The Bruce thinks next US manger should be American

Bruce Arena believes the US men's team needs a manager with a US passport (scroll half way down the article).

“There is no doubt in my mind about it,” Arena said in an interview. “This notion that you need a foreign coach — I’ll be very honest, our coaching staff prepared our team as well as it can be prepared. There is no foreign coach that could have done it any better.

“I know Sunil likes those quick-fix, fancy type of things, but there’s not a foreign coach that will do any better than an American coach, or what I did.”

Nothing like taking a swipe at your former boss in the process of discussing your successor. Anyway, agree or disagree with Arena, he does add a very realistic nugget concerning his replacement.

“I don’t think they will be able to attract a big-time coach. If they could, he would have been here already.”

The might just be the truest take on the current search. Most big name coaches will not be that interested in the US job. Playing for the Gold Cup just is not the same as playing for the European Cup. Until we have better competition in CONCACAF (and fire Jack Warner) and get more involved in South American competitions (if they invite us), the position of US coach is not that attractive to anyone at the top of their game.

That said, it could fit in perfectly with Jurgen Klinsmann, but even if he takes the job, it will probably have more to do with other issues (staying with his family, less press pressure, etc) then with the honor of coaching the US men.