The most successful coach of the US men’s soccer team at the World Cup this millennium doesn’t think Greg Berhalter has studied the current squad.
It’s about Bruce Arena, Who captained the Americans on two occasions, between 1998 and 2006, and again between 2016-17, criticized the team’s preparation for the World Cup after the Americans’ disappointing 1-1 draw with Wales in the first Group B match. .
“It’s also clear that this team, for this tournament, didn’t have enough experience against quality international teams to be fully ready for the World Cup,” Arena wrote on the official MLS website Monday night.
“It’s mainly due to the pandemic, so it’s hard to blame, but it’s also a fact that we’ve played a lot of Concacaf games that were too easy. You need those first-class teams that really challenge you,” he said.
In the same sense, he added that in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the team only played friendlies against CONCACAF teams: El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica, The latter of which was the only harvest team Qualified for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. However, it should be noted that the US national team played a friendly match with Wales, which also ended in a draw.
but, On the way to the World Cup, in 2021, the team faces Costa Rica againfrom CONCACAF, but there were also friendly matches against European national teams from Switzerland and Northern Ireland, the first of which was the World Cup.
Now, after qualifying this year, the team beat non-CONCACAF Morocco and drew Uruguay in friendlies, but then struggled badly in the last two friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Arena led two teams from world Cup, He led the 2002 team to the quarter-finals before losing to runners-up Germany, thus failing to advance the 2006 team out of the group stage. During his second term in office, He led the team that did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
With his mixed results, he knows the cost of not holding out and securing a win over Wales.
“The first game of the World Cup is very important, something I experienced twice with the US men’s team,” Arena wrote. “In 2002, we beat Portugal 3-2, which took us to the quarter-finals. Then in 2006 we lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic, which put us through the group stage.”
“Where will things go after the team’s 2022 World Cup kicked off with a 1-1 draw against Wales on Monday? A point to start their journey to Qatar 2022 is not the worst, but this young team should have won 2-0 and not allowed Gareth Bale’s group to stay here.”
Berhalter was also criticized for his substitution decisions, particularly for the time it took to make changes and leave Giovanni Reina, son of American soccer legend Claudio Reina, who played for Arena, on the bench.
He succeeded Dave Sarachan Arena briefly before Berhalter took over.
“Lifelong travel trailblazer. Food nerd. Award-winning music enthusiast. Twitter guru.”