The book's title is "What’s Wrong With US? A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline”. Bruce has basically driven a car over a railing, off a cliff, into a lake of fire; then - as the car is still sinking into the magma with all souls aboard - he's now holding a press conference declaring that he's got some strong opinions on road safety and defensive driving and why everyone else is doing it wrong. Bruce - I'm willing to debate whether you deserve the blame, and whether the car was already out of control when you got into the driver's seat, and whether the car was poorly maintained by previous owners, and whether there was an inherent factory defect, and whether the cliff could have been better sign-posted, and whether the town council should've repaved the road long before, and whether the rear passengers were truly committed to this car or secretly desired to be riding in a German car ... but maybe let the families and loved ones mourn the departed before you announce that you will be dissecting the bodies, leading the investigation, and doing everything in your power to find out what exactly went wrong, in that wreck, that you were in charge of. Your timing could be better. Next in the series, "Why Everyone In the NFL Sucks - After 70+ Years as a Pro Franchise, the 0-16 Cleveland Browns Tell It Like It Is".
Agreed, we're all sad. And I do think the book is in poor taste, but hey, it's capitalism. We didn't qualify, because we lost to Mexico at home and we lost to T&T away. One of those events doesn't happen and we're at the World Cup. Both of those losses were down to lack of discipline and lack of effort. It's really that simple.
Bruce Arena started out ok In my book this cycle, and then I knew we were in trouble when this happened ( and I pointed it out several times ), both Dwyer and Rowe were sent home after being the 2 best players for the group stages at the 2017 Gold Cup to make room for "his guys", Altidore and Zardes. That's when I let out a "ahhh shit" this is a bad sign..........
When Arena was hired we were told that he was the only choice because he was available and there was no time to do a search. Now, we find out they did a search, maybe a year earlier, and they came up with Arena. Out of all the coaching candidates in the world in 2015-2016, they were going to hire Arena again! If he was hired in 2016, we probably still don't qualify because he was that bad. Pulisic probably gets the Danny Williams treatment too. Arena was not familiar with him and he wasn't a full time starter in 2017 and "there are guys in MLS that play that position".
FIFA just issued the ARENA report - which is a total disaster. He LIED! LIED! LIED! ARENA was totally controlled by DONOVAN - ARENA is DONOVAN!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!
So what Jefferson was saying was, "Hey! You know, we left this England place because it was bogus. So if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too." Yeah?
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1159190.Bruce_Arena What is this other book, “The World at Our Feet”, that is also being released in June? Who is the person that preemptively gave the other book 1 star? Anybody going to any of these “events”? Book Events TUESDAY, JUNE 12TH, 7:00 PM What's Wrong with US? by Bruce Arena will be featured on/at: BARNES & NOBLE 2743/#2743 HUNTINGTON BEACH, 110 7881 Edinger AVE Huntington Beach, CA 92647 THURSDAY, JUNE 14TH, 7:30 PM What's Wrong with US? by Bruce Arena will be featured on/at: WARWICK'S, 7812 Girard AVE La Jolla, CA 92037 FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH, 7:00 PM What's Wrong with US? by Bruce Arena will be featured on/at: VROMANS, 695 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91101 https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062803948/whats-wrong-with-us
Agreed - JK’s decision to play attractive/attacking football without the horses to play it (i.e., choosing to play polo with mules) led to us giving up Hex goals at home vs Mexico for the first time in well over a decade. That said losing at home by a goal to a clearly (more) talented opponent is far far less objectionable that losing away to an already eliminated T&T, playing a C-squad. Not even close in order of magnitude. The embarrassingly large loss to CR away, while it didn’t really hurt us points wise as we usually lose there, was almost equally embarrassing as the loss to T&T.
In judging Arena, it's worth keeping in mind how thin the line between disaster and triumph is in World Cup soccer. The 2002 World Cup was our best result ever, and is the major accomplishment on Arena's resume. But there were several moments when that cycle came very close to being the worst disaster in modern US soccer history. I still remember the feeling in my stomach after Eddie Lewis's red card vs. Guatemala in the 2000 semifinal round - that one easily could have knocked us out of the World Cup, and potentially killed MLS in the process. On the other hand, a few balls bouncing differently in 2017 would have sent us through to Russia in spite of everything. And if we'd followed that up by bringing a somewhat younger and fully healthy team to the World Cup, Arena could have ended up looking like a savior. I don't think Arena is a unique soccer genius, nor is he a goat. He's just a very competent and knowledgeable coach who has spent enough time at the head of the USA to end up associated with both big successes and big failures. I'm not going to buy his book - and I imagine few people will - but it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'd expect there to be some insights to go along with the arrogance.
