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Karl
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USA
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 Posted - Aug 31 2001 : 07:46:41 AM
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Arena prepares U.S. for crucial World Cup qualifier
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Posted: Wednesday August 29, 2001 7:55 PM
Bruce Arena will be without several injured stars -- including Clint Mathis, Brian McBride and Claudio Reyna -- for upcoming qualifiers. Brian Bahr/Allsport
By Will Kuhns, Soccer America
Qualifiers are preceded by intense preparation. There's pressure on coaches to get it right. The USA-Honduras match has special demands. The game kicks off at 10 a.m. and is followed four days later by another World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica. Here's Coach Bruce Arena's pregame method.
Ask Bruce Arena how the U.S. men's national team prepares for a World Cup qualifying match, and he'll likely say, "It's not rocket science," and not much else. On one hand, Arena is right -- there is no scientific formula. Much of it varies depending on the site -- home or away -- the timing of the game and player availability.
"There is no typical week," Arena says. "The longer you do this, the more you learn that you need to be flexible. You can't have a rigid schedule, or you'd just pull your hair out. So you adjust as you move along."
To get a sense of what it is like for U.S. players, however, Soccer America studied preparation for recent qualifiers and assembled a hypothetical timeline leading up to the Sept. 1 game against Honduras. For competitive reasons, the starting lineup and things discussed in team meetings are not divulged to the public, but the week before a match might go like this:
Sunday, Aug. 26
Assembling the troops
Players report to camp. This always happens in phases. Most of the MLS players will arrive in Fairfax, Va., on Sunday morning, but club commitments and travel mean that the European-based players trickle in at various times Monday and Tuesday.
4 p.m. First training session. Workouts start at moderate intensity, build to full-speed midweek and taper off before game day. Entering the first practice, there is plenty of chatter as guys get caught up with friends they haven't seen in a while.
"A lot of guys are getting near the end of a fairly long MLS season, and the rest are coming off a pretty grueling preseason in Europe," says assistant coach Dave Sarachan. "The first day of training is pretty much about getting the travel out of their legs. We'll have some light small-sided games, but the last thing we need to do is push them physically, especially when there's another match in Costa Rica four days after this one."
Monday, Aug. 27
Plenty of fresh fruit
10 a.m. Training. "Every session generally starts with some sort of warmup, ends with finishing and a cool-down and has some kind of possession work and a game-to-goal in between," Arena says.
Players linger after Arena is done instructing them. For players such as Joe-Max Moore, Claudio Reyna, Earnie Stewart and Ante Razov, who like to take free kicks, that means practice hitting balls from a variety of spots. Practice could see Cobi Jones and Eddie Pope school Steve Cherundolo in the ever-popular game of chipping long balls at the crossbar or Jeff Agoos challenging Sarachan to a game of soccer-tennis.
12:30 p.m. Lunch and meeting. Lunches are served buffet-style in a private room of the team hotel and usually feature pasta, chicken, poached eggs, vegetables and plenty of fresh fruit. After lunch, if most of the players are in camp, Arena gives an introduction to the week, discussing the schedule and what he plans to go over.
4 p.m. Training. This could be the first training session for several European-based players, so their workouts are light.
Tuesday, Aug. 28
Studying the foe
10 a.m. Training. Arena focuses on the forwards, conducting a variety of finishing drills to find out who is sharp. Since these two spots are the most uncertain, competition is fierce. Players curse at missed chances, other players lend encouragement.
12:30 p.m. Lunch and meeting. Arena will have prepared an edited videotape of the U.S. team's most recent game, focusing on a few positive points and a few areas for improvement. He also reviews the team's performance in Honduras -- the 2-1 win March 28 -- to highlight tactics used in that game.
2:30 p.m. Meeting adjourns. Team meetings last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. When they're finished, players are free to spend the rest of the day -- including dinner -- however they please.
Many meet with family or old friends in town. Several players are hooked on golf, but there is rarely time to get a full round in, and they're cautious about spending more time in the sun when they're trying to re-hydrate. Some play cards, some read, some nap, some sit around and chat. The most common pastimes might be card-playing and window shopping.
Forward Brian McBride says: "If you're ever out of town and you want to know where to find the nearest mall, just ask a soccer player -- he'll know."
Chances are he'll already be there.
Wednesday, Aug. 29
Face-to-face with the boss
10 a.m. Closed-door scrimmage. The projected starters face either a side of reserves or an MLS team. The focus is on team shape and responsible ball movement. Prior to the match in Jamaica, Sarachan instructed the Miami Fusion on how to mimic the Reggae Boyz's system of pressuring. The scrimmage may have two 30-minute halves. This time, Arena tries a different forward combination with the starters in each half.
