Bruce Arena

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Arena was born in Brooklyn, New York to Vincent and Adeline Arena, Italian immigrants (from Alicudi, Sicily). He grew up in the Long Island town of Franklin Square, New York, where he attended Carey High School. His father was a butcher while his mother was a school bus driver. Adeline was diagnosed with breast cancer when Bruce Arena was a child and had to undergo a mastectomy. While he excelled at several sports, he was too small for American football, so he joined his high school's soccer team as a defender. He moved into the goal when the starting goalkeeper was suspended after hitting another school's player during a game. While in high school, he also played a single season with local club Hota S.C. of New York City's Cosmopolitan Soccer League. After graduation, he began his collegiate athletic career playing both lacrosse and soccer at Nassau Community College. Arena was a 1970 and 1971 Honorable Mention All-American lacrosse player and an All-American soccer player. He was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 2008. While at Nassau, he played soccer for head coach Bill Stevenson and goalkeeper coach Shep Messing. At the end of his two years with Nassau, Arena transferred to Cornell University where he was a 1972 Honorable Mention All American and a 1973 Second Team All American in lacrosse. He did not originally intend to play soccer, but injuries to the school's first and second string goalkeepers led the men's soccer coach, Dan Wood, to recruit Arena into the team as its goalkeeper. Arena backstopped the Cornell Big Red soccer team to the 1972 NCAA Soccer Championship Final Four and earned Most Valuable Defensive Player honours for the tournament. After Arena's graduation from Cornell, New York Cosmos drafted him in the fifth round of the North American Soccer League college draft. The Cosmos released him before the season. Arena then signed to play professional lacrosse for the Montreal Quebecois, spending a single season with the team in 1975. The National Lacrosse League folded at the end of the 1975 season, leaving Arena unemployed. At the same time, Dan Wood, who had recruited Arena to play for the Cornell soccer team, had been named the new head coach of the expansion Tacoma Tides which played in the American Soccer League. Wood contacted Arena and convinced him to move to the Pacific Northwest in 1976 to play for him. Wh

In Their Own Story

The stadium in Suwon, South Korea, was electric with the noise of a nation that had never seen its team face Mexico in a World Cup knockout round. Arena stood on the touchline, having made a bold tactical switch from the usual 4–4–2 to a 3–5–2. It paid dividends almost immediately. Josh Wolff, who Arena had brought in to fill out the formation, set up Brian McBride for the winning goal early in the first half. The U.S. secured a 2–0 victory and a quarterfinal berth. For the quarterfinal against Germany, Arena switched back to a 4–4–2, and the team dominated stretches of the game. But they lost 1–0 on a Michael Ballack header, and controversy followed when a penalty was not awarded for a handball in the German penalty box. Arena was lauded for instilling in his players the confidence to play aggressively against international powerhouses, a quality that defined his tenure.

Reader's Guide

Arena's coaching career began in 1976 at the University of Puget Sound. In 1977, he moved back to Ithaca to teach at Cornell and act as the school's assistant lacrosse coach. He then took a position at the University of Virginia (UVA) as head soccer coach and assistant lacrosse coach beginning the 1978 season, coaching both teams for seven years before becoming the school's dedicated soccer coach in 1985. Arena was the head coach of the Virginia program for eighteen years, during which he won five national championships (including 4 straight from 1991 to 1994) and amassed a 295–58–32 record, for a career NCAA mark of 300–65–32. He coached many players who would go on to play significant roles in the United States national team, including Claudio Reyna, Jeff Agoos, Ben Olsen, John Harkes and Tony Meola. Arena also coached Richie Williams who later became his assistant coach with the US national team and the New England Revolution. In addition to coaching, Arena served as the ACC soccer coaches chairman as well as two three-year terms on the NCAA Division I soccer committee from 1989 to 1995. On January 3, 1996, Arena left UVA to become the coach of D.C. United of Major League Soccer. He led United to an improbable comeback victory in the first MLS Cup at Foxboro Stadium, and also took United to the 1996 U.S. Open Cup championship. In 1997, United won its second MLS Cup at RFK Stadium defeating the Colorado Rapids 2–1. Arena was selected as the 1997 MLS Coach of the Year. In 1998, Arena took United to its third consecutive MLS Cup but lost to the expansion Chicago Fire. However, he guided United to the CONCACAF Champions' Cup title with a 1–0 victory over Toluca on August 16, 1998, and followed that with a defeat of Brazilian club Vasco da Gama to take the Interamerican Cup title. Arena was also the 1997 and 1998 MLS All-Star head coach. Arena was hired by the U.S. national team to replace Steve Sampson as head coach in October 1998. His first game in charge was a friendly against Australia in San Jose, California, on November 6, 1998. He is the most successful coach in United States history: most international wins; longest home shut-out; best World Cup showing since 1930, reaching the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup; and all-time best international FIFA Ranking (4th place, April 2006). Arena also won two Gold Cup championships in 2002 and 2005, with a th

Did You Know?

• Arena earned his only national team cap as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 loss to Israel in 1973.
• He also played for the national lacrosse team which won the 1974 World Lacrosse Championship.
• Arena was a goalkeeper for Cornell University and backstopped the team to the 1972 NCAA Soccer Championship Final Four.
• He is the only coach to lead the U.S. men's national team to two World Cups (2002 and 2006).