Bruce Arena Time Quotations

When you cut to the chase, that's what defenders are supposed to be about and that's his strength. Any time you have a solid presence in the heart of your defense that gives confidence to the goalkeepers and the players around him.

I sat in the stands in Italy and shook my head. And not to disrespect the performance of our players, but it was so obvious to me at that point in time that we had a long way to go, and 16 years later we get to replay these matches. So it will be interesting to see where we are.

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 you're always going to agonize over the last spots, and this time around it's no different.

I thought he did fine, he wanted the ball. It was a little bit awkward because we had gone through five forwards at that time and didn't expect to have an injured player.

Tim continues to be a very talented goalkeeper that we think, given time and the right opportunity, is going to continue to improve and be a terrific goalkeeper at the international level. One day he will be the No. 1 goalkeeper for the U.S.

We haven't outgrown CONCACAF. I think you are going to see the smaller countries will continue to grow and we're going to have a very difficult time qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

You always need to be patient, realizing the amount of time off these players have had. The expectations can't be too great. We realize it's going to take some time to settle in.

We realize that the respect that the Americans have at this point in time is small. Everything we earn, we have to earn on the field and that's fair enough.

There are other players who could be here who aren't here because of their positions in the league. To get some favors in return ? that means a lot to send those players back. This is a time we could do it.

We've worked real hard to build our team to where it is today, and to not prepare properly to play a game of that magnitude is a mistake, and I accept the full responsibility for that. If I felt that it wasn't the right time for us to play that game, I should have been a little bit strong in saying this is not the right time to play.

With the World Cup taking place in Europe, scheduling matches has been extremely difficult this time around. However, I think the opposition we will be facing will give us the right type of competition we need as we move forward with our preparations for Germany.

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.

Both are good prospects. At this point in time Todd may be a little bit more ahead of Heath.

The thing we wanted to accomplish with these games on Sunday and Monday (was) to give a number of players 90 minutes for the first time in a long time. Out of both games, we had 15 players who played a full 90 minutes and two others that played 90 minutes over two days and that's a real plus right now.

This is the first time he'll be our starting goalkeeper so I know he's really looking forward to the challenge.

It's time the American public steps forward and supporters of soccer in this country support our game by watching, by attending games, by buying soccer products, by being good consumers.

If you told me I had to hand in a roster tomorrow, I could do it. However, we know from experience -- at least from the last time -- a lot of things happen.

As difficult as it looked last time around, I think it's going to look a heck of a lot worse this time around. I think it's going to look very challenging and it will be very challenging.

There were lessons learned from the last time. We've really closely scrutinized the players. This time around we basically have a roster which we're very confident will be pretty fit.

They're in a position we were in, you want to get it done sooner than later. This is a game where their sights are clearly to win, as it was for Guatemala the last time we were in Guatemala. It will be interesting to see.

For the first time ever, we are going to demand players have the discipline and commitment to actually maintain fitness. We have seen a wide range of attitudes and actual physical conditions with MLS players in the past, and if that is the case next time around they're not going to be eligible to make the World Cup roster.