Jere Longman on the U.S. team and Bruce Arena, and the distinctive American style:
Arena prefers to be called a manager, however, not a coach. In that distinction lies his primary talent: building a team, in every sense of the word. He has a gift for breathing value into words that have become deflated with overuse in sports: honesty, chemistry, trust. Above all, he understands, in a way that no foreign coach could, just exactly what it means to be an American soccer player — his strengths and weaknesses, his needs and preferences, his constant battle with the realization that a player from the United States is always considered something lesser."I get the sense that Arena truly appreciates the predicament of the American soccer player," says Andrei Markovits, a professor of German studies and comparative politics at the University of Michigan and the author of a book on the development of American soccer. "These are great athletes, but they are disrespected by their peers around the world and unknown by their own countrymen. Arena understands this, and I think it gives him tremendous legitimacy."
My own view is the American players are not so far behind their foreign competitors in terms of talent...
In particular, the Americans lack a dominant goal scorer and lyrical playmaker. The last time Arena checked, Ronaldinho played for Brazil and Wayne Rooney wore the red, white and blue of England, not the United States. Basketball is played with jazzy improvisation in this country, but soccer's suburban orientation often creates a fife-and-bugle regimentation. This is why Arena bristles at suggestions by columnists and by officials within the United States Soccer Federation that the Americans should play artistically like the Brazilians or hire a Brazilian coach.
"What we're good at and why we've been successful is that we know what we are," Donovan, the American playmaker, told me. "A lot of countries pretend to be something they're not. A lot of teams like to pretend they're like the Brazilians. Well, you don't have the athletes the Brazilians do. You don't have the soccer knowledge and skill they do. We understand that. We're not the most talented team in the world, by far. But we are one of the most competitive, with the best spirit, the fittest, and with some of the best athletes. And we use that to our advantage."When Arena chews on the matter of American soccer style, he appears to have bitten into something bitter. For him, the country is too big, the melting-pot influences too various, the youth development system too disconnected from professional clubs to say that this is the way the Americans play soccer. Style will have to develop over time, if at all, Arena says. "Europe is kind of the size of the U.S. Is there one playing style in Europe?" he asks. "If we were the size of Holland, it'd be a hell of a lot easier."
But, he adds, "one day, when we get it right and become the best, it's because we did it our way, no one else's way."
The American style, as Arena sees it, is defined by an ability to adapt, to shape strategies and formations according to various factors: the players available on a particular day, the opponent, the weather. Style depends on the qualities his players possess, not on predetermined notions about how they should play.
I can hardly wait, although with the tough group the U.S. have drawn there is a very real chance of disappointment. RTWT.
H/T.
Posted by Walter at June 5, 2006 08:31 AM