WHEN Bruce Arena took over as head coach of the U.S. national team for the second time, he compiled a depth chart. Though the player pool was deeper than the one he had at his disposal a decade earlier, Arena still couldn’t figure out a rhyme or reason to how his predecessor Jurgen Klinsmann handled that pool of talent.

“One of the things that was confusing as I came in and evaluated the rosters was there were just too many players called in for whatever reason from everywhere and no consistency,” Arena told Goal on Monday.

Asked about some of the foreign-based players who had received scarce attention from the U.S. team despite success abroad, Arena made it clear that too much experimentation with the player pool can lead to missed opportunities to truly integrate new players. “So I’m trying to get a rhyme and reason here. I’m trying to have a little bit of consistency, and sometimes you’ve just got to make a decision.”

(SD-Agencies)