Following the 2010 World Cup there had been a lot of talk on soccer message boards and around the Internet regarding rumors of Bradley coaching a European team (i.e. Fulham, Aston Villa). There was also plenty "experts" debating wether or not Bradley was the right coach for the USMNT moving forward and was he solely responsible for their performance and the US teams results in South Africa at the 2010 World Cup?
In my opinion Bob Bradley did the best he could have done with a very small talent pool (most soccer fans would agree the US is still having trouble producing international level talent with exception of Goalkeepers). Add to the limited availability of quality players the fact that Oguchi Onyewu, the defenses anchor, was still recovering from his ruptured patellae tendon injury and Charlie Davies did not fully recover from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in October 2009 causing him to not even be selected for the World Cup roster. Bradley was forced to fill his roster with unproven players in Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez. Neither of whom made much of an impact.
Some may say that the coaches that have come before Bradley like Bruce Arena (1998–2006), Steve Sampson (1995–1998), and Bora Milutinović (1991–1995) had even less talent to draw from. I agree that the level of US soccer talent has grown over the last 20 years but so has the rest of the world which means Bob Bradley's teams faced tougher international competition. Bradley led the US team to an excellent performance in the 2009 Confederations Cup with a win over Spain who is playing in the World Cup Final. So I say lets recognize the excellent job done by Bob Bradley (61.8% of poll voters agree) and hope that the US Men's team can continue to develop a deeper and more talented roster for future international competitions so that soccer/football/futbol will finally get some respect here in America.
- Bradley coached U.S. to First Place in Group C at 2010 FIFA World Cup, Captured 2007 Gold Cup and First Place in CONCACAF Qualifying
- Holds Career Record of 38-21-8; Led U.S. to First FIFA Tournament in Final at 2009 Confederations Cup
I vote Bruce. Bradley has done pretty well at assembling a team, but I think he crippled our team with his gameday personnel and tactical choices. Starting every game with the long ball to Findley ensured we would not score any first half goals (except for the one howler by Green). It did not help us prevent goals at all either. Yet he came out with nearly the same strategy the next game. The only game we won was when, fortunately for us, Findley was suspended for playing the ball with his face. Best yellow card ever. So, I'd argue he underperformed with the talent he had since we did not have to play any very good teams. Just pretty good ones. Bruce's legacy is more mixed - our best performance ever combined with a terrible one.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could keep Bradley only for his ablity to bring in some new players but wish that he had no say over gameday decisions. I know that's not possible, of course. So, I hope he's gone. That said the 2014 team has very little chance of success. 2018 a little better and 2022 is when we SHOULD emerge as a potential contender based on changes in the youth system (though not nearly enough changes). Sory for rambling :)
@Anonymous: I would not write off the 2014 team especially since there is no way of knowing who it will consist of so far out.
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Here is a related story from NSCAA with interviews from some of the past US MNT coaches:
http://nscaa.com/blog/2010/theplaybook/ganslersampsonarena/
Too early to write off 2014. The only positions I see any question marks due to age is the back line, which isn't a bad thing either considering their lack of pace and poor positional sense.
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