Wait, are you saying it was personal? Oh my, the horror. The problem that Cameron had with Arena was that he slowly got rid of players and was picking lesser ones. People go on and on about the locker room was divided. If that were true, it appears that Arena picked a side a slowly eliminated the other. Cameron is significantly better defender than Gonzo and that is apparent in their USMNT play. Gonzo's best game for the US was against Belgium in 2014. It was a error free, heroic effort by him, the back line, and the rest of the team. The problem was he was awful for the US since then. He made the same mistakes over and over. I cant think of CD who ever played worse than Gonzo did in the Hex, even excluding the T&T game. So it makes no sense to bench Camerron for him when Gonzo was a mess vs Honduras while Cameron righted the ship. It appears you are trying to define my argument. Facts... - foreign born players were slowly eliminated from the team to the point there were none by the end of the Hex (some were injured but many were available) - MLS players, players with history with MLS, and Arena were given preferential treatment (more chances and poor performances ignored) - Arena got fewer points in the last 8 games of the Hex than the 3 previous coaches and had an easier schedule as only had to play mexico and Costa rica oneS. Opinion... - the players selected to replace the "foreign based players" were worse - the performances in 3 of the last 4 games of the Hex are some if the worst of all time. I believe the conflicts of interests, and the meddling of Garber and MLS played a part in this but it is not central to my argument.
I remember posting a few times after Hex elimination, something along the lines of "ok, now that this has happened, at least we know, as i've said this entire hex, that Bruce was the wrong choice and royally effed up by picking the wrong players and giving these guys zero competition". However, there were people still defending him, defending USSF...he "basically had us qualified", the "players weren't good enough", "Klinsy sunk us in too deep a hole". The fact these arguments are continually still being offered after 2.5 years simply means they will never go away. Whatever. This is a medium, and a type of argument, that isn't going to sway anyone. Arena had the players to make the WC. They weren't good players, but probably the 2nd best talent in the Hex (maybe 3rd behind CR). He didn't. He was in charge of the biggest failure in US soccer history. As our esteemed opponent here has shown with his excellent Goal Difference research, outside of 2 blowout wins, his performances were simply atrocious. He picked players he was comfortable with because it "wasn't the time to experiment" even though we had 6-7 useless Gold Cup games to do just that. But he had to bring back the "Big Gunz" to hoist the trophy over mighty Jamaica. Anyone arguing this simply can't be saved, as it is clear as day, and not really open to being argued. But argue they must - i would just save your breath (fingers).
What i simply don't understand is how anyone can argue that Arena wasn't biased towards MLS players! He said what he thought should have been done (heavily favor MLS) and then his actions as coach clearly showed that he followed up on his belief. It's black and white.
It appears I have a much better recollection of that tournament. I liked Alvarado's skill set but he wasnt up for it. Alvarado was the whipping boy of the pitch fork crew back then. People didnt consider that the team for that tournament was mostly filled with back ups from the WC side and new players. Alvarado made many mistakes. He also covered for Brooks and Chandler. The midfield in front that back line wasn't the strongest either with a combo of Bradley, Diskerud, and an aging Beckerman. I think calling him shit is bit much, but not out of character for an MLS fan to make such a claim for foreign based player. Your double post also included a bit about JK favoring Gonzalez which isnt true at all. JK rotated them games and neither played well enough to claim the spot. For all of Alverados mistakes, his positive plays made him better than Gonzo throughout the tournament. Again, Gonzo is heavily associated with MLS which included playing for Arena and with Berhalter and subsequently rejoining the league. It is semantics. So going back to your point about Cameron being on a shorter leash than Gonzo because of his poor play against Costa Rica.... Can you explain why Arena ignored Gonzo being a part of the 2015 GC (worst CD of the team), the Gautemala loss, the Mexico loss, the Costa Rica loss (his effort on the first goal was despicable), and the horrible goal against Honduras? When you look at that history, his play at T&T isnt that surprising.
This is the fan culture that MLS has brought us. These arguments are on a level of soccer parents arguing for their little Johnny that could do no wrong.... even though the kid actually sucked and was so annoying that the are kids couldnt stand him. where they fall out on an argument is predetermined and whatever actual facts there are get cherry picked and twisted. Their stance is always extreme and they assume others are completely the opposite. They contradict themselves, use exceptions as rule, and when that doesn't work out, they just make stuff up. I found this site around 20 years ago. I didnt start posting until 2014 when I disagreed with just about everything being written. I was dumb enough to think providing alternative thoughts might change people's minds. I dont think I've convinced anybody of anything. I think about stop eating my time on here fairly often, but havent gotten there yet. I just hate the story these people are trying to make up about the game in this country. Sorry for the rant.
Response likely coming - Gonzo was in Liga MX, he was one of your beloved dual nats in a foreign league! If anything, Arena should have benched him cuz he hates those types (according to you)!!!! Rinse, repeat.
I wasnt sure where to put this and re-post elsewhere, but this discussion has waded into the use of foreign born dual nationals. Some seem to be very angry about the practice under our former German coach. The reality is that our teams have always had them and this wasnt the first push to identify and attract dual nationals. 1990 - 2, Windischmann, Ramos 1994 - 7, Dooley, Ramos, Clavijo, Klopas, Wegerle, Stewart, Perez 1998 - 6, Dooley, Ramos, Wegerle, Stewart, Regis, Preki 2002 - 4, Stewart, Regis, Llamosa, Mastroeni 2006 - 1, Mastroeni 2010 - 2, Holden, Feilhaber 2014 - 7, Jones, Johnson, Brooks, Chandler, Diskerud, Johannsson, Green Some of these foreign born players moved to the US as children, while some never lived in the states. What is clear is that there was a real push to find eligible players wherever they were in 1994. Mastroeni and Llamosa were the only two new players that Arena called in for his first two cycles (also, didnt he refuse to recruit Rossi?) and we all know what he did in 2017. I struggle when people try to determine what the USMNT identity is as I think we are too young to establish one yet but still are in the process of creating it. I think there are traits of the way we played early on that I wish we would continue, but think some are overly focused on some of those traits that were required due to lack of talent. I want us to be an organized team with a fighting spirit, but I dont want that to define us. I want us to embrace that we have eligible players all over the world and we should do our best to find them, but that doesnt define us either. Most importantly, I want us to improve dramatically in areas that we are weakest and once we have done that we start talking about what our country's style/identity is. My hope is that it would look something like a soccer version of the 1992 dream team.
Will Wilson starts to clean house: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...ration-axes-brian-remeditonya-wallach-sources