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Arena ‘would have bet on’ Miazga, Brooks pairing at World Cup

Former U.S. Men’s National Team boss Bruce Arena made an appearance on Fox Sports 1’s broadcast for Tuesday’s friendly against Portugal, and he didn’t shy away from projections from what could have been.

Arena stated that the center back pairing of John Brooks and Matt Miazga would’ve been his choice had the USMNT qualified for the World Cup in Russia next summer.

“We had some injuries during the year, in particular at the center back position,” Arena said, per Goal.com. “John Brooks wasn’t available for a long time and today we see John Brooks partnering up with Matt Miazga. If I were a betting man, I would have bet those two would have been our center backs at the World Cup.”

Arena, who drew plenty of criticism on social media for his appearance just a month after failing to guide the USMNT to the World Cup, praised the decision by his former assistant and current interim boss Dave Sarachan to include young players for Tuesday’s match.

“There’s a bunch of good young players here today. Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Kellyn Acosta, Juan Agudelo — so I think today’s game is a great showcase for our young players,” Arena said.

Comments

  1. I could only tolerate 5 minutes of the pregame and totally skipped both the halftime and post match commentary such is my disdain for Arena. Lalas, at least, is (normally) amusing, pining for the good old days when we scored all of our goals on set pieces. It would truly be sad (for me) if Arena is given a platform to opine on US Soccer going forward.

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  2. In that time Matt Miazga was honored by dutch erevidisie team Vitesse,he should has been
    i dutch almost in idol,but Dave Sarachan if make the same ritm must be the american coach,
    he never talkis very quiet and is better

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  3. that’s not even the 10th most egregious thing that Bruce Arena said last night! time for Bruce Arena to go to the old folks home, or at least stay away from USSoccer for very long time.

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    • What and bounce back to a MLS coaching job. I really hope MLS clubs are over him too. We need new ideas and new younger coaches coming up. We need coaching development just as much as we need player development in this country. And, btw stocks do sometimes go to zero too, especially the ones who fail to adapt to a new paradigm or market environment.

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  4. When Arena started talking, I had to turn it off. I knew he was just going to give some b.s. excuses. Really, the more you think about it, the worse it gets. Second to last, can’t even tie T&T in a must game? There are NO excuses.

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  5. When you have no guts, you go with the old tried and true so that if you fail, you can blame it on them and not yourself. We needed a coach with courage and some vision. We got pablum.

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  6. This is crap! The joke is full of it. He should have learned to walk away when he was still at a high. ACCEPT your failure! Don’t feed this crap when you rarely called them in.

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    • Sad to think we have to watch and listen to this moron pontificate as we watch the players he chose not to use look better than the one he chose who got rolled. By TnT. Worse of all, he getting paid for it. I don’t know if I could stand watch fox if he’s on air next summer too.

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    • Arenas comments were absolutely ridiculous with no basis in reality. Miazga is going to start in the World Cup but he was trusted with just a few minutes of the hex??? Yeah ok….

      shame on fox for inviting Bruce to the discussion on this game. It’s insulting as a fan of this team to be forced to listen to that nonsense.

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    • Arena said the system isn’t broken and he also said that no players slip through the cracks.
      Those are bold faced lies so I agree with you. He should be in politics!

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      • I know right, and Mamas just sat there listening and toeing the line. Mls/sum trying to establish I narrative. So much for real journalists asking tough questions. Lalas had a softball to smash when BA made those comments and he didn’t even swing.

  7. I know Brooks was injured but if Miazga was gonna start if they made World Cup then why not even call him into last qualifiers. Arena has some balls and a huge ego saying they knew it was going to come down to last 2 qualifiers, no they atleast draw CR at home and beat Honduras and it basically done. You failed. I wish lalas had his big boy pants on tonight and asked him some questions

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  8. Arena would have started Cameron and Gonzalez. Carter-Vickers was a beast as well. These kids had better touch, more pace, pressed high, and just played with far more composure. If I’m Altidore, Cameron, Besler, Gonzalez, etc., I am worried about my place on the National team.

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    • Michael Bradley, Omar Gonzalez, and Zardes had guaranteed spots through the WC. MB would have went 90 minutes in all the games even if he was the worst player on the field and running around with a bottle of booze in his hand.

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