Bruce Arena has already fundamentally changed the rejuvenated USMNT
There’s something of a placebo effect that takes hold when a new manager is put in charge of a team. The status quo is shattered; the hierarchy knocked down. Those in the doghouse might be brought back inside; those entrenched in the lineup suddenly feel insecure. The negativity is forgotten, for a while at least. A fresh optimism kicks in.
The net outcome is almost always good. In the short term, anyway.
[ Follow FC Yahoo on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr ]
Yet the United States men’s national team’s return to World Cup qualifying in Friday’s emphatic 6-0 win over Honduras in San Jose, Calif., felt like something more substantial than just a different face shaking a team out of its inertia.
The victory, which put the Yanks back on course to qualify for Russia 2018 after a woeful start to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying – losses to Mexico at home and Costa Rica away that cost Jurgen Klinsmann his job after a 5½-year run – seemed to herald a new cohesion and confidence in the national team that had gone missing years ago.
Bruce Arena, brought back for a second spell in charge after the first ended a decade earlier, knew what he was walking into and had seen the shambolic performance in the 4-0 loss to Costa Rica in November. In his last run, his team had dazzled in a sensational quarterfinals run at the 2002 World Cup and disappointed in a three-and-out dud four years later. He’d had the job in good times and in bad.
Since taking over on Nov. 22, the 65-year-old Arena was breezy about his new (old) gig. He reaffirmed something that he said years ago, that in terms of his coaching career, he’s playing with house money. He was visibly having fun, getting a second crack at a job he’d clearly sooner have than any other.
In his slow Long Island patter, he talked about how soccer and managing it really aren’t all that complicated. How tactical hocus-pocus is overrated. How it really boils down to finding a rudimentary tactical framework, a core of committed players and then adjusting to circumstances.
His job ahead of these two key games – the Americans travel to Panama for another World Cup qualifier on Tuesday – was complicated by a raft of injuries to would-be starters. But they were hardly missed on Friday.
There was lovely team interplay on Sebastian Lletget’s opening goal. A wonderful individual Michael Bradley effort for the second. Clint Dempsey’s particular blend of power and technique to shoulder the ball into his own path and slide it the top corner on the third. A fourth from Christian Pulisic, rewarding himself for a banner, man-of-the-match night – with two assists and the credit for the first goal – by scoring a fourth seconds into the second half. Several beautiful setups by Jozy Altidore. Dempsey again for the fifth. And Dempsey a third time from a free kick – in his first game back after missing half a season with an irregular heartbeat, no less.
6-0. Six. Against a perfectly credible CONCACAF opponent.
This was no placebo. The Americans made energetic starts to both halves that have not been seen from them in some time – years, surely. They had a smart game plan, playing through the Honduran traps designed to spring counter-attacks and finding the pockets of space behind the press. The passing and movement was fluid; the connections between the attacking five well-established and well-exploited.
The USA’s play was direct at times, but intricate in its short passing at others, keeping Honduras on its toes. It all looked … better. So much better than it’s been in such a long time.
This was a rejuvenated team. Yet one consisting largely of the same players. Only two in the starting lineup were entirely new to the mix – right midfielder Lletget and left back Jorge Villafana. The former was subbed in the 19th minute with an injury. The latter didn’t have a huge amount to do. The personnel, then, was the same that Klinsmann had overseen. And where it differed, it only did so because of the German’s choices.
National team coaches don’t have the luxury of going out onto the transfer market and plugging holes or reinforcing weak positions. Arena took the same raw material, the same clay, and turned it into something that actually held together without leaking or cracking.
The U.S. won’t play this well in every game under Arena. In fact, it may never dazzle like this again for as long as he’s the manager this time around. But even if this second Arena era is just one competitive game old, it’s plain that he’s changed something fundamental about his national team. Something that can hardly be reduced to a fatigue with his predecessor and a vigor brought on by a new boss.
Arena has found the right medicine for the Americans’ many ailments.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
