Bruce Arena Great Quotations

On paper, I like this team better than the 2002 team. But as they say, you don't play games on paper. The challenges are great ... and this team will be judged by how they perform on the field.

Obviously we look forward to the game for a couple of reasons. Mexico is certainly and arguably our biggest rival in CONCACAF and that always makes for a good game. More importantly, any kind of positive result for the U.S. qualifies us for the next World Cup and that's been our objective since June of 2004. We obviously look forward to the game. We love playing in Columbus. We anticipate a great crowd, and one that's very supportive of the U.S. team. I'm confident we're going to field a strong team and play well.

Give Jamaica credit. I thought they did well. For the night I thought they gave great effort.

I thought he's had a tough go at it. But I think you see today he's a player with a really great upside. We're going to move him around as best we can and put him in a position to make the World Cup roster.

Our challenge is a pretty great one. This time around, I like our team on paper better than 2002, but you don't win games on paper. On the field is how the teams will be judged. ... With a good training camp, good preparation games and the right mental approach, this will be a team that will challenge anybody in the World Cup.

I think he just had an outstanding five or six weeks with us. He's rekindled his desire to be a real player, and I think he's positioning himself to have a great World Cup.

We've made a number of trips there to look at the venue and the hotel and the training facility, and we think Hamburg is going to be a great situation for us as our base camp in Germany.

We had great success in 2002 staging our operations in one location (Seoul) and traveling into our venues for games and we feel that strategy will work for us again in 2006.

We've seen great improvement out of Clint this year. He's a player who is competing for a spot on the World Cup roster and I think he demonstrated he's progressed a lot.

We beat a great team in Portugal, I am very proud of our outstanding performance.

We see in Eddie a player with great potential, and certainly the injury put him back. He acquired a reputation that people expected a lot out of him, and I'm not copping out of that. We do expect a lot of Eddie, but at the same time he's a young player and he's getting there. His best soccer is probably for the next World Cup in all honestly. He's got a bright future, and we're hopeful he's moving forward.

This is obviously a great win for the United States and we're pleased to have qualified for Germany. In the second half, getting those two early goals made the difference in the game.

He's an extremely graceful athlete. He's a player with an excellent first touch and great vision. He has very good attacking qualities. But we've seen him in what I would call an amateur level.

It was a good win and good experience for a lot of players. I've been told that we finished first in the group, which is nice, but wasn't critical. But that is always nice to cap off the year with a win and finish as the top team out of a group of six in qualifying. That's a great accomplishment for our group. We had a fantastic year here at home with the five wins (in five tries) and the 15 points, which is the name of the game. Great year.

It's only fitting that our last game in 2005 is being held in a place that has such a great tradition of supporting U.S. Soccer. We are certainly hopeful that this match will be a celebration of our efforts to qualify for the World Cup, and we're pleased to close out the process in front of fans who have supported us so well over the years.

It's nice. It wasn't critical. But to cap off the year with a win and end up the top team is a great accomplishment for our group.

There's everything here for players and families to both experience the culture of Germany as well feel comfortable that this is a city that is similar to cities in the United States. And it's a perfect match: great restaurants, lots of entertainment, lot of things to do, a great hotel, great training facilities. Everything we want is here.

This match is a great chance for our players to show that they should be nominated for the World Cup.