Dead and Buried- Yet Still Going Strong

The verbal barrage came from sports writers all over the country. A half-hearted effort, they said. They are clearly outmatched, they said. The coach is irresponsible for publicly bashing his players, they said. This team is clearly broken, they said. No chance in even competing with Italy or the rest of the world, they also said.

So where are all of these opining “soccer experts,” now? Well, they’re resting, and not just their mouths and their pens. They are resting their bodies, getting to bed early, so they can get up and cheer for their precious U.S. World Cup team, the team they left for dead just a half a week before.
 Bruce Arena, the American Head Coach, took more undeserved criticism in a span of five days than perhaps any sports figure in American history. It’s true that the American team clearly wasn’t ready for the World Cup stage in their first match against the Czech Republic, but was almost as if the American players were getting a pass from the national media because America has never been known as a soccer superpower. Public criticism from their coach, on the other hand, was unacceptable. Arena, who has won everywhere he’s ever coached, and knows his team better than anyone, couldn’t possibly think that challenging his players in front of the world could be productive, could he?

He did, and he was right.

When Bill Parcells openly humiliates his players in mini-camp, sports writers attribute that to his coaching genius, because they have seen his track record of success. The same is true of Pat Riley, Vince Lombardi, and almost any sports movie coaching hero in American Cinema. When a confused and frustrated Durham Bulls coach complains to veteran catcher Crash Davis that he’s lost his team, Crash advises him simply to “yell at them.”

It’s genrally understood in coaching that sometimes a fire needs to be lit in a team that is simply going through the motions. Public criticism, while harsh, can prove to be a productive motivation tool for competitive athletes, who all play with some level of pride. When the United States ran circles around the powerhouse Italian in the second half despite playing down a man, it was Arena who deserved the credit. He knew how to reach his team in biggest game of his career, the game that supposedly saved his job, and probably the progression of American soccer.

 It didn’t have to be this way. Arena shouldn’t have been fighting for his life. He’s as much success, or more, in his sport as other legendary American coaches have had in theirs. He constantly motivates his players by getting in their faces, and questioning their mental toughness, and he gets results. And yet, because the sports media’s soccer coverage is still not up to par, he took his share of cheap shots. If he was coaching any other sport with the same track record, Arena’s comments about his players wouldn’t have been as much as an afterthought.

But because sports writers that aren’t soccer fans felt a surge in the sport’s popularity this month, they had to cover a sport they were unfamiliar with, and consequently cover a coach with who they also didn’t know. Where did this surge in soccer’s popularity come from? From ESPN and ABC, who together are broadcasting 60 games this month, endless soccer commercials, and announcements about the upcoming U.S. game every five minutes or so.

You can’t blame the powers that be in American soccer for trying to capitalize on a potential American “breakthrough” World Cup. They saw a chance for Soccer to gain some wind in the United States, and the soccer federations and equipment companies gambled on the Americans surviving Group E, and grabbing the hearts of America. No one could have predicted their lackluster performance against the Czech Republic, and yes, Arena has to share some of the blame. However, to criticize his motivational tactics was simply irresponsible for experts who knew less about soccer than they knew about Angelina’s baby.

Most demanded Arena’s head on a platter for breaking up team chemistry, and predicted that tomorrow’s game against Ghana would be his last as head coach. Instead, Arena, as he has done countless times (most recently in 2002 against Mexico) has outsmarted us all, proven he knows his team better than everyone (Even the sports writers), and left his squad with a fighting chance (think Geoff Ogilvy on the 18th tee at Winged Foot)of advancing going into tomorrow’s last day of group play.

Of course, any coach in the spotlight that Arena is this month has to be prepared to take his shots along with the praise. That isn’t the point. Arena deserves to be hit hard for the first match, and celebrated for the second. If Beasley’s goal is counted in the second half vs. Italy, you can bet screenwriters would be working hard on the movie script as we speak.

This pattern of sportswriters going on TV and offering their opinions on every issue in sports in two minute intervals has to stop. As much as I love ESPN, the new era of sports has its drawbacks. Any writer who looks good in front of a camera now goes on television and throwing their opinions around right and left as if they were facts, even when armed with no more than a couple of stats on the sport they are covering.

Meanwhile, Bruce Arena is preparing his team for what could be the biggest match of their lives tomorrow, after they were written off a week ago by all of these sports writers who we have converted into celebrities. I’m all for soccer taking off in the United States, but before any more sports writers leap on the bandwagon, lets hope they do a little bit of research before the next time they call for a coach’s head. Either take soccer seriously, or don’t grace us with your viewpoints.