Bruce Arena was born on September 21,1951 and is an American soccer coach who is the head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution.
34 Facts About Bruce Arena
2.
Bruce Arena is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
3.
Bruce Arena was the United States national team head coach at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, head coach of the New York Red Bulls, DC United, LA Galaxy, and the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer, and coached Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer to several college soccer championships.
4.
Bruce Arena is the US soccer team's longest-serving head coach.
5.
Bruce Arena was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian immigrant parents, and grew up in the Long Island town of Franklin Square, New York, where he attended Carey High School.
6.
Bruce Arena moved into the goal when the starting goalkeeper was suspended after hitting another school's player during a game.
7.
Bruce Arena was a 1970 and 1971 Honorable Mention All-American lacrosse player and an All-American soccer player.
8.
Bruce Arena was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 2008.
9.
Bruce Arena did not originally intend to play soccer, but injuries to the school's first and second string goalkeepers led to the men's soccer coach, Dan Wood, to recruit Arena into the team as its goalkeeper.
10.
Bruce Arena backstopped the Cornell Big Red soccer team to the 1972 NCAA Soccer Championship Final Four and earned Most Valuable Defensive Player honors for the tournament.
11.
Bruce Arena then signed to play professional lacrosse for the Montreal Quebecois, spending a single season with the team in 1975.
12.
Wood contacted Bruce Arena and convinced him to move to the Pacific Northwest in 1976 to play for him.
13.
In 1977, Bruce Arena moved back to teach at Cornell and act as the school's assistant lacrosse coach.
14.
Bruce Arena took that opportunity and went on to coach both the UVA lacrosse and soccer teams for seven years, before becoming the school's dedicated soccer coach in 1985.
15.
On January 3,1996, Bruce Arena left UVA to become the coach of DC United of Major League Soccer.
16.
The 1996 season would be both the team's and the league's inaugural season, so Bruce Arena needed to build a team from scratch just like the other 9 MLS club managers.
17.
Bruce Arena's success led to his selection as the 1997 MLS Coach of the Year.
18.
In 1998, Bruce Arena took United to its third consecutive MLS Cup only to see his team fall to the expansion Chicago Fire led by his protege Bob Bradley.
19.
Bruce Arena followed that with a defeat of Brazilian club Vasco da Gama to take the Interamerican Cup title.
20.
Bruce Arena was the 1997 and 1998 MLS All-Star head coach.
21.
Bruce Arena was hired by the US national team to replace Steve Sampson as head coach in October 1998 following the team's disastrous showing in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
22.
Bruce Arena's first game in charge was a friendly against Australia in San Jose, California on November 6,1998.
23.
Bruce Arena then forged the team into a successful international side, and is the most successful coach in United States history: most international wins; longest home shut-out; best World Cup showing since 1930, reaching the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, before a defeat against Germany; and all-time best international FIFA Ranking.
24.
Bruce Arena won two Gold Cup championships in 2002 and 2005, with a third-place finish in 2003.
25.
Bruce Arena was lauded afterward for instilling in his players the confidence to play aggressively against an international powerhouse.
26.
Bruce Arena was eventually replaced as national team coach by his close friend and former assistant at Virginia and DC United, Bob Bradley.
27.
On November 5,2007, Red Bulls and Bruce Arena decided mutually to part company.
28.
Bruce Arena had two years remaining on his contract with the club.
29.
The Galaxy went to the playoffs and Bruce Arena was selected as the MLS Coach of the Year Award.
30.
On November 22,2016, Bruce Arena was appointed as coach of the United States national team for the second time, replacing Jurgen Klinsmann after two disastrous losses in the first two matches of Hex qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup.
31.
Three days after the team failed to qualify, Bruce Arena resigned from his position as men's national team head coach.
32.
Bruce Arena was named the head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution on May 14,2019, replacing Brad Friedel.
33.
Bruce Arena has resided in the Los Angeles area with his wife Phyllis since taking over as LA Galaxy head coach, having previously been based out of Charlottesville, Virginia during most of his coaching career.
34.
Bruce Arena has a brother, Michael, and a son, Kenny Arena, who played with the US youth national team and in Major League Soccer before becoming a coach.