The most harmful and least expected loss of points were against Costa Rica at home. The only difference in score in NJ vs CR is that They didn’t have Joel Campbell to throw on late as Urena was too tired to finish his late chances. It was also at least, if not more embarrassing than the loss in CR. Strike that, it was much more embarrassing as CR and their fans tainted us on our soil.
Hmm. Off the top of my head, I recall being really bummed about the home loss to CR but thought we played ok and had as many chances as CR. OTOH, I was embarrassed about the away loss to CR (where Brooks - whom I'm a big big fan of - had one of the worst games I've ever seen and he wasn't the only terrible player by a long shot). T&T away was also even more crushingly embarrassing. YMMV.
Maybe it was the money I spent or being there first hand. The CR crowd wasn’t near as large as it was made out to be. The midfield lacked urgency and Pulisic wasn’t given any support out wide. The team unwound just as is had done 10 months earlier. We also played ok in the first half at Costa Rica up until Gonzalez allowed a free cross and Brooks checked his shoulder right as the attacker made a run near post. Mistake by Brooks, inexcusable by Gonzalez. I would have yanked him at half and sent him home. His effort on the first goal is the worst effort I’ve ever seen of a USMNT player ever. Brooks definitely had a really rough game. Go to around 40:00 and just watch the the injury time. There are 3 chances where tired Ticos don’t execute in our third. How do you feel listening to opposing fans chant ole and see no change from our players? It is the most embarrassed I’ve been of a team ata game in person (and I was in Gelsenchirchen and Nuremberg in 2006). The complacency was very reminiscent to that Ghana game, but it should be different when playing at home.
Interestingly here in Dallas the Stars coach Ken Hitchcock just retired (or was forced) and the DaMN had an article about him that could be exactly what we've all complained about with Arena except for changing the names. Always played older guys over younger guys and said that the younger guys didn't have the experience to win games. He was also on his second stint and is about 70. Having suffered through Hyndman as a coach who wouldn't play young players I'm starting to see a trend where very old coaches just can't play the very young kids/prospects any more.
JK got everything right. He might have even picked the right team. His main problem and we knew this from the beginning: he thought he was to coaching what Jürgen Klopp is to coaching when in fact he is to coaching what Klopp was to playing . Same horses with Wagner or Klopp trying to implement the same system and we are flying into the WC like unbridled colts instead of doing whatever it is we are doing with what's coaching.
Home loss to CR and away loss to T&T were by far the worst results in the hex for us. Arena is to blame for both.
I didn’t see any comments about Klinsmann’s recent interview. This seems about as good of a place as any. I have been impressed that he has kept quiet up until now and wish he would have been clearer in why he thinks missing the World Cup is such a set back. I agree that qualifying wasn’t in doubt before the first game, after the 2nd, after 6, and going into the last game. I also wish he would have said less about that T&T game, but I can’t completely blame him given all the things Arena has been saying. Otherwise quite complimentary.
Yeah, I just saw a couple quotes from his interview, but he didn't seem to say anything that inflammatory or embarrassing. Complimenting the status of the game/MLS, and didn't seem to show as much of the unbridled arrogance Arena has (and we know Klinsy has in him too). Maybe he's showing some self-awareness in an attempt to get back into coaching? Love people here comparing a loss at home to Mexico and away at CR to T&T or home to CR. Sure, all results were poor, but the T&T result will probably go down as the most embarrassing performance in US soccer history, right?
The fact that Klinsmann thought qualifying was never in doubt shows that he was a huge part of the problem. Especially after the utterly woeful displays in the Gold Cup and the prior round of qualifying. No USMNT coach should ever think that qualifying is never in doubt until qualification is clinched. Even when there's a clear difference in talent / tactics, there are just too many X-factors - bad referees, bad fields, hostile away crowds, climate - to feel fully confident until the job is done.
I think he was referencing just the final game; heading into T&T. I think it was more to acknowledge it as a big upset and he immediately started talking about how good MLS is now. With all the crap Arena throws at him, I'm surprised he has kept so quiet. It might be a condition of his severance.
I actually wasn't going to. I would simply make the point that the Mexico match came on the back of three years of mismanagement and that the team as a whole was headed in the wrong direction for most of those three years.