Soccer Columnist Steve Davis

U.S. manager dials down the griping after his team's elimination

09:09 PM CDT on Saturday, June 24, 2006

HAMBURG, Germany – The actual words never fell out of Bruce Arena's mouth.

But during the U.S. Soccer manager's hour-long, final media briefing from Germany, a slightly humbled and yet quite relaxed Arena seemed to be delivering his farewell address.

Arena even hung around afterward, shaking hands and chatting amiably with reporters with whom he had sparred repeatedly over three tense weeks.

With a day to digest it, Arena dissected the failure to reach Germany 2006's second round and proffered his thoughts on U.S. Soccer's next moves in player and program development.

As for his own tenuous position, Arena sounds neither convinced he wants to return nor convinced he'll be asked back. That's up to U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, who has no public timetable for talks.

Best guess on Arena's next stop: He's a Brooklyn boy, and a coaching change seems near for Red Bull New York, flush with cash from the Austrian drink makers.

At least half the 23 U.S. players were gone by Arena's midafternoon talk. Those remaining had departures scheduled for Saturday morning, as did Arena.

U.S. captain Claudio Reyna stuck around to further discuss his retirement from international soccer. His 108 U.S. appearances rank fourth alltime.

Arena was more conciliatory than 20 hours earlier, when repeated references to refereeing decisions came across as whining. Poor as some calls were, Arena was more willing to accept that they weren't the ultimate U.S. undoing.

"On the whole, we weren't good enough throughout the tournament," he said.

Arena shares some of the blame. His credentials are undeniable, but this was hardly his best moment. Where his instincts and decisions in 2002 proved spot-on, they failed him in Germany.

He selected John O'Brien (given few other enticing options). But the oft-injured midfielder was never healthy enough to contribute. Arena trusted Eddie Pope, 32, but the aging veteran was beaten for early, crushing goals against Italy and the Czech Republic.

Arena loyally stuck with slumping DaMarcus Beasley but stationed him initially on the right, where he isn't comfortable. That was a killer.

Finally, there was Landon Donovan, the biggest U.S. disappointment and a poster child for some of Arena's ideas on going forward.

Without specifically mentioning Donovan, who plays professionally in Los Angeles, Arena said more Americans must extend themselves in challenging European environments. Major League Soccer is no preparation tool for facing sophisticated opponents in the World Cup grinder, Arena believes.

"We need more of our younger, talented players ... in a year-round soccer environment," Arena said. "We need them playing in more intense games to help develop them mentally, as well as soccer-wise."

Gulati agrees, but wonders if some of the answers lie in domestic development programs.

"Are there players who are 13, 14, 15, 16 that, if they had the same opportunities they had over here [in Europe], could have turned out to be better?" he asked.

AP

Coach Bruce Arena (right) speaks during Friday's news conference after the United States was eliminated from the World Cup.

All that may weigh heavy in one young Texan's coming decision.

While Eddie Johnson's formerly booming stock probably fell here, two U.S. players saw theirs rise. One was center back Oguchi Onyewu.

The other is Clint Dempsey. The Nacogdoches native remains under contract to the New England Revolution, but lucrative German or Dutch offers seem likely.

At the team level, Arena says the United States needs stiffer competition beyond World Cups.

European and South American nations survived brutal continental dogfights to qualify for Germany 2006.

For the Americans, qualifying out of the soft CONCACAF region is no longer a worthy challenge.

E-mail stevedavis@dallasnews.com