Dear Reader,
On the heels of the news that Bruce Arena formally parted ways with the New England Revolution and MLS, we decided to retire the Bruce Arena Forecast designation in the Game Day Hub we post ever matchday here at Hudson River Blue.
The Bruce Arena Forecast was a nod to the comments the former head coach made after New England lost to New York City FC in the Bronx on a warm summer day last year. “There was a chance that we could have had a good game today despite the fact we were playing on a bad baseball field that was supposed to be a soccer field, and we’re scheduling games at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in July,” Arena said about the 83˚ F day.
The comment was priceless, as was the insinuation that NYCFC and the Revolution somehow played the same game in different climates to the disadvantage of New England. Sure, MLS games are held through the summer in Miami, Orlando, Nashville, Washington DC, Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles, and steamy heatwaves pass through the Midwest and Northeast well into September, but Arena seemed to feel that the sun and the sky that day conspired to cripple the Revolution.
We dedicated the following forecasts to Arena in the hope that he would familiarize himself with the weather before every game. You can never be too prepared in this era of advanced analytics.
But it’s time to say goodbye to the Bruce Arena Forecast because it’s time to say goodbye to Bruce Arena.
In case you missed it, the Arena’s coaching career flamed out spectacularly earlier this week. To sum it up, a man known for making indelicate comments said things so inappropriate that he was placed on administrative leave by the club six weeks ago, then resigned was fired, and can only work again in MLS per the approval of commissioner Don Garber. Effectively, Arena is banned from soccer.
What did Arena do? Nobody will say. It might have been bad enough for him MLS bar arguably the most successful coach in the history of American soccer from ever working again, but they feel no obligation to share it with the fans who support the league and make this sport meaningful in this country. Go play in your room — mommy and daddy need to talk about grown-up things.
At the same time, a dumpster fire is still raging up in the New England front offices. In the last 24 hours it surfaced that the interim head coachwho took over for Arena was one of the complainants (was it a coup?), and now he and several assistant coaches have been replaced by the head coach and staff of lower-division New England Revolution II. The players reportedly refused to go to training yesterday, although that’s now being walked back as some say it was more a decision that everybody should take the day off.
That’s a lot of drama for a team that sit in second place in the Eastern Conference, and are expected to make a deep run in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
The entire episode is being chronicled on The Athletic and The Blazing Musket. You should check those sites regularly to read about the latest developments.
As for Hudson River Blue, our small, snarky connection to Arena has timed out. We no longer will poke fun at a man who dressed like a community theater stagehand, spoke like a New York cab driver in a 1980s teen comedy, and won more trophies than any American coach in history.
Sincerely,
