The Los Angeles Galaxy made official on Monday what's been expected ever since Bruce Arena was spotted sitting next to Tim Leiweke in a suite at The Home Depot Center during the Galaxy's 2-2 draw with Chivas USA, naming the former U.S. national team manager as the club's new head coach and general manager.
Arena has brought in former Chicago Fire coach Dave Sarachan to be his associate head coach. As Arena's No. 2 man, Sarachan will help ease some of the burden of Arena carrying two titles.
"In having two duties as head coach and general manager there's a lot of responsibility. A lot of my successes in coaching have been because I've had good players, but also, I've had a guy next to me I can depend on," said Arena. "I realized that if I was going to take on this challenge, I'd need a second in command that when I get assassinated, they can take over right away."
Having been out of coaching for the past eight months, since a stint with the New York Red Bulls that lasted barely a year, Arena said that he has been keeping up with MLS and is ready to hit the ground running. That doesn't mean that he is expecting a miraculous turnaround -- the Galaxy are winless in their last eight games -- but he is looking to get LA back into the playoff picture.
"In this league there's not a big gap from top to bottom. If a team can get a couple of wins under their belt, get a couple of consecutive wins, it becomes a team with momentum and things change," said Arena. "You see it throughout the season in the league. What we need to do is get ourselves on a bit of a run where we start collecting some points and position ourselves to be in the playoffs."
Los Angeles has only 10 games remaining to get things turned around, meaning that Arena doesn't have the luxury of a breaking-in period. Arena needs to diagnose what has led to the current winless streak, and he's going to have to find some results sooner rather than later if the Galaxy are to avoid a third consecutive season of watching the MLS Cup Playoffs from home.
"When you have Landon Donovan and David Beckham, you're not that bad off. We have some good players to build this team around. We can get better and we're capable of getting enough points and qualifying for the playoffs," said Arena.
Arena will have to find ways to win with his current squad as well. As the team's general manager, he is also in charge of personnel moves, but there is little time left this season to make any wide sweeping changes. The international transfer window has already closed for MLS teams, and the trade deadline is fast approaching.
"This year you can't do anything (with the roster). That's basically a fact," said Arena. "Down the road, we're going to use this year to evaluate the team on the field and off and see what kind of things we can do to make it better."
Arena is one of just three coaches ever to win the MLS Cup on more than one occasion, having won in back-to-back seasons with D.C. United in 1996 and '97. After leading the U.S. national team to a second World Cup under his charge in 2006 in Germany, Arena became head coach and sporting director of the New York Red Bulls, where he remained through the end of the 2007 season. He has a career regular season record of 77-51-10 in MLS and a postseason mark of 14-5-2.
"We have always felt that the Galaxy should aspire to be the club that sets the pace and tone in Major League Soccer," Leiweke said. "I believe Bruce sees it the same way and will put us back in that position."
For Arena, the time to put in a system is even more compressed -- the Galaxy play host to the Chicago Fire on MLS Primetime Thursday. But if the club is going to salvage the season in the two months remaining, something will have to turn around, and the Galaxy and AEG are pinning their hopes on Arena being the man to implement those changes.
"You asked me what's gone wrong. I don't know the answer to that question. I intend to find out and the things that are wrong I'm going to try and make right," Arena said. "I'm not waving any kind of magic wand and telling you that Thursday (against Chicago) you're going to see the best team in the history of this league."
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
