THE INSIDE STORY It's All in Place for the U.S. Men

Author: David Lindholm

For a small section of the American population, anticipation is running especially high right now. Bruce Arena, on Monday night, announced his 23-man squad for this year's Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, which will start on May 31 in Korea and Japan, with the United States' first game coming against Portugal on June 5.

Monday night represented the culmination of three and a half years of work, 57 games and many players given their chance to make a team that would be yearning to improve on the National Team's pitiful last-place performance in France '98. Arena had an impossible task; to pick not only a team that would advance out of a tough group, but also to pick a team that would appease the small group of vocal and intensely critical soccer supporters and media in the country. And yet when the list of players debut on SportsCenter, there was a surprising sound in the soccer world: silence.

As strange as it sounds, Arena had made the right choices. There was only one player on the team to which people widely objected. Tony Meola made the team in the third goalkeeper spot over Tim Howard, ten years Meola's junior, despite the spot usually being given to a youthful player to gain experience for future Cups. But this pick has been explained by Arena as the team's need for Meola's leadership in practice, an intangible of which almost all fans can have no knowledge. So the resounding reply to Arena's announcement was, stated simply, "nice job."

But it was only the first step in a long line of important decisions that Arena will need to make. Training camp starts in one week, and the 12 European-based and 11 Major League Soccer players will join in the beautiful facilities of State Capital Soccer Park near Durham, N.C. for a grueling preparation that includes three final warm-up games before the tournament. Arena, in the next month, will need to figure out a way to deal with several major problems.

The first of these problems is a wonderful but potentially decisive one; who to start in goal. The States' two most highly-regarded players on the team are goalkeepers, and both want desperately to be first choice. Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller have long fought with each other over the number one spot on the team. Arena needs to find a way to choose without making an issue within the team. No easy task.

Arena also needs to find out who to play on the flanks of the defense, as well as deciding a formation in midfield. These decisions will be critical, as the United States needs come in at least second place in a four-team group containing Portugal, Poland and South Korea. So now the American soccer world sits in desperate anticipation, feeling better than it has in years, waiting for June 5.