Bruce Arena: Soccer Boss Bruce Arena biography

Bruce Arena biography

An American Soccer Boss

Bruce Arena

born September 21, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York

American soccer coach.

A former coach of the US men's national soccer team. In previous stints, he coached several championship teams with both DC United and the University of Virginia.

High school and college
Arena, a native of Brooklyn, grew up in Franklin Square in Nassau County on Long Island. He attended Carey High School. While he excelled at several sports, he was too small for football so joined a school's soccer team as a defender. He moved o the goal when the starting goalkeeper was suspended. While in high school, he also played a single season with the local team, Hota, of the Cosmopolitan Soccer League. After graduation, he began his collegiate athletic career playing both lacrosse and soccer at Nassau Community College, a two year college near his home, where he earned All American honors. While at Nassau, he played for head coach Bill Stevenson and goalkeeper coach Shep Messing, a future New York Cosmos goalkeeper. At the end of his two years with Nassau, Arena transferred to Cornell University in New York where he earned second team All American honors, this time in only lacrosse. Injuries to the school's first and second string keepers led to the men's soccer coach, Dan Wood, recruiting Arena to the team as its goalkeeper. Arena backstopped the Cornell Big Red soccer team to the 1972 NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Final Four and earned Most Valuable Defensive Player honors for the tournament. On a personal level, he met his future wife, Phyllis, and was selected for membership in the Quill and Dagger society while attending Cornell.

Single National Team Appearance
In 1973, he earned his only national team cap as a second half substitute for Bob Rigby in a 2 - 0 loss to Israel.

Professional athletic career
After graduating from Cornell, Arena was drafted (but cut) by the NASL Cosmos. He did play professional lacrosse for the Montreal Quebecois, spending a single season in 1975. The National Lacrosse League folded at the end of the 1975 season, freeing Arena. At the same time, Dan Wood, who recruited Arena to play for the Cornell soccer team, named the new head coach of the expansion Tacoma Tides which played in the American Soccer League. Wood contacted Arena and convinced him to move to the Pacific Northwest to play for him. While Arena was a second string goalkeeper behind starter Jamil Canal, the move to Tacoma was significant in that it introduced Arena to coaching. That year, in addition to playing for the Tides, Arena coached the men's soccer team at the University of Puget Sound.

College coaching
In 1977, Arena moved back to teach at Cornell and act as the school’s assistant lacrosse coach. While there, the University of Virginia (U.Va.) advertised for two open coaching positions, head soccer coach and assistant lacrosse coach beginning the 1978 season. Arena took that opportunity and would go on to coach the U.Va. lacrosse team for seven years, before becoming the school’s dedicated soccer coach in 1985.

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 players at Virginia who would go on to play significant roles in the US national team, including Claudio Reyna, Jeff Agoos, John Harkes and Tony Meola. Arena served as the ACC soccer coaches chairman as well as two three year terms on the NCAA Division I soccer committee from 1989 to 1995.

DC United
On January 3, 1996, Arena left U.Va. to become coach of DC United of Major League Soccer. The 1996 season would be both the team's and the league's inaugural season, so Arena needed to build a team from scratch. To make his position even more difficult, he agreed to coach the US U23 national team at the 1996 Summer Olympics where it went 1-1-1. Despite the distraction of the Olympics, Arena managed to form his team and lead United to victory in the first MLS Cup. In addition to the MLS Title, Arena also took United to the 1996 US Open Cup championship.

Arena and United continued to experience success in 1997. The team won second MLS Cup defeating the Colorado Rapids 2 - 1. Arena's success led to his selection as the 1997 MLS Coach of the Year. rena took United to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

In 1998, Arena took United to its third consecutive MLS Cup only to see his team fall to the expansion Chicago Fire led by his protege Bob Bradley. However, while Arena failed to add another MLS championship to his resume, he guided United to the CONCACAF Champions' Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Toluca on August 16, 1998. He followed that with a defeat of Brazilian club Vasco da Gama to take the Interamerican Cup title.

Arena was also the 1997 and 1998 MLS All-Star head coach.

National Team
Arena was hired by the US 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 the most successful coach in US history: most international wins; longest home shut out; best World Cup showing since 1930, reaching the quarter finals at the 2002 World Cup, before 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 2002 World Cup was the high point of Arena's career as the US coach. Heavy underdogs into the tournament, they stunned the world by beating a respected Portuguese team 3 - 2 in their opening game. Arena was lauded afterwards for instilling his players the confidence to play aggressively against an international powerhouse. A hard fought tie against host nation South Korea was enough to qualify for the second round, despite a poor loss against Poland in the final group game. Arena and the US met nemesis Mexico in the Round of 16, and Arena adapted his tactics brilliantly to secure a 2-0 victory and a quarter final berth. The US switched from their usual 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2, and it paid dividends almost immediately when Josh Wolff, who Arena had brought in to fill out the formation, set up Brian McBride for the winning goal early in the first half. Arena switched the team back to a 4-4-2 for their quarter final against Germany, and the team continued to surprise many by dominating stretches of the game. They were considered unlucky to lose 1-0 on a Michael Ballack header.

The US 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, blamed the poor performance on questionable coaching decisions by Arena. Arena and Wynalda, however, appear to have reconciled, as both appeared as co color commentators on ESPN and ABC coverage of the 2006 MLS playoffs following RBNY's elimination.

During his time as national team head coach, the US Men's National team rose in the FIFA world rankings from being Nineteenth, to being Fifth. All of this was achieved under Bruce Arena from 1998-2006. Bruce Arena was the most successful Men's US National Team Coach in history.

Red Bull New York
On July 14, 2006, USSF announced they would not renew Arena's contract with the US national team. As a result, he began to pursue other coaching opportunities. That led to his being hired by Major League Soccer team Red Bull New York. Arena's first match with the club came on August 12, 2006 in a friendly against FC Barcelona.

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