High Drama: Bruce Arena and Eric Wynalda Square Off
Uncategorized June 27th. 2006, 5:22am
Meet Eric Wynalda. He’s the pretty-boy soccer analyst who has been absolutely killing US National team coach Bruce Arena on a daily basis for ESPN. It’s a bludgeoning, really. [Brief Wynalda history lesson: He scored against Switzerland in the 1994 World Cup, but was an absolute waste of space in two games during the 1998 Cup, when the US finished 32nd out of 32 teams.]
Moments after the US was eliminated from the 2006 World Cup following a 2-1 loss to Ghana Thursday, Wynalda (aka Waldo), famously ranted ”Bruce Arena Screwed Up the World Cup for the US”. Harsh? Sure. Accurate? That’s debatable.
Late last night on ESPN’s ‘World Cup Live’ (or whatever it’s called), we caught Rece Davis grilling Arena. Davis said something to the effect of, “our analysts have been critical of you and the team.” Clearly, he was talking about Waldo, though no names were mentioned.
With his trademark shit-eating grin, Arena fired this opening salvo: “Your analyst … they should know that these competitions are difficult … the 1998 team that many of your analysts participated on, fell apart. On the field and off the field. Our team is a strong team.” Then came this: “Over the eight years I’ve been with the US team, we’ve advanced considerably. I had to take over a program in 1998 that really was at the bottom, because of really, the antics of a lot of players.”
Yee-haw! Rece then turned to a fiery-red Waldo, who appeared flustered and embarrassed. “Maybe [Bruce] didn’t elevate soccer in this country, maybe he took it where it should be. I don’t think he’s the guy to take it to the next level, and he proved that.” Then came the personal digs: “…He’s an arrogant guy … He’s never played in a World Cup, he doesn’t know what that’s like.”
We’re shocked Wynalda didn’t just scream, “I’m the leading goal-scorer in US history, Bruce. You coached lacrosse!”
And now, the “antics” Arena was referring to. Less than two weeks ago, an anonymous poster on the Big Soccer forum found this Waldo quote:
“The difference is that this is a real team. Regardless of the game against Italy, I guarantee that the veteran players will not be sitting in the lawn chairs in the middle of the night throwing wine bottles at the coaches’ suite — like we did in France.”
Oh, look. Wynalda did say it. In USA Today, no less.
This tussle is taking shape quite nicely. We’ll put it on the undercard of Guillen-Mariotti.
9 Responses to “High Drama: Bruce Arena and Eric Wynalda Square Off”
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June 27th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Excellent post.
I figure Wynalda is to soccer as Mark Schlereth is to the NFL.
Arena made some mistakes, and he’s definitely been man enough to admit that. But, Wynalda made himself out to be a total toad the way he came out against Arena.
I absolutely LOVE that Arena was able to successfully shoot back and nail him. Kinda makes me sad, just for that reason, that he’ll probably no longer coach the MNT.
Brian
June 27th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Although I’ve been surprised by the excellent coverage ESPN and ABC have provided (showing all games live), Eric Wynalda has to be the worst commentator/analyst on all of TV. I don’t know how someone who played the sport professionally can be so ridiculously stupid. Although I believe Kasey Keller is a superb goalkeeper, Wynalda’s comments about Keller being the best goalkeeper in the world were hysterical and the highlight of a variety of insane comments he has made. Arena isn’t much better, before the start of the tournament, he predicted that Australia would be one of the easy games for their opponents – Australia would have embarassed the US looking at the results from the tournament.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:46 am
I love it! Soccer angst in USA! Yes Wynalda is a dick, but he’s got it right by calling for the coaches head. Every other country who went out after three are doing the same thing. It’s what we’re suppose to do if we plan on becoming more of a powerhouse in the footy world. Argue, disagree, have fun with it. It’s all part of the world stage.
June 29th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Eric Wynalda’s views and statements on ESPN are examples of the sophmoric and inept commentaries that all the “has been” US ex-players hired by ESPN have exhibited. Thes are just not good. Listening to the ESPN during the US-Ghana game, one would think that the US team was playing against the referee. A significant amount of time was wasted on criticizing the referee and these guys just do not much about the fine points of refering. According to Wynalda, there are “two kinds of referee, the bad ones and the worse ones”. What an insightful comment! And he repeated this over and over again. In the US-Italy game, coconut-head Wynalda pronounced that Fifa was going to put that game’s referee in the next plane leaving Germany. Three days later, the same referee was assigned another game. What did Wynalda have to say? Prehaps the problem was that ESPN made the assumption that ex-players, some of whom went by non-soccer nicknames such as “head-hunter”, would automatically make good commentators. I bet that ESPN would not have made the same assumption with football, baseball or basketball.
