Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena (born September 21, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American soccer coach and former manager of the United States men's national soccer team.
Before rising to international stature, Arena was an enormously successful college soccer coach at the University of Virginia. Arena was the head coach of the Virginia program for 18 years, during which he won five national championships and amassed a 295-58-32 record. Additionally, he coached and developed many players at U.Va. who would go on to play significant roles in the United States national team, including Claudio Reyna, Jeff Agoos, John Harkes and Tony Meola.
Arena left U.Va. to become the coach of D.C. United for their, and Major League Soccer's, inaugural season in 1996. Arena would lead United to MLS Cup victories in both of the league's first two years, and would win the MLS Coach of the Year Award following his second victory, before losing to the expansion Chicago Fire and his protege Bob Bradley in the 1998 MLS Cup final.
Arena was hired by the U.S. national team to replace Steve Sampson as head coach in October 1998 following the team's disastrous showing in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He forged the team into a successful international side, and is undisputedly the most successful coach in United States history: most international wins; longest home shut-out; best World Cup showing since 1930, reaching the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, before a defeat against Germany; and all-time best international FIFA Ranking (4th place, April 2006). Arena also won two Gold Cup championships in 2002 and 2005, with a third place finish in 2003.
The U.S. national squad fell short of expectations at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, finishing last in Group E with losses to the Czech Republic and Ghana. The United States scored only twice in its three games, a tie against eventual champion Italy on an own goal by Italian Cristian Zaccardo and a goal from Clint Dempsey against Ghana. Some, including former team member and ESPN analyst Eric Wynalda, have blamed the poor performance on questionable decisions by Arena.
Arena was a college All-American in both soccer and lacrosse, playing for Nassau Community College (1969-1971) and Cornell University (1971-1973). He earned one cap for the U.S. national team in a 1973 friendly against Israel, in which he played goalkeeper. He was drafted (but then cut) by the NASL Cosmos, then played professional lacrosse for the NLL Montreal Quebecois (1975) and professional soccer for the American Soccer League's Tacoma Tides (1976).
Bruce's son Kenny is currently a professional soccer player.
On July 14,2006 US Soccer announced that they would not be renewing his contract and he would leave the post at the end of the year. He has been linked with a possible move to take over as head coach of MLS club Red Bull New York.[1]
References
External links
- Profile at soccertimes.com
- ESPN feature on Arena, part I (part II) by Marc Connolly
- Sports Illustrated profile by Grant Wahl
- Associated Press profile by Ronald Blum
- Article on Arena's visit to boyhood sites by Michael Lewis