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What happens when two of the biggest personalities in American soccer -- both of them loose cannons who can't stand each other -- share the same broadcast booth?
We're about to find out.
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</DIV><DIV class=cnnStoryImage><DIV class=cnnImgCaption>Now that his Red Bulls have been eliminated from the MLS playoffs, Bruce Arena will be working in the broadcast booth for ESPN2.</DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Only months after the World Cup left them in a war of words both public and private, Eric Wynalda and Bruce Arena -- the U.S.' all-time leading goal scorer and its most accomplished coach -- will provide commentary for ESPN2's broadcast of the MLS Eastern Conference title game between D.C. United and the New England Revolution (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET).
But will it be must-see TV, or is it just a really bad idea? "That's a great question," Wynalda told me on Friday. "People watch car crashes, don't they? This is the fender-bender that you can't help but slow down and watch."
A quick recap: Within minutes of the U.S.' first-round elimination from the World Cup in a 2-1 loss to Ghana, Wynalda was on ESPN becoming the first commentator to call -- forcefully, repeatedly and, in the end, successfully -- for Arena's dismissal. Hardly mincing words, Wynalda blamed the defeat mainly on Arena's 4-5-1 formation and criticized Arena's failure to shake hands with the Ghana coach on the field after the game. Later, Wynalda even went on the Mike & Mike radio show and lampooned Arena's weight.
After Arena was let go by U.S. Soccer and took over as coach of the New York Red Bulls, Wynalda sent him an e-mail in which he congratulated Arena on his new job, apologized for the weight comments and resolutely stood by all his other statements. Thus began an e-mail exchange in which Arena responded angrily to Wynalda, who fired back by, among other things, retracting his apology for calling him overweight.
When I spoke to Arena back in August, he said Wynalda was "a guy who was very unprepared and never analyzed anything that was happening on the field ... I have no relationship with him. I think he's been very unprofessional and dishonest. He made things personal."
"I didn't get personal until he called me a poor human being," Wynalda said on Friday. "That right there was kind of a personal deal."
What should make Sunday's broadcast even more fascinating is this: While Arena and Wynalda have exchanged a few terse e-mails since, they both say a clear-the-air session has yet to take place.
"What are we, a bunch of little girls?" Arena said on Friday. "What's the big deal? We're covering a game, not the past. Listen, the business we're in is a highly competitive business. People have egos and opinions and they say things they want to say -- sometimes right, sometimes wrong. If I get criticized, I get criticized. If I criticize people, so what. It's all part of it. We're not shooting each other. We say things we believe in and you leave it at that."
Yet both men have different ideas of which topics may be on the agenda Sunday. Will the World Cup come up? "If it does, it's pretty stupid," Arena says. "The idea is to cover the game. What disturbs me the most about the coverage of MLS games is they don't talk about the game. If they want me to talk about other th
We're about to find out.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=300 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=10></TD><TD class=cnnImgAdPad width="100%"><DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV class=cnnStoryImage><DIV class=cnnImgCaption>Now that his Red Bulls have been eliminated from the MLS playoffs, Bruce Arena will be working in the broadcast booth for ESPN2.</DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Only months after the World Cup left them in a war of words both public and private, Eric Wynalda and Bruce Arena -- the U.S.' all-time leading goal scorer and its most accomplished coach -- will provide commentary for ESPN2's broadcast of the MLS Eastern Conference title game between D.C. United and the New England Revolution (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET).
But will it be must-see TV, or is it just a really bad idea? "That's a great question," Wynalda told me on Friday. "People watch car crashes, don't they? This is the fender-bender that you can't help but slow down and watch."
A quick recap: Within minutes of the U.S.' first-round elimination from the World Cup in a 2-1 loss to Ghana, Wynalda was on ESPN becoming the first commentator to call -- forcefully, repeatedly and, in the end, successfully -- for Arena's dismissal. Hardly mincing words, Wynalda blamed the defeat mainly on Arena's 4-5-1 formation and criticized Arena's failure to shake hands with the Ghana coach on the field after the game. Later, Wynalda even went on the Mike & Mike radio show and lampooned Arena's weight.
After Arena was let go by U.S. Soccer and took over as coach of the New York Red Bulls, Wynalda sent him an e-mail in which he congratulated Arena on his new job, apologized for the weight comments and resolutely stood by all his other statements. Thus began an e-mail exchange in which Arena responded angrily to Wynalda, who fired back by, among other things, retracting his apology for calling him overweight.
When I spoke to Arena back in August, he said Wynalda was "a guy who was very unprepared and never analyzed anything that was happening on the field ... I have no relationship with him. I think he's been very unprofessional and dishonest. He made things personal."
"I didn't get personal until he called me a poor human being," Wynalda said on Friday. "That right there was kind of a personal deal."
What should make Sunday's broadcast even more fascinating is this: While Arena and Wynalda have exchanged a few terse e-mails since, they both say a clear-the-air session has yet to take place.
"What are we, a bunch of little girls?" Arena said on Friday. "What's the big deal? We're covering a game, not the past. Listen, the business we're in is a highly competitive business. People have egos and opinions and they say things they want to say -- sometimes right, sometimes wrong. If I get criticized, I get criticized. If I criticize people, so what. It's all part of it. We're not shooting each other. We say things we believe in and you leave it at that."
Yet both men have different ideas of which topics may be on the agenda Sunday. Will the World Cup come up? "If it does, it's pretty stupid," Arena says. "The idea is to cover the game. What disturbs me the most about the coverage of MLS games is they don't talk about the game. If they want me to talk about other th