Arena interview by Fifa

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Looking back at your time with the national team, how would you evaluate yourself? Would you say you don’t focus on tactics as much as maybe some other coaches?

That would be completely false. It’s a ridiculous statement. Of course, I have to focus on tactics. We’re playing soccer at the highest level, you don’t think there are tactics involved? Look at where our team was in June or July of 1998 and where they are today. I think even the harshest critic would say there’s been an improvement in the senior national team. Is it great, is it good? My job is to get this program better and to qualify for the World Cup. In the end you’re just judged on the team as a national team coach. You’re not judged on anything else.
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Bruce got a little annoyed at that question it seems. Amusing nonetheless.....

 

"...it’s not my position to tell players where they should play their club soccer. "

Wasn't it reported that Bruce helped convince Gibbs that playing full time in MLS would be good for his Nats career? It's likely this was a factor with Joban as well?

 

I take it this is a dig at Donovan:
They each have their own ideas about what they want to do, and their decisions may not always be based on becoming better soccer players.

 

Good find. Here was another subtle line:

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F: Are there certain positions that you are most worried about filling by the time 2006 comes around? Certain important players, Claudio Reyna and Chris Armas for instance in the centre of midfield, may be past their prime by then. And the right and left back spots look thin.

BA: I don’t think Claudio Reyna’s going to be past his prime in two years, but some spots are obviously an issue. Also, a right sided midfielder.

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Arena's statements on coaching echo the Klinsmann line about training.

I also got a laugh out of the tactics part, as well as the "Bah!" line

 

I love Arena interviews. They must be the most entertaining coaching interviews in existence.

That said, Bruce completely ducked the tactics question, albeit amusingly so.

 

The key charactersitic of a good coach interview is that the coach says a bunch of interesting things, without really saying much at all.

Bruce is a master at it. If you can do that, soccer tactics are a snap.

 

yeah, I noticed that too. I think Bruce must have given Landon some unheeded advice, and that pissed Bruce off. I mean, Landon was trying to get to Pompey for 4 months, so I think you have to guess that Landon sees the end of the MLS road at this point. But Bruce didn't really acknowledge that.

 

I love the line on Kirvoski.

I also find the comment regarding Landon interesting. It seems every few months, Bruce makes a statement in an interview that can be seen as a dig at Landon, questioning his passion last year and his decision making this year...it makes you wonder about his relationship with Il Bruce.

 

How do you know that's a dig at Donovan and not, say, Mathis or Beasley?

 

Note to self: read the damn articles first before posting.

 

I take it as a dig too. But Bruce seems to have forgotten that Landon originally made a decision to go to Europe...and did that make him a better soccer player? Who knows (certainly not Bruce), had LD stayed at Leverkusen instead of coming to MLS, would that have made him a better player than he is now? Would he have developed at a slower or faster pace, all things considered? I think it's a little ill-conceived for Bruce to say their decisions may not be based on becoming a better soccer player. Let's face it, LD's decision to come back was that he wasn't getting better playing over there. So it sounds to me that that decision WAS based on becoming a better player.

And now, of course, Landon seems to be expressing the idea that he does want to go to Europe, but Bruce didn't mention that. So like someone else mentioned, makes me wonder what the relationship is between those two.

 

My wife says I'm an idiot three times daily but she's not going anywhere.

As long as Arena keeps playing Landon every single solitary time that the U.S. has a game, I think their relationship is OK, regardless of Arena's digs.

 

I believe it's Arena's subtle way of "motivating".

Doesn't work, but it's cute.

 

So your wife and Arena are both pragmatists.

 

If that's a fancy word for "grouch," yes.

 

Maybe Bruce should have mentioned that he was going to field one of the worst US teams of all time for the game.

 

That you know of.

 

"For instance, we just played one of the best teams in the world, Holland, and half the players on the field hadn’t played a competitive game in three months."

If Josh Wolff, Chris Armas and Frankie Hejduk means "half" the players on the field, then that 1-0 loss was a fantastic result. Everybody else (Keller, Gibbs, Bocanegra, Lewis, Beasley, Convey, Reyna, Donovan, McBride, Mathis) had played competitive matches recently.

 

Personally these digs at MLS and where players are to me are nothing but whining, and Im sick of them. MLS is what it is, the season is the length it is, and weather pretty much doesnt give a lot of alternatives. The players are where they are in part out of choice, but also due to circumstances beyond their control. Suck it up Bruce, you have the players you have, make the most of it.

 

Got a little defensive since what he says about your boy Donovan is true, huh?

 

Actually, while I dont think he knows how to handle LD, the grain of truth there bothers me not at all. What bothers me is that I love the league, and all Arena seems to do is denigrate the players and management of it. And it really bothers me in that with his callups of guys like Wolyniec he doesnt take performance in that short season into account, instead preferring offseason camps to make evaluations.

MLS is what it is. If his criticism is to make it better as a fan of the league, I can accept it. If its complaints about how it makes his job harder, than he can shut up.

 

soccerfan...leagues in the extreme north also play a spring-fall schedule. I'm not sure exactly which Scandanavian nations do, but some, if not all. And maybe the Ukraine and Russia. I'll bet you can find a forum around here where people would know for sure.