About a week ago, Bruce Arena called SMU Athletic Director Jim Copeland to ask what he should speak about at Tuesday’s Athletic Forum. As he looked at the crowd in the downtown Dallas hotel, he said, “I was thinking I could talk about teamwork or leadership, but I finally said to myself, ‘Hey, they just want to hear about soccer. That’s why they’re here.'”
Arena, coach of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team that advanced to the semi-finals in last summer’s World Cup, was the keynote speaker at the SMU Athletic Forum, the second of five this school year.
Other guests included Dallas Burn player Chad Deering, U.S. Youth Soccer Association president David Messersmith, Dallas Sidekicks’ legend Tatu and Lamar Hunt, arguably the biggest proponent of soccer in the United States.
After being introduced by NBC-5 anchor Scott Murray, Arena began the afternoon affair with what he termed a “shameless plug.”
“I think it would be great if North Texas could come out to support the [Men’s College Cup],” he said, referencing the NCAA men’s soccer championship that will be held at Ford Stadium on Dec. 13 and 15. “Let’s hope SMU gets there.”
Arena’s half-hour speech chronicled his view of the 2002 World Cup, which was played in Japan and Korea earlier this year. The United States caused a small stir by advancing all the way to the quarterfinals.
Many experts had predicted another early exit for the United States, based mostly on their last-place showing at the 1998 World Cup. However, the United States advanced from a strong group, defeated Mexico in the Round of 16, and eventually lost 1-0 in the quarterfinals to World Cup runner-up Germany.
Soccer analysts singled out Arena as one of the main reasons for the United States turnaround, but he doesn’t see it quite the same way.
“The job of the coach is to give the team the opportunity to be successful. It’s all about the people on the team, not about the coach,” he said.
Arena was picked to be the national team’s head coach because of his tremendous coaching success at both the collegiate and professional levels. He led the University of Virginia to five NCAA championships and D.C. United to two MLS Cups. However, he says the game is totally different at the international level.
“I tell my players that in the MLS, the game is played at 40 mph,” he said. “In qualifiers, the game is played at 60 mph, but in the World Cup, the game is played at 100 mph.”
The United States wasn’t a favorite to qualify for the 2002 Cup in the first place, even with a new coach at the helm – several experts said that the Americans could be upset by dark horses such as Guatemala and Costa Rica in the qualifying tournament.
Still, they managed to secure a place in Korea thanks to a 2-1 win over Jamaica.
“The [emotional] high was incredible,” Arena said. “But once that faded, I realized the team we put together for qualifying just wasn’t good enough to compete at the World Cup.”
“All things being equal,” he continued, “We don’t have as talented a team as some of the top soccer playing nations. If we wanted to be successful, we were going to have to work together and be a true team.”
Team leadership came from some unexpected places – two twenty-year-old rising stars.
“Players like Landon Donavon and DeMarcus Beasley could care less about who the opponent is,” he said. “All they’ve known on every level is success, and that was the attitude that led the team.”
Along with his philosophizing, Arena shared some humorous anecdotes from his travels through Korea.
“When we got off the plane in Korea, there were 800 armed guards forming a human chain from the plane to our bus. Then, parked next to the bus, there was a tank. . . and a police escort to take us to our hotel.”
“Apparently,” he said, “the Koreans were still angry about the speed skating incident at the Olympics. We had a Korean SWAT team on our floors in the hotels, and the CIA was out with us at practice, checking the air quality with their laptop computers.”
In closing, Arena addressed those people who don’t appreciate soccer in the United States. “Please, don’t be threatened by soccer,” he said. “This is a country of 350 million people; there’s room for one more ‘major’ sport. It’s the world’s game.”
