Bruce Arena: 'There's no reason we can't qualify'
By Paul Kennedy, Soccer America.
No one knows January camp better than Bruce Arena. He's quick to point out that this is not his second, but third time around with the national team. If you include the U.S. U-23 camp ahead of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he's had 10 camps in January.
At his first camp, Arena shared an apartment with his two assistants, Bob Bradley and the late Glenn Myernick, in Chula Vista, California, near the Mexico border, and they were holed up in what they called the "Cave" as they prepared for the Olympics.
Two January camps were to prepare the USA for the Gold Cup in winter. Arena says that's something that should never happen again though the second Gold Cup, in 2002, ended with a U.S. championship -- an important momentum-builder for its quarterfinal run at the 2002 Gold Cup.
Probably the craziest January camp was the strike year of 2005 when a group of replacements from the USL First Division and USL Second Division were brought in while a new labor deal was ironed out. Less than three weeks later, the USA went out and beat Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, on the road to start the Hexagonal.
The previous two times, Arena had other coaching responsibilities when he took the job. In 1996, Arena and Bradley did double duty, preparing for the launch of MLS's D.C. United. In 1998, Arena coached the USA to a 0-0 tie against Australia in San Jose less than two weeks after MLS Cup and before D.C. United's greatest triumph, its victory over Brazil's Vasco da Gama in the second-led Inter-American Cup.
In 2017, Arena doesn't have to worry about anything else besides the task at hand -- get the USA out of the deep hole into which it dug itself by losing both games to start the Hexagonal for the first time.
"In 1998, you had a group of players come out of a World Cup, though not successful," he said after practice on Sunday. "We had a little bit clearer picture of the pool and what needed to be done. This time, we are in the middle of the whole process, and I don't think you can make too many changes in the early going. Maybe later in the year we can."
He did say the program has changed a lot since 1998. "It's obviously a program that's better supported," he said. "The depth of the program has improved. There's no reason we can't qualify for the World Cup."
Arena has had the 31 of his 32 players in camp -- all but Dax McCarty, who was excused because of his previous scheduled plans to get married -- for five days before Monday's day off. He's coached or coached against all the players in MLS except Greg Garza, who signed with Atlanta United after five seasons in Mexico.
"They're all good players," he said. "We need a little more time to see. We have to play some games. We haven't done much to be able to watch and say these are the better players at this point in time. They've been good. MLS players are certainly a better group of players than in 1998. They're much more experienced. Their club environments are much more improved than they were in 1998, no question about it. One would think that those characteristics should have a positive manner on the field."
On top of the 32 players in camp, there's another group of players in Europe and Mexico that puts the total pool at around 50 players who are in contention to make the team Arena will pick for the Hexagonal matches March 24 against Honduras and March 28 at Panama. He admitted that group will be narrowed down after the second friendly against Jamaica on Feb. 4 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
"We have a lot of work to do when camp ends," he said. "We have to quickly piece together a tighter working roster to prepare for the qualifiers.We have to do a lot of communication, see the players, look at film, work with them before we even get them. All the coaches will be assigned some players and do some travel, so there's a lot to do between the end of camp and March 24."