Here are quotes from Bruce Arena’s July 15 media teleconference call about the upcoming Confederations Cup: On the exclusion of midfielder Claudio Reyna: I know a lot of you are probably wondering why Claudio [Reyna] is not on the roster, but I weighed the pros and cons of his personal struggle to be a regular starter with [Glasgow] Rangers, and I felt it made more sense in the long run to have Claudio train with them and try to become a part of the starting eleven. I felt at this time I was willing to make that sacrifice. The decision was left to me. Claudio was kind of caught in the middle. I think we all felt that he should become a starter for Rangers for his career and for us as well. On any roster changes before the Confederations Cup: We have a question mark with one of our players. David Regis is recovering from knee surgery and we may need to remove him from the roster, pending a conversation with our team doctors. We will try to resolve the matter in the next 24 hours. On the exclusion of Jason Kreis from the team: Regarding Jason Kreis, he’s having a great year in Major League Soccer. He is a player I will continue to look at. I’m sure that Jason Kreis will have his opportunity. We have a little bit of an overflow of players at Jason’s position. On the team’s level of confidence: I think we feel pretty good about how things are going. We’ve had a real good week. We have some new players and have a lot of confidence going into the Confederations Cup. On the other teams’ rosters: They [Brazil] are the favorites. Don’t be fooled by other teams not bringing their full rosters. For Germany, as far as I see it, they’re missing three players: [Oliver] Bierhoff , [Jens] Jeremies and [Oliver] Kahn. That’s still an outstanding team and should be the favorite to win the group. Besides that, our goal is very simple: to advance out of our group. On who will fill the attacking midfield role in Reyna’s absence? Some of our options are Kirovski, Moore or Bravo, and playing a 4-4-2 instead of a 3-5-2. We’ll obviously fine tune that next week. On why forward Roy Lassiter was excluded from the roster: I simply needed to make a decision between five or six players that can play forward at this time, and I decided that he’s not the choice we needed going into Mexico. It wasn’t a criticism of Roy, it’s just that we have [Ernie] Stewart, Joe-Max [Moore], and Cobi [Jones] … McBride is back and we’ll see a little bit more of Kirovski in that position. We have a little bit of an overflow with players in the that position. I had to make a decision about one of them, and Roy happened to be the one. On Eddie Pope playing in the 1999 MLS All-Star Game after coming off an injury? Why would it concern me? There’s a big difference in an MLS All-Star Game and playing against Brazil or Germany. I could play in an all-star game. He’s just not ready to play international soccer. On the play of Ben Olsen: He played very well the other day. In some ways, he was our player of the match. He’s got a bright future, no question about it. I hope to give him at least one full macth in Mexico. It’s exciting that we have a couple of young players breaking in and some new faces as well. With the combo of Eddie Lewis, C.J. Brown, Jovan Kirovski and Ben, the future is with some of our young players and we want to give the experience necessary to compete at the highest levels. On the current club situations of Kasey Keller and Brad Freidel: Kasey is obviously out of contract with Leicester [City, of the English Premier League]. His representative is talking with a variety of clubs in different countries. I’m quite certain that a club is going to sign Kasey in the next couple of weeks. As for Friedel, he’s still under contract with Liverpool and has some options to move to another team in the premiership, but right now he’s with Liverpool. On defender Marcelo Balboa: Don’t read too much into the roster selection. Marcelo has had a good MLS season. We have a shortage of defenders, especially central defenders. I need to see Marcelo in person, with our team. He still has a couple of years of soccer left in him. He has experience that will be helpful in whatever role he plays in Mexico. I thought I’d reward a player for the kind of year he’s having and for the attitude he has had this year. On his reactions between comparison of the men’s and women’s teams: I’m thrilled at their success, but it’s not relevant to what we’re doing. We would like to be world champions one day. From a competitive aspect, it’s very different — it’s apples and oranges. We can’t be concerned with comparisons and about if and when the men will win the World Cup. If I was going to worry about that I wouldn’t last 24 hours in the position. On which goalkeeper he’ll use for the Cup: Kasey, if he’s healthy, will start our opening game and we’ll play it from there. They are two outstanding goalkeepers. At this time, I’m very confident that Kasey will be our starting goalkeeper. On the tight schedule of Cup and its affect on the team: You have to make the most of a 20-man roster. There should’t be any problems for games one and two. It all depends on where we stand after the first two games, the condition of our players, given if we have to go all out, maybe we need to play a number of players during the first two games. If we have a game four, we’re a team that can deal with it. On the importance and significance of the tournament: Well, it is a FIFA tournament, and some of the top countries in the world are in it. I terms of the U.S. it gives us an opportunity to elevate some of our players against top competition on the road. The results of this tournament are going to give me a better feel of what players I need to bring into the camp next year that will begin preparing for the 2000 qualifications. We’re in an odd rhythm with the rest of the world, with MLS. I think the players have been stretched in many directions with all of these tournaments. The increased club competitions stretches everybody in every direction. FIFA is working on an international calender of games. Hopefully that will be resolved within the next year. On Tony Sanneh: As of today, he’s a starting player with Hertha Berlin. Tony could use a pre-season in Germany. I think that’s going to work better for him and U.S. Soccer in the long run. On Richie Williams: He is a solid player. Every camp he comes in, he gets more comfortable with this level of play. Richie is somebody that I know what I’m going to get out of him every day in training and games. And that’s a big plus. You need players you know inside out, and he’s one of those players. On fitness as a roster determinant and the inclusion of Armas and Williams: One thing that we want to be sure of, is that we don’t want anyone going down there that is not a hundred percent fit. We need players that are healthy and fit and certainly, playing at altitude, we need these kind of guys. On the Confederations Cup broadcast situation: U.S. Soccer cannot be faulted that this game is not shown live in the U.S. The networks had the option to pick it up and they chose not to. On bringing in some of the younger players into camp lately: There are a number of them … a number in MLS. I think one thing we have is a bunch of young, confident players in the league who have a bright future. We would have brought in [Steve] Cherundolo, [Landon] Donovan, [Chirs] Albright, [Ross] Paule and [Joey] DiGimarino. We have a lot of good young players in this country. Part of my responsibility is to find who they are and give them good international experience. On the nation’s ability to support a women’s league: There’s a lot of competition for the sports dollar, from the entertainment side. The more professional leagues there are, the more watered down everything is. I think there are some people who are willing to put their money where their mouth is and see it go a few years. Coming off the success of the Women’s World Cup, why not give it a shot? On Brian Maisonneuve: I think he did fairly well. Having the players come in on Sunday, and having to make a decision on the roster Tuesday, it was difficult. I felt that physically he is not at a hundred percent yet. That was probably the overriding factor. I do think he has a future on this team. On Paul Bravo: Paul Bravo is doing fine. This is all new to him. He is still inexperienced at this level, but I wanted to see him at this camp. I don’t know if he’ll see much time in Mexico. I will have to make a decision in the next eight or nine days. On Frankie Hejduk: Yes, he is coming on. He has some versatility. He can play anywhere on the right side of the field. He has great endurance and he is a great competitor. He is involved mentally in every play on the field. I like that quality in a player. He is a very alert guy. The experience in Germany has been good for him. There are some things he does well, some things he needs to work on. He needs to improve on his crossing.