Bruce Arena will be bringing a number of familiar faces to the U.S. men's national team bench after tabbing his full LA Galaxy staff as his new assistants, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday.
Dave Sarachan, Pat Noonan, Kenny Arena and Matt Reis will make the leap from MLS to USMNT, replacing Tab Ramos, Andi Herzog, Russell Payne and technical advisor Berti Vogts, who all worked under Jurgen Klinsmann. SI's Grant Wahl previously reported that while Ramos won't continue with the senior team, he'll continue to fulfill his duties as U-20 men's national team coach and youth technical director.
In a separate move, Thomas Rongen has been named the national team's chief scout. Rongen is responsible for uncovering a number of U.S. dual-nationals and has prior U.S. experience as coach of the U-20 national team.
“The entire staff has a great amount of playing and coaching experience both at the international and professional level,” Arena said in a U.S. Soccer statement. “With the need to hit the ground running, it’s even more critical that we have a staff that knows the player pool, shares a philosophy on how we approach the game, and has knowledge and experience in the international arena. In different ways this group ticks all those boxes, and we are already hard at work getting ready for the January camp and the World Cup qualifiers in March.”
MORE: Arena lifts lid on part of his January camp roster
The appointments create voids for the Galaxy, who hired Curt Onalfo to replace Bruce Arena on the bench.
Sarachan had previously announced he was departing the team for a new opportunity.
The U.S. will play Serbia in San Diego on Jan. 29 and Jamaica in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Feb. 3 as tune-ups for the vital qualifiers against Honduras and Panama in March. The Americans are 0-2-0 to begin the World Cup qualifying Hexagonal following November losses to Mexico and Costa Rica, which resulted in Klinsmann's ouster.
