Arena Still Is Miffed With Fans
Now that he has become the first coach to qualify the United States for two World Cup tournaments, Bruce Arena has every right to pound his cleats on the table a little.
He did just that Saturday night after watching DaMarcus Beasley and Co. demolish a feeble Mexico team, 2-0, to secure the Americans a place next summer in Germany.
In the lead-up to the match, Arena had lambasted U.S. fans for their lack of commitment to the sport -- even though the game at Columbus, Ohio, sold out within a day.
It was, he said, time for fans to “put up or shut up.”
Arena revisited that theme Saturday night while the champagne was flowing in the U.S. locker room.
Attendance at Major League Soccer games is flat, if not down, television ratings for MLS and national-team games show little or no growth, and Arena, for one, is tired of it.
“We have so many millions of people who claim that they love the game and that they’re part of the game in this country,” he said. “If that’s the case, they’ve got to support it.
“As we continue to move forward, we’re going to need the support of all people who are soccer enthusiasts, to come out to stadiums and to be consumers of the sport.
“And if you can’t come to the stadium or you can’t buy something, at least watch it on television so that it motivates networks to want U.S. games or MLS games and it brings in sponsors because of the ratings.”
Although Telemundo carried it in Spanish, Saturday’s game between the region’s two soccer powers was televised in English on ESPN Classic -- which has relatively few subscribers -- and then only after a squabble. Arena did not get into that, however.
“If there was one hand-held camera doing the game tonight, that would be fine with me,” he said. “I really don’t care.”
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Arena used some more colorful language when criticizing the rule that calls for a player to be suspended after receiving two yellow cards in qualifying play, no matter how far apart.
Midfielder and U.S. captain Claudio Reyna was cautioned late in the second half against Mexico and immediately became ineligible for a qualifying game against Guatemala in Guatemala City on Wednesday.
“Reyna’s first yellow card was in Game 2 against Grenada [on June 20, 2004],” Arena said. “I hate to get on somebody about this, but that is the stupidest set of rules -- that a player is suspended for getting a card from Game 2 to whatever it is, Game 16 or 17 [it was 17].
“It’s insane. It’s idiotic. It has to change.”
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In an enterprising and worthwhile development, MLS, the MLS Players Union, U.S. Soccer, the Mexican Soccer Federation, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Eurosport and the U.S. National Team Players Assn. have combined to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
They are doing so through an online auction of 94 signed, game-worn jerseys from the U.S.-Mexico match and from MLS games played over the weekend.
By 11 a.m. Monday, more than $45,000 had been bid, and these were the 10 jerseys attracting the highest offers:
Kasey Keller, $4,010; Brian McBride, $1,860; Landon Donovan, $1,780; Reyna, $1,560; Steve Ralston, $1,310; Beasley, $1,160; Oguchi Onyewu, $1,111; Freddy Adu, $1,110; Chris Armas, $1,010; and Carlos Bocanegra, $1,010.
The auction ends at 9 a.m. PDT Sept. 12 and can be accessed on the Internet at www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/fans/auctions/2005/hurricane_relief/.
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The seemingly interminable MLS season, which this year runs from April 2 to Nov. 13, apparently is not long enough.
Arena said the only way MLS players can remain fit and in the hunt for World Cup places is to play virtually 12 months a year.
“Our MLS players have got to find a way to become soccer players year-round,” Arena said. “We’ve got to figure that out, else it’s going to hurt their ability to make our World Cup roster because they take too long of a break.
“That’s something we need to think about, and perhaps we will be bringing them together in January and not allow them to have such a long break. Hopefully that will make a difference for them.”
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It might be a good idea for Donovan to remember that he is only 23 and probably will be playing against Mexico for at least the next decade or so.
Donovan, already an unpopular figure among Mexican fans and players because of previous incidents, ratcheted up the rivalry a notch or two with some of his postgame comments.
“It’s funny, they talked so much all week and they didn’t say anything now,” he said of Mexico’s players. “I’d like to hear what they have to say now.
“There were a few gestures they made that made it sweeter when we won. A few of them didn’t shake my hand when they went by, they wouldn’t look at me. But we got the final laugh.
“They can’t win here [in the U.S.]. They know they can’t win here. It kills them. To be honest, they can’t beat us anywhere but Mexico City. I think they know that deep down, and they struggle with that. We come into every game having an advantage.”
On Wednesday night, if it defeats Panama, Mexico will join the U.S. in having qualified for the 2006 World Cup.
If the Dec. 9 draw in Leipzig, Germany, puts the U.S. and Mexico on a collision course in the second round or later, as happened at Korea/Japan ‘02, Donovan’s comments could come back to haunt him.
