Washington Post interview with LA Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena

Interveiw with Bruce Arena; interesting in a number of ways, including the fact that Arena doesn't even mention college soccer -- although he does mention the need to have more U.S. players playing in the MLS if the U.S. wants to do better in developing American soccer talent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...od-minutes-with-l-a-galaxy-coach-bruce-arena/

 

Actually, I don't think Arena himself mentioned UVA ... instead, in response to a question about Arena getting old and having been involved with soccer for a very long time, Arena responded with the following:

“That makes me feel like it’s time to get on the horse and ride into the sunset. I remember Ariel when he was a baby in D.C. Having said that, I also have [United Coach] Ben Olsen here this week. We have a long history [at Virginia, DCU and the national team]. There is no question I’ve been around the block.”

I believe that the words within the brackets indicated that these words were added by the Washington Post interviewer Steve Goff to provide the context of Arena's mention of Ben Olsen, thus not actually words said by Arena.

In any case, my larger point is Arena spoke a couple of times about the need to increase the talent pool and development of U.S. citizen soccer players, but in discussing these issues he made no specific mention of the role of college soccer in this regard.

 

Not to make too big a deal about something he didn't say ... but personally I think it might have been nice if he said something like nice about college soccer's role in development of players, and perhaps even say something like that college soccer should allow the players to train more and/or play more. Or even say college soccer doesn't help and never will help as it is, if that's what he thinks. But to me for him to not at all mention college soccer is disappointing ... just my view.

 

I certainly agree that the interview could have been more specific in his questions about American soccer development.

But the interviewer (Steven Goff, who writes a lot more about MLS and relatively very little about college soccer) did ask the following:

Post Reporter: What is your sense of the national team as you look at it from a distance?

Arena: “I don’t think they’ve stepped forward a whole lot, nor have they stepped back a whole lot.”

Post Reporter: Is that a symptom of the talent pool or a lot of factors?

Arena: “A lot of factors, but our domestic league needs to have more Americans playing in it to make the pool stronger. We have a lot of international players now, players who aren’t helping the U.S. national team.”

Sounds to me that Arena was talking about the development of American talent in his responses above.

Given that he first made his name thanks to the college game, to me it would have been cool and good of him to throw something in there about college soccer and the role it plays or could play in making the "talent pool" "stronger." But again, perhaps he was being nice since perhaps he really doesn't think the college game has anything to do with making the "talent pool" of U.S. soccer players "stronger."

Anyhoo ...

 

Good point ... and as I also said: "But again, perhaps he was being nice since perhaps he really doesn't think the college game has anything to do with making the 'talent pool' of U.S. soccer players 'stronger.'"

Nevertheless, overall I would have to admit that you are right, and that actually I have noticed that Arena doesn't seem to say too much just to be nice.

Indeed, in this 2015 interview Arena seemed instead to go out of his way to throw in some seemingly not too nice things about U.S. college soccer ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...15/02/03/a-few-good-minutes-with-bruce-arena/

So I guess I'm a conflicted, hopeless optimist. Thus, seemingly and willingly I was led on by the fact that in the 2016 interview Arena actually seemed to indicate that he DID actually care perhaps a tiny bit about the development of American soccer players.

In any case, the bottom line: me caring about and trying to make sense of American soccer, of American college soccer, and of what Bruce Arena says and thinks, has obviously made me crazy.

 

I am talking mostly talking about Arena's ideas about the role of college soccer in the development of US players ... not just about "college soccer" in general. In that regard, I looked to find statements from Arena on college soccer and any role he tought it might play in US player development, and I didn't find much. And what little I did find seemingly suggested Arena doesn't think very much at all about the role college soccer plays in player development for soccer beyond college. For example, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, in the 2015 interview with the Wash. Post's Steven Goff after LA had played Georgetown, Arena to me seemed to be poking fun at college soccer and college soccer players.

And there is this from a 2012 interview, again by Goff with this quote from Arena:

“We’re inefficient in how we allocate resources in the academy. There’s a likely argument where you can say we have improved the ability to move kids to the age of 17 or 18. Where do they go from there? It’s a black hole. It’s insane. We should have a USL type of league [to develop players]. Right now, the kids would be better off going to college, and then we are back to the same thing again." (from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...e-house-visit/2012/05/14/gIQAKG40PU_blog.html )

And in this 2014 interview with SI, Arena has a lot to say about the development of US soccer players, and again he makes no mention at all of college soccer role in such development. (from: http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/201...alaxy-mls-cup-landon-donovan-jurgen-klinsmann )

So to me it doesn't should like he has bascially anything positive to say about college soccer in terms of US player development and for these players being ready to play beyond college.

What am I missing?

 

So that's Arena talking about the failure of college soccer --but Arena didn't suggest any solution or road to improvement relative to college soccer, but instead just talked about the academy system and approving USL for development. To me that seems to suggest he thinks college soccer pretty much is and should be out of the development picture entirely.

 

re my post above, intend to write "improving" USL for development, not "approving."

 

So Arena saying "kids would be better off going to college, and then we are back to the same thing again" ... is an endorsement of college soccer as a place to develop American players? To me "back to the same old thing again" wasn't an endorsement of the benefits of college soccer in terms of player development. Indeed, it sounds to me that Arena is seemingly suggesting that an improved USL or some other development league is the way he thinks it has to go, and forget college soccer in terms of real, significant player development.

Anyway, we seem to be going round in circles now. As I said before, I was trying to figure out Arena's thoughts because I haven't been able to find him actually saying in print much at all about what he thinks specifically about college soccer and related issues that might impact/improve player development via the college game, e.g., like cutting back on the number of substitutions allowed, making the season all year long, easing / removing many current restrictions on off-season / summer training, etc.

Enjoyed the discussion, and I've said my piece, so I'll leave it there.

 

Sandon - can you get Arena to join the discussion here and set the record straight?!

 

Another recent article with remarks from Bruce Arena, including him talking about young player development, and the new stories I've seen once again include no mention of college soccer, e.g.,:

“Today’s the best time to be a young player in the United States,” he said. “Our [MLS] academy programs are growing, the visibility of our sport is growing, the resources to be a good player and learn in growing. You would like to believe, over time, we’re going to develop some great players.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-but-core-job-remains/?utm_term=.2d33ee7665db

 

But I understand Arena is looking at this guy for the national team's depleted goalkeeper ranks ...