"We beat a great team in Portugal, I am very proud of our outstanding performance today.
"We came out really strong, we played 30 or 40 minutes of
outstanding soccer in the first half."
Arena revealed that his squad had been preparing for this match since December.
And, after losing all three matches in the 1998 finals, they had been convinced they would win at least one game here.
"We have a lot of experience and we trained very well for
this game," he said. "We played to win."
Arena also praised his defence for their performance, cancelling out the threat posed by world player of the year Luis Figo and the hard-running Sergio Conceicao.
"It was the defence which won the game and we kept Portugal on their heels," he said.
"This victory will grab the attention of a lot of people in the US.
"But our World Cup is not over and our goal is to make the