12:30 p.m. Lunch and meeting. Sarachan holds the first of two briefings on Honduras. He has compiled 10-15 minute video segments on each of the Hondurans' six games in this round of qualifying. Within each, he will point out the opponents' defensive shape, their habits of pressing, their preferred methods of moving the ball forward and their restarts.
2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Individual meetings. Arena and Sarachan meet privately with each player in camp to discuss his standing, his role and their expectations of him. A meeting lasts between five minutes and a half hour.
Thursday, Aug. 30
Who's starting?
10 a.m. Training. Among the items on today's agenda is a positional walk-through. Arena describes different situations, and the players practice how they move in response. Arena assigns specific matchups for defensive set pieces, and the team rehearses corner kicks.
12:30 p.m. Lunch and meeting. Sarachan shows more video analysis of Honduras, including all the goals it has scored and allowed during qualifying. Defenders watch a montage of clips on each attacker they will face to gauge his strengths and tendencies.
Arena announces the starting lineup.
"They know [the starting lineup] well in advance of the game," Arena says. "There's no particular time, but it's never a last-minute thing. They know well in advance, and we don't make any of that information public. Well in advance means at least 24 hours."
2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Individual meetings continue.
Friday, Aug. 31
Focusing on 'us'
For a road match, this day would involve travel. After the Honduras game, the United States will meet Sunday and train Monday in Fairfax before departing for Costa Rica on Tuesday. The U.S. team rarely spends more than 48 hours in a foreign city for a qualifier because, as Agoos put it, "There's nothing worse than sitting in a hotel room in a foreign country all day."
Prior to playing Honduras, however, this day starts early. The Saturday qualifier is scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. -- dictated by television constraints (Saturday afternoon and evening football on ESPN and ESPN2).
10 a.m. Stadium walk-through and training on game field. This is a light workout with very little contact or full-speed work.
1 p.m. Lunch and meeting. Arena summarizes the team's tactical objectives and things to keep in mind for the match. Very little, if any, video is used. The focus is on what the United States, rather than the opponent, will do.
"We look at the other team pretty thoroughly and tell our players what to expect," Arena says. "We talk about certain players' tendencies, but we want to make sure we go in thinking about ourselves, not the other team."
6 p.m. Team dinner. This is the only dinner the team eats together, but it differs little from other meals. Arena may mention new information like the anticipated Honduran lineup. When dinner is finished, the players are free, but rarely do they leave the hotel on the night before the game. There is no official curfew.
"Bruce is very liberal," says Pam Perkins, the team's general manager. "He puts a lot of responsibility on the players. He's not one to make a whole bunch of rules, because as soon as you say they can't do something, they want to do it."
The players retire to their rooms. Every player is paired with a teammate in a "team" room.
Saturday, Sept. 1
Here we go!
6 a.m. Pregame meal. Arena may have his players wake early during the week to prepare their bodies' clocks for this morning. This meal is usually light, but there are no mandates on what players eat. Each player knows what works best for him.
8:30 a.m. Players arrive at the stadium. Players walk out on the field to double check the playing surface and get a taste of the atmosphere. Trainers administer tape, a chiropractor cracks a few backs, and players go through their mental preparation.
"It's actually pretty relaxed in [the locker room]," says midfielder Chris Armas. "Usually, there is good music playing, some guys might be singing with the music, there are a few laughs. ... It's not so serious that it's silent, but it's not all joking around, either. Everyone is thinking about their game."
Shoes are polished and laced up.
9:15 a.m. Warmup. The players take the field 45 minutes before the scheduled kickoff. They stay on the field for about 25 minutes. Each player spends the first 10-13 minutes on his own, doing the jogging and stretching he prefers. Then Sarachan takes the 11 starters through a slightly more rigorous workout, lasting about five minutes, to get them focused as a unit. The players are free to finish the last 5-8 minutes doing whatever ballwork they please.
9:40 a.m. Team heads back into the locker room. The national team jerseys, two of which hang in each players' locker, are donned. As shinguards and tape are put on, Arena speaks to them one last time, quickly reviewing two or three points from the week's preparation. There are no rah-rah speeches or chants.
"The last couple minutes are kind of a private thing," Sarachan says. "Bruce is a great motivator, so there's always something a little different that the team hasn't heard all week. It's not a cliché, it's just something that makes sense."
9:55 a.m. Led by the yellow FIFA Fair Play banner, the teams emerge from the tunnel in two single-file lines and walk onto the field, greeted by the crowd's anxious crescendo.
10 a.m. The players are introduced. The national anthems are played -- of Honduras first, then the Star-Spangled Banner, which Sam's Army sings at full volume. The players pose briefly for the pre-match photos, then disperse to their positions.
10:07 a.m. The referee raises his arm, blows his whistle and the ball is kicked into play.
Will Kuhns is an associate editor at Soccer America magazine
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