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The Red Bulls and Arena Part Ways
Mike Stobe/Getty Images for the New York Red Bulls
Under Bruce Arena, the Red Bulls twice lost in the first round of the playoffs.
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By JACK BELL
Published: November 6, 2007
Bruce Arena, the man the Red Bulls were desperate to hire as coach but who failed to take the club beyond the first round of the M.L.S. playoffs, is leaving the team after 15 months in charge.
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After a meeting yesterday with Marc de Grandpre, the team’s managing director, the two men decided it was “best for us to part ways.”
“With the mountain of resources that Red Bull has committed, we expect results quickly,” de Grandpre said during a conference call. “I think a combination of things happened during the season. He left by mutual agreement. We agreed that this is the right decision for the club and for Bruce Arena.”
During the conference call, de Grandpre seemed to offer conflicting reasons for Arena’s departure. At one point, de Grandpre said it would take time to turn around the Red Bulls, then said seconds later that “we expect to win quickly.”
During Arena’s tenure, the team compiled a 16-16-10 record, which included two first-round playoff exits. The Red Bulls were 12-11-7 this season and finished third in the Eastern Conference. Arena still had two years remaining on a guaranteed contract worth $1.2 million a year.
De Grandpre said the club would immediately begin a worldwide search for Arena’s successor, and Red Bull, the energy-drink company based in Salzburg, Austria, is likely to hire a European coach. The Italian Fabio Capello, who led Real Madrid to the Spanish league title last season but was dismissed in June, is a possibility.
Arena said in a statement released by the club, “Marc and I discussed the direction of the team and decided mutually that this was the best move for Red Bull New York.” Arena was otherwise unavailable to comment, and calls to several Red Bulls players seeking comment were not returned. “I wish the organization the best of luck going forward,” he said in the statement.
Arena, who was also the Red Bulls’ sporting director, was the ninth coach in the 12-year history of the franchise. The team has advanced past the first round of the playoffs once.
“I understand that there’s been numerous coaches throughout the team’s history,” de Grandpre said. “But I’m only responsible for one. Yes, stability is important.”
He said the team would not allow the same person to be the coach and the sporting director, which is in effect the general manager. For now, Jeff Agoos, the team’s head of scouting, who played for Arena in college at Virginia and with the United States national team, will be the sporting director and organize matters ahead of the league’s expansion draft later this month.
The Red Bulls completed their first full season under Arena on Saturday, when they were eliminated from the playoffs by New England after a 1-0 loss in the two-game, home-and-away, total-goals series. During the game, Arena was often shown by Fox Soccer Channel screaming at game officials in expletive-laced tirades that could not be heard by viewers but that could easily be understood by lip reading.
At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Arena took the United States to the quarterfinals, losing to Germany. He joined the Red Bulls early in the summer of 2006 after the United States was eliminated from the World Cup in Germany after the first round. His contract with the United States Soccer Federation was not renewed, (he was replaced by Bob Bradley, who worked as an assistant for Arena at D.C. United in the late 1990s) and Red Bull, which had just fired Mo Johnston as coach, pounced. The team gave Arena near carte blanche to remake the team.
He churned a generally underachieving roster and brought in several of his former players — John Harkes, Richie Williams and Agoos — as assistant coaches and scouting director.
With the benefit of the designated player slot (a player who can be signed for more than the league’s maximum salary of nearly $300,000), Arena brought in Claudio Reyna (who had played for him in college at Virginia and with the national team) and the Colombian striker Juan Pablo Ángel.
The Red Bulls had two designated players after Arena traded midfielder Amado Guevara to Chivas USA for that team’s slot.
Other moves — like the signing of the 34-year-old Dutch goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus — raised eyebrows.
When de Grandpre was asked about the quick turnaround in Chicago, where Juan Carlos Osorio became the coach in July and has led the Fire to the Eastern Conference final, he said, “I think it just goes to show that with the right chemistry and teacher on the bench, you can change things around fairly quickly.”
