Those of you who have seen Batman Begins (I highly recommend it, if you haven’t!) may know where I’m headed with this. At the beginning of the film a young Bruce Wayne falls down an abondoned shaft and breaks his leg. After being rescued, his father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, asks him “Why do we fall down, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again.”
Hopefully Bruce Arena has seen this film and will heed the message. After building up the US team’s ego to towering heights and seeing them smashed against the rocks on Monday, Arena is faced with rebuilding their confidence in 5 days before facing perennial favorite Italy. Make no mistake, this will be Arena’s most challenging coaching task to date. Whether fair or not, a victory against the Italians will erase any doubt following the Czech game, where as a loss will certainly lead some to mention him in the same breath as former coach Sampson.
The ball is in your court Bruce, where are you going to take this team mentally in the next few days? Readers, how do you think Arena will handle the challenge?
3 comments on “Why do we fall down, Bruce?”
Zach, what’s happened here is beyond Arena. The US team has been exposed for what it is. A bunch of spoiled kids who aren’t very good against real competition. I wish Arena the best. In the end, it was the players’ fault. They all looked too slow.
Spiderman,
they’re not that bad. at worse they showed no heart, if Bruce is able to pick up their spirits and they play like the want to win they more than have a chance. Hell, they had a chance against the Czechs until they went out on the field and played like they’d rather be in the hotel room playing on their PSP’s. We have good players, fast and physicaly fit, well skilled both on and off the ball, we have some smart midfielders (minus Reyna), and when we want to play we at least put up a fight for the better teams. Our performance against the Czechs came down to a lack of drive and mentally falling apart as they brought each other down. Reyna showed no signs of being a leader on the field, after the first goal they should have realized they need to pick things up, they didn’t, not even the lauded (for no good reason) Reyna.
We have the ability to beat Italy, lets see if they have the heart to. They need to control the midfield and show no fear of the Italians in defense.
Spidey,
No question that once the game starts it’s up to the players to perform, but up to game time it’s the coach’s job to get them prepared.