Bruce Arena Domestic Quotations

We eagerly look forward to seeing our domestic players. We want to do the best job we can of making the roster as competitive as possible over the next six months so we can position our team to be successful in the World Cup. We view this camp and the games in January and February as critical towards our preparation for Germany.

We have some extra numbers in positions where we can afford the opportunity to look at some of the European players in this game and rest some of the domestic players. An example of that would be Eddie Pope and Jim Conrad. Based on play over the past month and a half, they would be included in this roster if we were simply basing it on performances. But we have guys we need to look at now.

When you play on a regular basis in top European competition, you improve at a greater rate than you do in our domestic league -- there's no secret about it. The games are more meaningful, more purposeful.

Our domestic players, who are still out of season, are very unfit for games at this level. You could see the fatigue set in for a number of our domestic players kick at about the 65 to 70-minute mark.

This gives me a last look at domestic players. It's going to help me with some of the decision-making that lies ahead.

I'm not sure the snow was an advantage for anybody. We have been training in California, our domestic players, for seven weeks.

Canada is traditionally a very solid team, and this game will be a good test for our domestic players as we begin the critical process of building a roster for the 2006 World Cup. We are looking forward to playing in San Diego, a city with a rich soccer history. It should be an excellent event.