The United States ended first round play at the 1998 World Cup horribly, losing all three matches in Group F play against Iran, Yugoslavia and Germany.
As a result, then-D.C. United head coach Bruce Arena was brought in to save the disappointing state of national men's soccer.
From that point on, not only did the former Virginia men's soccer head coach renew pride, talent and success to the national team, but his spark brought U.S. soccer briefly to the forefront around the world in the 2002 World Cup.
"To accomplish what we did was fantastic," Arena said.
With the United States' close quarterfinal loss to Germany, people began to pay attention to the coach from Brooklyn, N.Y., who brought success everywhere he went, including Charlottesville.
Arena, who graduated from Cornell University, played both soccer and lacrosse successfully in college as an All-American but soon decided he wanted to try coaching.
"I was around a lot of good coaches, and they had a real impact on me," Arena said. "I thought it was a really neat thing to do
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