I don't blame Clint for saying that. Arena sometimes or a lot, depending on your view, displays little tact in discussing the players. Clint should have played more. Hell - he should have played more than Donovan in Holland. When your number 9 is used as a sub--I think you have problems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- he looked 100% healthy to me every time he took the field in the world cup. he look better than some people who played more than he did.
Probably our most talked about player. Does anybody not have an opinion on Clint? I think Clint needs to show some consistency, and I mean that in the sense "over the course of a season." BUT I do think Arena was stupid to say in a public way what he did before the WC. In the end Bruce does know what Clint can do and I do trust him with that playing decision.
I don't take Clint's statement as a "shot" against Arena. He just simply stated it wasn't his decision and what player wouldn't want to start or feel like they should start in a WC game? Plus, who really cares anyway that was two years ago. Clint and the rest of the players in the U.S. pool should turn their focus to qualification and stop dwelling on past WC results. We should never forget WC 02 but we should move on.
while i don't think it was particularly bad, i definitely would characterize it at a shot against arena. clearly, arena is the one who decided how much he played. i was pretty surprised to read that he said that, becuase he seems to have been saying all the right things lately. why should we care 2 years later? because we want him to play in and score in more national team matches, and building/improving his relationship with the coach will help getting him in those matches. taking shots at the coach, however minor or veiled, probably will not help get him in those matches.
I think Il Bruce can handle the abuse. He's fully aware that Clint wanted to play every minute of the World Cup. If I didn't think it would have hurt the team, I would have wanted to play every minute myself, too. This isn't exactly insubordination.
Neither do I. Rather, I read it as an out and out matter of fact. If Clint's motivated to get better over the course of time, then the results will come, and they'll continue to come, as he's shown with his good start individually with Hannover so far. Hopefully, that'll translate to continued success and a greater role of influence with the USMNT.
one thing i think about arena, and i would say clint in 2002 was a prime example, is that he usually seems to make decisions based on "his guys" type of approach as opposed to considering form as the major criteria for playing time. bruce is extremely loyal and seems disposed to selecting guys based more on loyalty and past ties than current form. sticking with goose as much as he did in korea, continued national team shots for albright might be another, the way he quickly tried to bring in Tab in 2001 to shore up a rocky qualifying period might be seen as another example. i just get a sense that he has players in mind he can "count on" and he tends to stick with them, seemingly without much regard for their form at the time. it doesn't seem to me he has ever reached that comfort level with mathis.
You're calling Tab "his" guy because of what? Bringing in Tab was an act of desperation by a team decimated by injuries. It was neither a thank-you retirement tour or an undue chance for him to prove himself. Bruce srpead around a lot of playing time to a lot of guys in Korea. Not just favorites. And if you really knew that Berhalter would outplay Agoos at the World Cup, you were right and I was wrong. Agoos played worse than I expected, but I didn't expect the alternatives except for Pope to play as well as they did.
i wasn't really trying to stretch the Tab thing too far, just pointing out that he favored the experienced player he knew as opposed to bringing in someone with better form at the time--but admittedly i might have been stretching my point a bit with that one. to me it wasn't so much that i was thinking berhalter would play better than goose (although i liked him over goose at the time) it just seemed to me arena stuck with jeff too long in korea, when he was struggling a bit. anyway, just an observation i have made watching bruce coach over his career. i'll just keep my inferences to myself in the future.
Regardless of the merits of your post, you can't be so thin-skinned if you are going to post here. Your choices are to defend what you post (and maybe think about this before posting) or don't post.
i'd appreciate you not telling how to behave regardless of what activity i am doing--you are even more annoying than the other dude. consider this my last post in the YA section.
Man................martin was right........you've got to develop some sort of thickened skin. Not everyone is going to agree with you. You're too sensitive.
back to the topic..... Did Clint take a shot at BA? ...possibly, if it was, it was more like a shot across the bow as opposed to a direct shot. You have to remember that shortly before the WC Bruce was questioning Clints' conditioning and work ethic. Personally, I'd like to see a little more consistency from Clint before he talks. I don't recall seeing a hell of a lot from him with the metrostars after the WC........
Clint won't be a starter with Bruce no matter what he says or doesn't say. The only way Clint will start under Bruce is if there is an injury situation with the starters. Clint shouldn't start any problems and should just concentrate on improving his possession skills. Too much one-touch passing.
First, Roy Keane took a shot at his manager. Mathis said he would have liked to play more, a sentiment echoed by every player in team sports history. I cannot see Arena having a legit problem with this statement. Second, Clint is producing at a very nice level in a very nice league right now. Until he cools down, he's earned the right to talk all he wants. Sport is all about what have you done lately, and lately, he's done something.
Bruce brought Tab in in 2000 not 2001 for two matches against Barbados that the US won by a combined score of 11-0... Tab also scored in one of those matches. I think you're thinking of the time in 2001 when Bruce brought in Preki and Chris Henderson when we were really hurting for attacking players. A questionable Landon Donovan was even brought in and started against Honduras and came on as a sub against Costa Rica at that time... Preki and Chris Henderson are by no means Bruce's boys, and I'm sure its been mentioned but Tab went to NC State not UVa...