If you had followed his career before he took over the MNT, you'd realize that he rarely used a big target forward previously. The fact of the matter is that McBride is so good at it that Arena has developed the rest of his game plan around it. McBride, coupled with the fact that both Friedel and Keller are very accurate with their distribution make it an effective strategy. The obvious problem for the future is that McBride isn't getting any younger, and a tactical switch will need to be made eventually, since there don't seem to be any more McBrides in the pipeline. I'm confident that Arena will be able to adjust his style to suit his best players as time goes on. Right now his best player is McBride, so the team's style suits it. When he was with DC, his best player was Etcheverry, and the team's style suited that. His best team at Virginia, his best player was Claudio Reyna, and the team's style suited him. This, I believe is what sets Arena apart from previous USMNT coaches. He builds his strategy to his players' strengths, rather than trying to force players into his scheme.
Arena For some general background for anyone who doesn't know, Arena was coach for the University of Virginia's soccer team where they were highly dominant for a long time (and still are), then later went on to coach D.C. United of MLS during the league's first years and build that dynasty at United that kicked the crap out of everybody every year and got lots of the best players out of college (ironically including U. of Virginia), and now he's coached the US Men's Team up to the level they are today, changing from playing the same old veterans as traditonally done, to instead playing more of the younger good players who never experienced the frustration of the crappy performances of the US Men's Team through all the years, and to build the future of soccer in America. Bruce Arena is very organized, cool-headed as a coach, and always maintains control over every situation. It may almost even seem apathetic or like some sense of egotistical entitlement to the extent he always speaks as master over very situation, BUT the truth is he just has the right mentality a coach must have, handles his leadership of the direction of the US men's team well, and I am sure his modesty-yet-inner-confidence attitude rubs off onto the team in a good way every time. He is a good motivator for the team and knows how to set players and games in motion according to plan. As far as selecting players, right now it really feels frustrating the way things are going right now. It almost feels that every time we play someone, he selects a squad just below the overall calibur we'd probably need to put in there. It's true, because the MLS is probably not up there enough to train American players at the level to be ready for the World Cup the same way other leagues are, he probably takes advantage of those games to get players that experience to make them better, so when the qualifying games and the WC comes around, they are ready (even if just as substitutes, because eventually those players will become the starters of the future). But I think there is a limit to selecting these kinds of teams. For example, the squad we had against New Zealand was TERRIBLE. It was just lucky for us, or vision on the part of Arena that New Zealand really sucked that bad. Also, I am surprised Mastroeni didn't play against Paraguay, but again, it turned out we didn't need to use him. But he dang well better be playing in the Gold Cup unless someone better will be out there instead. And, when we play the qualifying games next year, I will expect him to call up John O'Brien, Brad Friedel, and Tony Sanneh (if he's not hurt and can play) and play them every game, otherwise I will be convinced he IS crazy. Because to qualify for the WC of course you need to put all your best players up to it. We will see. Now as far as him teaching players or developing them, that's really not his job. That is what club play is for, though he has taken it upon himself to use international games right now to help younger players develop more through experience and build the national team for the WC qualifying games, and the WC itself as these being parts of his long-term goal for Germany 2006. I think he could do much more to organize players to play together more, and more of the little things that go into strategy of the game and play together more on both offense and defense. It's true though, football is not as emphasized with the coach's direct instruction on players all the time, since players just go out there and cultivate themselves more in a continuous game just stopped at the end of periods. But I hope the longer he is coaching, the more players in the national team system get adapted to his game plan. Just another note: to futbol571, anyone who first thinks of Japan as a great team to watch for flair (?!) has some serious issues (unless they would blindly say that because they themself are Japanese). Japan's men's national team is decent and they have some very good players, but not only do they not have "flair", their style of football is based on power anyway. Anyone who has watched any football knows the team that not only created flair in soccer, but also always continues to define it, is Brazil. Though this comment was probably just due to lack of viewing experience of international teams.