Arena then signed to play professional lacrosse for the Montreal Quebecois, spending a single season with the team in 1975. The Cosmos released him before the season. Professional Īfter Arena's graduation from Cornell, New York Cosmos drafted him in the fifth round of the North American Soccer League college draft. Arena backstopped the Cornell Big Red soccer team to the 1972 NCAA Soccer Championship Final Four and earned Most Valuable Defensive Player honors for the tournament. He did not originally intend to play soccer, but injuries to the school's first and second string goalkeepers led to the men's soccer coach, Dan Wood, to recruit Arena into the team as its goalkeeper. At the end of his two years with Nassau, Arena transferred to Cornell University in upstate New York where he was a 1972 Honorable Mention All American and a 1973 Second Team All American in lacrosse. While at Nassau, he played soccer for head coach Bill Stevenson and goalkeeper coach Shep Messing, a future New York Cosmos goalkeeper. He was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 2008. Arena was a 19 Honorable Mention All-American lacrosse player and an All-American soccer player. of New York City's Cosmopolitan Soccer League.Īfter graduation, he began his collegiate athletic career playing both lacrosse and soccer at Nassau Community College, a two-year college near his home. While in high school, he also played a single season with local club Hota S.C. He moved into the goal when the starting goalkeeper was suspended after hitting another school's player during a game. While he excelled at several sports, he was too small for American football, so he joined the school's soccer team as a defender. Playing career High school and college Īrena was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian immigrant parents (from Alicudi, Sicily), and grew up in the Long Island town of Franklin Square, New York, where he attended Carey High School. īefore beginning his coaching career, Arena was a goalkeeper for Cornell University, and earned one cap with the United States men's national soccer team. soccer team's longest-serving head coach. United, LA Galaxy, and the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer, and coached Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer to several college soccer championships. He was the United States national team head coach at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, head coach of the New York Red Bulls, D.C. Arena has had a long and distinguished coaching career and is considered to be one of the most successful coaches in North American soccer history, having won five College Cup titles and five MLS Cup titles. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame. *Club domestic league appearances and goalsīruce Arena (born September 21, 1951) is an American soccer coach who is currently the head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution.
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