It’s easy to argue that Bruce Arena was the college game’s greatest coach. It’s safe to say his feats during three years in MLS won’t be duplicated soon. In fact, his construction of D.C. United created great credibility for the new league.
How good Arena is at coaching the national team will be revealed shortly, as qualifying for the 2002 World Cup commences with the TFC semifinal round.
So far, Arena’s results have pretty much duplicated the success that Steve Sampson had racked up until qualifiers for France ’98.
Both, shortly after taking over, recorded upsets against traditional powers.
Both reached the semifinals of a major international tournament – Sampson at Copa America ’95 and Arena at the Confederation Cup ’99.
And each entered qualifying after performances that hinted at weaknesses in the squad. That is, both got the most emphatic performances out of their squads early on, in the honeymoon period.
For the first time in modern history, the Americans enter a qualifying round on the heels of a successful campaign four years earlier. How Arena guides his team through these matches should reveal plenty about whether he’s capable of taking the program to a new level.
Though Sampson’s men ended up qualifying with a five-point cushion, his team struggled frequently on the road and profited from Costa Rica’s collapse against other foes.
So troubling were some U.S. efforts that Sampson’s job security remained a topic even after he clinched it.
Eight years before Sampson, Bob Gansler’s team’s historic win in Trinidad masked its earlier struggles.
In the history of qualifying, the Americans have won only 10 of 40 road games, including three wins on neutral ground.
Arena’s quest to take the nail-biting out of U.S. qualifying starts in the opponents’ stadiums. That’s where he can prove he’s a cut above his predecessors.