Sigi Schmid-Bruce Arena ready to renew their rivalry

There’s really no denying that Bruce Arena has mostly had the better of his rivalry with Sigi Schmid. Arena, after all, has more college national titles (five to three), more MLS Cups (five to two) and has even been the head coach of the United States national team, something Schmid is unlikely to ever do at this point in his career.

But Arena’s resume looks spectacular next to literally any coach in American soccer history. That Schmid is the one against whom Arena is most often compared speaks volumes in itself.

While the broad strokes of their mostly parallel careers are reasonably well known, this MLS Insider episode does a good job of digging into what makes each coach successful.

One thing both coaches have in common are extensive coaching trees. Schmid has ties to 15 coaches at various levels of MLS, for instance, as this wonderful interactive graphic shows:

It should also be noted that Schmid has gotten the better of Arena in the U.S. Open Cup (going 2-0) and won their last playoff encounter. The two coaches will face off three times in July, with the first of those coming on Saturday at CenturyLink Field.