Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena is a former professional soccer player, and coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Arena is the former coach of the United States men's national soccer team and a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Arena has had a long and distinguished coaching career, and is considered to be one of the most successful coaches in North American soccer history. He was head coach of the U.S. at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the...
based capable certainly fitness full good johnson match played playing previous question role selecting
The previous match played no role in selecting this roster. It was based on fitness and form. We thought this was a good group. We know Bocanegra and Johnson are certainly capable of playing (a full game), but Beasley is still something of a question mark.
based date europe form opportunity players prior
With only one international fixture date prior to the World Cup, this is an important opportunity for our players based in Europe to demonstrate their form and fitness.
afford based domestic eddie european example extra game guys included jim month numbers opportunity past players pope positions rest simply
We have some extra numbers in positions where we can afford the opportunity to look at some of the European players in this game and rest some of the domestic players. An example of that would be Eddie Pope and Jim Conrad. Based on play over the past month and a half, they would be included in this roster if we were simply basing it on performances. But we have guys we need to look at now.
based decisions evaluate fact good group liked move played players point road rule three
These are just opportunities to evaluate players as we move forward, but you don't make decisions based on one game. Generally, as a rule of thumb, if you get a point on the road in qualifying, it's a pretty good result. The fact that we played with a new group this game, the result's OK. Would we have liked three points? Sure. But that's the way it is.
basis domestic european games greater improve league rate regular secret top
When you play on a regular basis in top European competition, you improve at a greater rate than you do in our domestic league -- there's no secret about it. The games are more meaningful, more purposeful.
continue date excellent group next opportunity shape team together
With only one international fixture date next year, this is an excellent opportunity to get our group together as we continue to shape our team for the World Cup.
challenge incredible
This will be an incredible challenge for our players.
certain excitement guests hope nice playing
There is a certain excitement here. When we come back in June, we hope to not come back and be such nice guests especially when we're playing such important games.
anybody bad january performance stepped worry
Why? Because it's January and you can't worry about it. I don't think we had a bad performance, but I didn't think anybody stepped up and had a big performance.
basically fitter minutes team
We basically choreographed this game. The team that's the fitter team is our team. Over 90 minutes it was going to be obvious. After 35 minutes you could see they were basically done.
character heads spirit test
This was a real test of our team. We showed a lot of character and spirit and never put our heads down.
candidate hopefully injury john move overcome possible six stays weeks
We have about six weeks to move John along. Hopefully he stays injury free. If he's not able to overcome any kind of injuries, he will be a candidate for possible replacement on the roster.
easiest easy establish formulate players promising start strategies
We want to give some promising players some opportunities and start to formulate some strategies for 2006. There is no easy way to establish a player at the international level. The easiest way is to get them on the field.
acquired best bright certainly cup eddie expect expected great hopeful injury moving next people player reputation soccer time
We see in Eddie a player with great potential, and certainly the injury put him back. He acquired a reputation that people expected a lot out of him, and I'm not copping out of that. We do expect a lot of Eddie, but at the same time he's a young player and he's getting there. His best soccer is probably for the next World Cup in all honestly. He's got a bright future, and we're hopeful he's moving forward.