Arena - delighed with victory. (Allsport)
ARENA HAILS HIS TRAILBLAZERS
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United States coach Bruce Arena believes his
team's historic World Cup win over Portugal is an example of football's new
world order.
Arena said the 3-2 victory, which saw the Americans race into a three-goal
lead within 40 minutes, was evidence that the traditional power bases were
weakening.
"I think the world of soccer is shrinking," he said.
"The traditional big powers in the game are generally still the powers, but
the gap has closed considerably. And I think that is because players from around
the world have a lot more experience.
"Players from all parts of the world are actively involved in leagues in
Europe, and domestic leagues are growing all over the world.
"The experience level of players has increased. Therefore, when they step on
the field in top-flight competition, they have a better background to fall upon
and they have more reasons to believe they can be successful.
"I thought that Costa Rica would beat China and Mexico beat the team that
finished third in the 1998 World Cup (Croatia), so that is quite an
accomplishment, and obviously we had a good win ourselves.
"So I think it speaks well for our region, and hopefully our teams can
continue to move forward and meet in the later rounds as well.
"The burden is not lessened until we put ourselves into position to qualify
for the second round.
"Certainly the three points in the first game is big, no question about
that.
"We will continue to look for the same results in our second game as well."
But the win came at a cost as Arena was left with injury worries to Clint
Mathis and Earnie Stewart, to add to captain Claudio Reyna's absence.
But he remained positive, stating: "They're making progress but we will wait
and see. We are going to plan on them not being ready, and we will see over the
next couple of days.
"With Stewart, it is still too early too tell with the injury being less than
24 hours old, but who knows. It is not likely, but we'll see.
"It is too early. I know people are interested in line-ups and everything
else, but we don't play until Monday."
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