Bruce Arena, the longest-serving manager on any team at the World Cup, has guided the United States from a humiliating last in 1998 to a 2002 quarter-final run and a best-ever fourth in FIFA’s rankings.
WASHINGTON: Bruce Arena, the longest-serving manager on any team at the World Cup, has guided the United States from a humiliating last in 1998 to a 2002 quarter-final run and a best-ever fourth in FIFA’s rankings.
Now, the 54-year-old Brooklyn native leads the American squad into its greatest challenge yet with a difficult path to repeating a final eight showing at June’s 32-team global football showdown in Germany. “Our accomplishments to date have only given us a foot in the door,” Arena said. “We’ve spent the last four years trying to build a team. We will be ready.”
Arena has to blend a squad of talented players from European squads who have just finished a gruelling schedule with those from US-based clubs who began their season only a month ago and are only now working into full fitness. “It’s an odd structure to have in your group of players, but it is what it is,” Arena said. “Hopefully we can find the balance and meet the needs of every player.”
A scrappy US squad takes after its coach, a motivational mentor whose 69 victories are more than twice as many as any other US coach has achieved. Arena came to the rescue of the national team just when he was most needed. After reaching the round of 16 as World Cup hosts in 1994, the Americans scored only one goal in a humbling showing in France four years later.
The US Soccer Federation sought a new leader just as Arena was on a coaching high. Arena had spent 18 seasons as coach at the University of Virginia, producing five US college champions, and managed the US under-23 team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, enhancing the development of several top players. Arena took charge of DC United when Major League Soccer was formed and guided the team to two league titles. He directed United to the MLS final and then took charge of the US national team on October of 1998.
After four years of rebuilding under Arena, the US squad made its greatest showing at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea, advancing from group play with the hosts over Poland and Portugal and ousting Mexico in the round of 16. Germany beat the Americans 1-0 in the quarter-finals but the run served notice that the US had arrived.
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