CARSON, Calif. -- Gyasi Zardes made American soccer fans take notice with a stellar performance in the United States' 2-0 victory over Panama on Sunday, but LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena preached caution when discussing his showing a day later.
Zardes shined against Panama with an assist across in 90 minutes in front of his home crowd leading to considerable praise across the nation's soccer media and stars like Michael Bradley. Although many were abuzz with Zardes' showing throughout the USMNT winter camp, Arena took a far more measured approach when discussing his speedster's success on Sunday.
"He had one of the better games, but I think that you have to look at things in the big picture and you can't be too hasty in your judgments on players in a game like that. The game was not of high quality. The one concern is who didn't play well as opposed to who did play well," said Arena. "You don't use a January camp or a game against Panama to see where everyone is at. You wait until you play some quality teams.
"You have to be smart not to get caught in the [hype]. You say to the player, 'good game and now we'll see where you stand when we play some better teams.'" added Bruce. "I'm not surprised how he played... However, I'm pretty sure that he is not walking on water yet. Now we'll hear all of that for awhile."
