Bruce Arena appointed as USMNT manager for a second spell

After a decade away, Bruce Arena is returning as the United States men’s national team manager.

His rumored re-appointment was confirmed by U.S. Soccer on Tuesday, likely ensuring that the only man to take the USA to two World Cups will also have a third go-around in 2018. He replaces the fired Jurgen Klinsmann, who was dismissed on Monday after more than five years in charge when he got off to an 0-2 start in the final round of World Cup qualifying.

“When we considered the possible candidates to take over the men’s national team at this time, Bruce was at the top of the list,” U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a statement. “His experience at the international level, understanding of the requirements needed to lead a team through World Cup qualifying and proven ability to build a successful team were all aspects we felt were vital for the next coach. We all know Bruce will be fully committed to preparing the players for the next eight qualifying games and earning a berth to an eighth straight FIFA World Cup in Russia.”

Arena had been in charge of the national team from 1998 through 2006. In 2002, he led the USA to its best performance at a World Cup since 1930 – the first ever edition of the tournament, when just 13 teams participated – by reaching the quarterfinals with an exhilarating and quick playing style. Indeed, if a hand-ball non-call against Germany hadn’t been botched, the Americans may well have reached the semifinals. At the 2006 World Cup, however, the U.S. went winless.

In his first spell with the national team, Arena set an all-time record for wins with 71, while losing 30 times and tying 29 games. He won the Gold Cup in 2002 and 2005 and placed third in the 1999 Confederations Cup.

With Arena’s contract running out in 2006, he was dismissed by the newly elected Gulati in a decision that upset the former D.C. United head coach, who won the first two championships in Major League Soccer history before joining the federation. He went on to coach the New York Red Bulls for a season and a half and then won three more MLS championships and a second and third Supporters’ Shield with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Arena, 65, is the most decorated coach in American soccer history, and Gulati made amends because the task at hand is a complicated one.

 

Klinsmann has left Arena rather a mess. For starters, there’s a World Cup qualifying campaign to get back on track. And with the remainder of the eight matches on the calendar starting in March, there’s a brief window to set about rectifying things – which is why the coaching change happened now.

Some of the most difficult games are out of the way. But nonetheless, the Yanks are at risk of missing their first World Cup since 1986. Which is why we’ve seen our first mid-qualifying managerial switch since 1989. After the grand sweep of Klinsmann’s ambitious rebuilding attempt of the national team program, which ultimately failed, Arena inherits a team that is a big muddle. If the loss to Mexico on Nov. 11 was a close one, the 4-0 thumping by Costa Rica four days later, which ultimately did the German head coach in, was an unraveling of shape, form and confidence.

In order for the U.S. to reach Russia, Arena’s team will have to scrounge up enough points to place among the three best teams in the six-nation hexagonal round, a double round-robin of home and away games. The fourth-best team plays a two-game playoff with the fifth-place team in Asia for a spot in Russia, which also represents a very feasible path. Two games in, the U.S. sits in last place last on goal difference.

If it appears, however, that Arena has endless opportunities to make improvements to a team that was consistent only in its inconsistency – thanks, in large part, to a coach who didn’t stop tinkering for any of the five years he was in charge – consider that the national team only gets together every month or two, and seldom for longer than a week or so.

And Arena will be tasked not just with getting the U.S. to the big dance, but also with avoiding a group stage elimination there. Considering the distance the American program has come, and the round-of-16-or-better performance at three of the last four editions of the World Cup, that’s the minimum expectation.

“Any time you get the opportunity to coach the national team it’s an honor,” Arena said. “I’m looking forward to working with a strong group of players that understand the challenge in front of them after the first two games of the hex. Working as a team, I’m confident that we’ll take the right steps forward to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.”

It’s a tricky job, entrusted to an old hand.