Mike Stobe/Getty Images for the New York Red BullsUnder Bruce Arena, the Red Bulls twice lost in the first round of the playoffs.
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By JACK BELL
Published: November 6, 2007
Bruce Arena, the man the Red Bulls were desperate to hire as coach but who failed to take the club beyond the first round of the M.L.S. playoffs, is leaving the team after 15 months in charge.
Skip to next paragraph
News and features from around the world of soccer and the Web.
Go to the Goal Blog »
More on Soccer
After a meeting yesterday with Marc de Grandpre, the team’s managing director, the two men decided it was “best for us to part ways.”
“With the mountain of resources that Red Bull has committed, we expect results quickly,” de Grandpre said during a conference call. “I think a combination of things happened during the season. He left by mutual agreement. We agreed that this is the right decision for the club and for Bruce Arena.”
During the conference call, de Grandpre seemed to offer conflicting reasons for Arena’s departure. At one point, de Grandpre said it would take time to turn around the Red Bulls, then said seconds later that “we expect to win quickly.”
During Arena’s tenure, the team compiled a 16-16-10 record, which included two first-round playoff exits. The Red Bulls were 12-11-7 this season and finished third in the Eastern Conference. Arena still had two years remaining on a guaranteed contract worth $1.2 million a year.
De Grandpre said the club would immediately begin a worldwide search for Arena’s successor, and Red Bull, the energy-drink company based in Salzburg, Austria, is likely to hire a European coach. The Italian Fabio Capello, who led Real Madrid to the Spanish league title last season but was dismissed in June, is a possibility.
Arena said in a statement released by the club, “Marc and I discussed the direction of the team and decided mutually that this was the best move for Red Bull New York.” Arena was otherwise unavailable to comment, and calls to several Red Bulls players seeking comment were not returned. “I wish the organization the best of luck going forward,” he said in the statement.
Arena, who was also the Red Bulls’ sporting director, was the ninth coach in the 12-year history of the franchise. The team has advanced past the first round of the playoffs once.
“I understand that there’s been numerous coaches throughout the team’s history,” de Grandpre said. “But I’m only responsible for one. Yes, stability is important.”
He said the team would not allow the same person to be the coach and the sporting director, which is in effect the general manager. For now, Jeff Agoos, the team’s head of scouting, who played for Arena in college at Virginia and with the United States national team, will be the sporting director and organize matters ahead of the league’s expansion draft later this month.
The Red Bulls completed their first full season under Arena on Saturday, when they were eliminated from the playoffs by New England after a 1-0 loss in the two-game, home-and-away, total-goals series. During the game, Arena was often shown by Fox Soccer Channel screaming at game officials in expletive-laced tirades that could not be heard by viewers but that could easily be understood by lip reading.
At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Arena took the United States to the quarterfinals, losing to Germany. He joined the Red Bulls early in the summer of 2006 after the United States was eliminated from the World Cup in Germany after the first round. His contract with the United States Soccer Federation was not renewed, (he was replaced by Bob Bradley, who worked as an assistant for Arena at D.C. United in the late 1990s) and Red Bull, which had just fired Mo Johnston as coach, pounced. The team gave Arena near carte blanche to remake the team.
He churned a generally underachieving roster and brought in several of his former players — John Harkes, Richie Williams and Agoos — as assistant coaches and scouting director.
With the benefit of the designated player slot (a player who can be signed for more than the league’s maximum salary of nearly $300,000), Arena brought in Claudio Reyna (who had played for him in college at Virginia and with the national team) and the Colombian striker Juan Pablo Ángel.
The Red Bulls had two designated players after Arena traded midfielder Amado Guevara to Chivas USA for that team’s slot.
Other moves — like the signing of the 34-year-old Dutch goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus — raised eyebrows.
When de Grandpre was asked about the quick turnaround in Chicago, where Juan Carlos Osorio became the coach in July and has led the Fire to the Eastern Conference final, he said, “I think it just goes to show that with the right chemistry and teacher on the bench, you can change things around fairly quickly.”
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