I'm interested to know more about the coach that has given a new face of respectability to US soccer. When did he first get in touch with football? Where did he study the game? His mentors? Has he ever played? Is he truly a unanimity? If so that's really a rare example among football coaches around the world.
Here is Arena's resume from US Soccer. It is a little old, but has some general information. http://www.ussoccer.com/bio/bio.sps?iBiographyId=7743 One interesting thing to note, is that Arena was also a lacrosse player and coach besides being a soccer coach. He played soccer in the minor leagues (imagine playing in Division 2 or 3) and earned one cap with the national team. When he went to Virginia, the school was not much of a soccer reputation. He built it into a powerhouse.
Bruce Arena was a goalkeeper at Nassau Community College (1969-70) and Cornell University (1971-72). He was drafted by the New York Cosmos of the NASL, but never appeared in a match for them; in 1973 he was an assistant coach at Cornell University. He played professional lacrosse in Canada for two years (1974-75) before returning to the United States to play soccer for the Tacoma Tides (1976). Arena was capped once by the United States in 1973, as a substitute in a 2-0 loss to Israel. From 1976 onward he was a full-time college coach, first at the University of Puget Sound (1976) and then at the University of Virginia (1978-95). While at Virginia, he won five national championships, including four consecutive championships in 1991-94. In 1996 he was hired as D.C. United's first head coach, and won the first two MLS championships and was MLS runner-up in 1998; he also won the 1998 CONCACAF Champions Cup and defeated Vasco da Gama in the Interamerican Cup in his last two matches with D.C. United. Arena was hired to coach the US national team after the disastrous 1998 World Cup. He had previously coached the US Olympic team in 1996, concurrently with his duties as D.C. United head coach. I don't know anything about who his mentors were, but I assume that he gained something from training with the New York Cosmos.
Of course, playing in a lower league doesn't necessarily make one less qualified as a coach. Gerard Houllier played only as an amateur.
Bruce Arena is very special At world level Bruce is very special, coming out of a second class league a totally hostile media agains soccer to surprise very experience coaches and some of the best players of the planet, he has accomplish a coach dream but in couple of weeks he is out to probe that WC 2002 have nothing to do with LUCK !
Looks? You can probably make a safe assumption that he is portuegese or some hispanic flavor with the surname "Arena." To my knowledge, he does not speak Spanish, so he could be second or third generation. The name Bruce is not exactly dripping iwth Latin/Mediterranean connotations. Looks (?) Native American? What people "look" like can be pretty dicey. He is definitely a New York kid, right? There was something I read after the WC that went into much more vivid detail about his background and his personality. He can be very funny in an under-stated, Brooklyn kid kind of way. You see this sometimes in his comments to journalists asking stupid questions, like, "Do you think you will ever beat a Brazil?" "Or, do you expect to win thsi game?" [Like, what coach will say, "No, as a matter of fact, we expect to be the paper they wipe their a$$es with"]. Where was that biography? On Soccertimes? I remember one bit- he came to UVa primarily as a lacrosse coach and the soccer was added as an afterthought. I am not sure when and why he refocused exclusively on soccer. Also, when coach of DC united, he was very cocnerned about players. I think Bobby Convey and another teenager lived with him and his family when they started out. Here is something about his sense of humor: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/06/01/spt_bruce_arena_americas.html I was a student at UVa just after he left and a big fan of DC United. I have followed his teams for years. I respect his coaching without worshipping him. He has produced consistent results at every level. He is not the messiah, but he does have some set of skills that make him a great coach. I am not surprised by his successes and he will continue to take teams to championships at whatever level he coaches. He is like a brooklyn, wise-cracking version of Phil Jackson.
Another link I poked around for that biography. Can't find it. Maybe someone else knows. This thread on BS seems relevant: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31648&perpage=15&pagenumber=1 Hope this helps get more than just the numbers about Arena as a coach.
Arena wasn't coaching United when Convey came along in 2000... I believe Ben Olsen lived with him when he was adjusting to the DC area though.
As other noted, Arena was an AA at Cornell in Lacrosse and Defensive MVP of the Final Four in soccer. Besides playing minor league soccer, he also played professional indoor box lacrosse for a team in Montreal called the Quebecois. Arena was a good enough lacrosse player to have played for the US in a couple of Lacrosse World Championships, one of which I know the US won. He ended up at Puget Sound as a coach becasue he played in the ASL out there for a year, the Tacoma Something-or-others. He was orignially hired as an assistant coach at UVa as a lacrosse coach and being the soccer coach was, as others noted, "just part of the deal." He gave up coaching lacrosse around 1985.
I'm almost positive he's Italian. I remember when the U.S. played a game last year in Italy I vaguely recall him saying that one of his grandparents was from Naples but I'm not sure. I also remember a Grant Wahl article in SI from last year during the World Cup quoting an Italian TV journalist. He said that beacuse Arena was an Italian-American he should be considered as a possible coach for Italy in the future believe it or not.
I'd certainly like to see Arena coach in Europe if he retires as National Team coach following '06, whether its with a club or a national team. It may end up a situation like that in the NBA where an outstanding womens coach like say, Pat Summit, will never get a chance essentially because she's a woman, and her players would be men and it's unacceptable for whatever reason. As another poster mentioned in another thread, it seems likely many Europeans, at least following '02, would still be unresponsive and lacking in respect toward and American coach. But what if Arena is hugely successful again in '06? Do you think he could make it over there, or at least get hired, for National Team duty, or for a club team in the EPL or something like that? Thoughts?