The bottom line, I have spent a lot of time listining to unrated, uncouth and sophmoric ESPN soccer analysts, while watching a B-rated team, coached by a B-rated coach. While the US team at least acknowledges that it did not play well, the analysts know not that they know not. This is a classic defination for fools.
July 2nd, 2006 at 4:37 am
The US play by play announcers need to to just do that. Give a play-by-play account of what is happening in the game. Too many times they tell stories during the game which takes away from the excitement. They need to tell these stories when there is a hurt player or when the ball is out of play. After all, I want to watch and know who has the ball. Ever listen to the premier league – that is all they do. Yet it is enjoyable. I, along with many americans have grown up watching soccer on the spanish channels and it is always exciting (I know who has the ball and definitely know when something exciting is happening – I could just be listening to the game and know. The XM radio annoncer was the best – he wasn’t negative(like Balboa and the English guy) and didn’t tell stories. He just did the play by play. And he made it exciting. That is all most soccer fans want as we get the stories before the game, at halftime, and after the game.
July 4th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
It has been a brilliant cup so far with some phenom games that definitely make it into the archive, as long as they are IN SPANISH or completely MUTED!. Balboa has to be completely disregarded, and between him and the arrogant and strictly opinionated Wynalda, I don’t know who’s more embarassing to the sport. No wonder we can’t get a team amongst millions of players to represent us with a win. When you have Balboa blaming the ref’s for the downfall of the sport, and Wynalda blaming the coach. They are only finding excuses for their own disappointments within the cup. It couldn’t be more obvious. And between the two of them I can’t figure out who is more full of b.s. countless talking just to hear themselves talk. Just remember no one is listening anymore! One note to ESPN, PLEASE DON’T PUT EITHER OF THEM ON THE COMMENTATING OF THE FINAL! That is sacred and shouldn’t be tampered with. One other thing! Thanks to Addidas for their sponsorship to have all of these games played real time. I will buy Addidas here on out til 2010. At least you (Addidas) turned out to represent, along with all the great fans who were there in person!
July 5th, 2006 at 12:02 am
What’s more pathetic is over half the team plays in the MLS. The league is a joke. The US has made horrible decisions every world cup since 94. Brad Friedel…seriously, he’s the worst goalie. Kasey Keller has proven year in and year out he’s leagues ahead of Friedel.
The MLS is a joke league. I’m sure there are college teams out there that can beat some of the teams. Heck, the reserve squad for any Premiere League team can.
Bruce is bitter because he’s not a “champ” coach anymore. He was handed the best players at VA and DC United. Now, he has to work with sub par players like Landon Donaven (PATHETIC).
I’m just glad the US proved 2002 was a fluke!
July 15th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Eric Wynalda sure did what ESPN wanted rom him… he got people talking about US Soccer with some passion. Love him or hate him, He got you talking. His methods may not be very tactful, but frankly his assesment of the US performance was dead-on.
Arena has a team full of very athletic players that may not be at the technical level of some of the best players in the world, but certainly they rival the best teams fitness, and athleticism.
Arena’s decision to sit back and defend with 9 and try to play into a single target man completely took the athletic advantage away from the US.
Our athletes are not able to hit a 50-yard ball into a target man accurately from the back third, and that’s why playing with 1 man up high COULDN’T POSSIBLY work.
I think in that sense, Arena didn’t give the US a chance to win. Tactically, he crippled the US chances to create any kind of attacking soccer.
The reason the US even competed against Italy is because the field was wide open with fewer players (after the red cards) and the more athletic US players had more space to run at players. You just can’t stretch the field vertically enough with one striker who can’t get decent service.
Wynalda said EXACTLY this during many of his commentaries, when he described HIS experience playing as a lone striker.
The team played too conservatively, as if “not to lose” rather than to try and win. It’s cliche, but no more evident then in those 3 games. Why did Arena NOT use his last sub against Italy?? So he had a better chance of NOT LOSING.
We need an attacking minded coach who is willing to take some chances going forward. It’s not the Eighties anymore. We don’t need to be afraid to play European teams in more friendlies. We shouldn’t play ANY CONCACAF teams in ANY friendlies… just European, South American, and African teams.
And by the way… If the African teams EVER learn to defend and get some technically sound goalkeeping, we could be seeing a World Champion SOON from that region.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I wanted to sait until a few weeks passed to post my rant. Oh, Waldo. Has there been a more arrogant be-ach? Not since a tough-guy Geraldo Rivera in his prime have we seen such a thing. I wanted to reach through the tube and strangle the guy. Terrible!