also known to be an excellent man-manager and a fierce shield for his players. Job #1 for him is to get the team to buy into his program, and then, get the team believing in themselves again. | Things went south in a hurry for Klinsmann: when the Americans took the field in Costa Rica, they looked a haggard, uninterested bunch. Klinsmann had lost the locker room, and even from the outside it was easy to see why. The former manager had made bold moves to shake off the past – like leaving Landon Donovan off the roster for Brazil, but he also had a tendency to throw his guys under the bus. (Exhibit A: an infamous interview given to the Wall Street Journal prior to the Copa Centenario.) Arena is known for being caustic and sarcastic – but he is also known to be an excellent man-manager and a fierce shield for his players. Job #1 for him is to get the team to buy into his program, and then, get the team believing in themselves again. |
| Answer the Donovan question | Answer the Donovan question |
| Speaking of Landon Donovan, the 34-year-old came out of retirement suddenly this fall, trying to get the LA Galaxy over the line in the MLS playoffs. Many wonder if that is but a prelude to a full-bore return to the spotlight. Arena and Donovan’s careers have long been linked: the breakout player at the 2002 World Cup, Donovan spent 10 years at the Galaxy, winning three titles under Arena as manager. Now, Donovan is not the dynamic force he was, but with the player pool looking very thin and the experienced Clint Dempsey sidelined with a heart ailment, it would not be a shock to see Donovan dragooned into an American midfield that needs all the help it can get. | Speaking of Landon Donovan, the 34-year-old came out of retirement suddenly this fall, trying to get the LA Galaxy over the line in the MLS playoffs. Many wonder if that is but a prelude to a full-bore return to the spotlight. Arena and Donovan’s careers have long been linked: the breakout player at the 2002 World Cup, Donovan spent 10 years at the Galaxy, winning three titles under Arena as manager. Now, Donovan is not the dynamic force he was, but with the player pool looking very thin and the experienced Clint Dempsey sidelined with a heart ailment, it would not be a shock to see Donovan dragooned into an American midfield that needs all the help it can get. |
| Find a goalkeeper | Find a goalkeeper |
| One of the biggest hurdles Arena will face is finding a quality keeper. The 37-year-old Tim Howard underwent season-ending surgery on Monday to repair an injured adductor, and while he should be fit by the time the next USA game rolls around, it is becoming clear that his time is ticking down. Brad Guzan – who can’t get games at Middlesbrough and was, last season, often the worst player on a dire Aston Villa side – cannot be relied upon. But the pipeline that produced Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, Tony Meola and Howard has run dry. One of the reasons the American defense looks so lousy is that the goalkeeping behind them has been uncertain. Arena needs to beat the reeds and get a quality No1 – or failing that, a solid No2. | One of the biggest hurdles Arena will face is finding a quality keeper. The 37-year-old Tim Howard underwent season-ending surgery on Monday to repair an injured adductor, and while he should be fit by the time the next USA game rolls around, it is becoming clear that his time is ticking down. Brad Guzan – who can’t get games at Middlesbrough and was, last season, often the worst player on a dire Aston Villa side – cannot be relied upon. But the pipeline that produced Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, Tony Meola and Howard has run dry. One of the reasons the American defense looks so lousy is that the goalkeeping behind them has been uncertain. Arena needs to beat the reeds and get a quality No1 – or failing that, a solid No2. |
| Address the thin player pool | Address the thin player pool |
| One of the things Klinsmann did right was scour the planet for players. The fact that he came up empty-handed more than not is an indictment of where American soccer is right now. Arena, who has made no secret of his preference for MLS-based talent, doesn’t have a lot of time to make major changes, but assuming the Americans qualify for Russia – and they will – he better start reforming a system that squanders a great deal of talent before it even reaches the pros. The need is real: the American midfield is aging out, the forwards are hardly world-class and that defense needs all the help it can get. Arena’s heavy lifting ahead will be in getting the age-eligible teams up to snuff; if he can get the colleges to actually play the world game to boot, he’d be treated as a national hero. | One of the things Klinsmann did right was scour the planet for players. The fact that he came up empty-handed more than not is an indictment of where American soccer is right now. Arena, who has made no secret of his preference for MLS-based talent, doesn’t have a lot of time to make major changes, but assuming the Americans qualify for Russia – and they will – he better start reforming a system that squanders a great deal of talent before it even reaches the pros. The need is real: the American midfield is aging out, the forwards are hardly world-class and that defense needs all the help it can get. Arena’s heavy lifting ahead will be in getting the age-eligible teams up to snuff; if he can get the colleges to actually play the world game to boot, he’d be treated as a national hero. |
| What about the German players? | What about the German players? |
| Fabian Johnson, John Brooks, Bobby Wood or Julian Green might not be sleeping real well tonight. Arena is on record as saying that he feels American players should have been born in America to make the national team. (Mindful of this, Arena invoked Earnie Stewart’s name immediately at his introductory press conference.) What this means for the sizable German contingent is unclear – but one thing that is certain is that some of these players are demonstrably better than any of their American counterparts in MLS. Arena, who has a long track record of working with foreign players, is going to have some frank chats behind closed doors. | Fabian Johnson, John Brooks, Bobby Wood or Julian Green might not be sleeping real well tonight. Arena is on record as saying that he feels American players should have been born in America to make the national team. (Mindful of this, Arena invoked Earnie Stewart’s name immediately at his introductory press conference.) What this means for the sizable German contingent is unclear – but one thing that is certain is that some of these players are demonstrably better than any of their American counterparts in MLS. Arena, who has a long track record of working with foreign players, is going to have some frank chats behind closed doors. |
| And a question for Sunil Gulati, US Soccer’s president | And a question for Sunil Gulati, US Soccer’s president |
| Gulati famously did not renew Arena’s contract in 2006 despite the coach’s desire to stay on. He then spent a lot of time convincing Klinsmann to come on board. Tonight, he’s probably not feeling real hot. Gulati is man who likes to be liked, and the criticism of his hand-picked hire had to sting. So, what’s worse: admitting perhaps that your entire Klinsmann experiment was a failure? Or, that your nation so lacks credible coaching depth that you’ve had to re-hire a man you let go a decade ago? Arena will get the USA to 2018, right enough. But no mindful soccer fan is going to forget Gulati’s stumbles. This whole thing really does feel like a lot of time has been wasted. | Gulati famously did not renew Arena’s contract in 2006 despite the coach’s desire to stay on. He then spent a lot of time convincing Klinsmann to come on board. Tonight, he’s probably not feeling real hot. Gulati is man who likes to be liked, and the criticism of his hand-picked hire had to sting. So, what’s worse: admitting perhaps that your entire Klinsmann experiment was a failure? Or, that your nation so lacks credible coaching depth that you’ve had to re-hire a man you let go a decade ago? Arena will get the USA to 2018, right enough. But no mindful soccer fan is going to forget Gulati’s stumbles. This whole thing really does feel like a lot of time has been wasted. |