Keep Bradley

D

DVPMD

500+ Posts
i know a lot of people are upset about what happened, i being one of them, but i am definitely not part of the mob that wants bradley gone. i think he is on to something here. this situation sort of reminds me of what mack was going through after those consecutive losses to ou. unless it was evident that we could get klinsman, i'm not sure what changing coaches achieves at this point. i am upset that we started every match so poorly, but i think it's a much bigger upside in the way bradley can coach/inspire these guys to finish games, i think that's a much tougher lesson to learn and the slow starts can be ironed out. any decent program in any sport has to have stability at coaching/leadership to be consistently good, unless of course you're morinho and you have the golden touch. we are not like the powerhouse soccer nations - we do not have bona fide superstars at the majority of positions. this is not like spain or argentina where you just need a coach to come in and manage the egos/whip up the right chemistry to win. american soccer is a work in progress (as it has been for decades), right now it's about developing young players and that's going to take a coach who's going to be around for a while. you can't just plug in a superstar coach and expect him to have better results right away. progress (as well as setbacks) have occurred but overall the team is moving in the right direction.

we can talk ad nauseum about the personnel decisions. i also hate seeing 4 fullbacks in a row with teams playing easy through balls through our line like they did in the england game and on the goals we allowed ghana. i thought bringing in gomez wasn't the best move either. we don't need a fresh forward who's going to get a couple touches; we needed a fresh defender/midfield who could win the 50/50 balls, chase down the ghanayan forwards on the long runs. i know onyewu's 2nd game wasn't that great and maybe there are still some fitness issues, but i was worried with this game that the ghana forwards would outmuscle our defenders and that's what happened to bornstein on the last play when he got shouldered off the ball.

i'm a big holden fan, i think he would have done a lot to stabilize the midfield and improve our control of the game, but he would have trouble winning balls against the bigger, stronger ghanayans. i soured on bornstein especially after the confed cup although he had a decent tourney and findley has decent speed but a horrible first touch and even worse ability to finish. clark's play speaks for itself. i thought it was a disaster that we had to waste a substitution on him after 30 min especially with the match going to extra time. torres will make a lot of progress in the next 4 years and i would like to see adu get some consideration for making the team too. altidore is going to be a great one, personally it doesn't really matter if he's not the guy putting it in the net, because i think he does so much with his back to goal playing great balls through for midfielders/other forwards on runs.
 
Actually I sort of think he did okay to good this WC and today's game nor any other this WC has anything to do with my wanting Klinsmann instead of him. I also don't hold it against him that his starter today was the one beaten for the first goal after giving it away. **** like that happens.

I don't think he's a bad guy or the worst out there either. I sort of like him, actually. But we can and need to do better.
 
Bradley had one foot out the door last year but for a freakish set of results on a Sunday that put the US into the Confed's cup semi's where he then got his biggest victory as a coach thus preserving his job.

To list his deficiencies as a coach would take a novel but the short version of the top two reasons is:

1. His total failure in FOUR STRAIGHT GAMES to get his team to start well. This is his style, he doesnt inspire, he doesnt motivate and more than anything he doesnt get the best out of his players.

2. His man crushes on Ricardo Clark and Robbie Findley who had no business being in his starting line up yesterday while Edu and Feilhaber had to be substituted only after his crayon written lineup had led to a 1 nil deficit. No top level coach makes those player decisions, you just cant not in that situation.

There are a ton more reasons for him to go and you can pull up any of the big soccer message boards for opuses and treatises by folks that are more lengthy than mine.

Bradley is a tier three coach who should be laboring somewhere as an assistant in the A-League. The USA can and should do better.
 
I didn't see THAT coming. Heh, I kid, I kid.

Tell me, how do you really feel?! You and I agree about Bradley needing to go but I think you dislike him where I don't. I just think, as you do, that we can and should do better. Going foreign could be a great thing.
 
the next few weeks will define sunil gulati's tenure as USF president.

will be interesting to follow the coaching evaluation/potential search process.
 
You are so right. Yet another fun aspect to following this sport and how much it affects things.
 
it's an absolute disgrace that buddle nor gomez got a shot at a start. both were hot coming in to tourney the us hasnt had a striker score a goal in the last two world cups i think, i know they didnt in this tourney. donovan and dempsey are great players but they are midfielders, they are not the primary scorers.
 
Credit to DVPMD for spelling out the OP, but I disagree on about everything, and if Bradley's contract can be terminated or he otherwise takes a job in the Uzbekistani professional league, the USMNT will be better for it. I'll try to bullet-point this for brevity.

Ghana game alone: starting lineup stupidty left no late subs. Yet another goal in first 10 minutes indicates team not properly prepared, a recurring theme under Bradley. Defenders with no idea who to cover, also recurring, in fact, covering guys off the ball instead of the ball-handler. In this game, we also routinely conceded 5050 balls without contest -- and effort, playing 90 minutes, is one of our stong points.

We have two plays on throw-ins: turn the ball over immediately, or play the ball to the thrower, who may or may not turn the ball over.

Any player development (see Donovan) is likely due to overseas play, not a single thing Bradley has, er, um, *cough* taught. Things appeared to me to get rolling in second halves when Donovan said decided **** what coach had planned originally and took control of the game. I'm doubtful it was an awesome haftime speech from coach.

Inability to bring the ball over the middle third in the face of moderate pressure. This is a coaching issue. Our solution has been to play deep balls up the wings, which turn over. All the time. (See also: inacurate passing in general, and those that cause recipient to pull up to receive instead of take in stride when breakaway a possibility.)

Inability to finish. Like a lot of the previous, there's not many directions of blame for a talent pool like the United States, and they're on the coach: 1) Coach has selected the wrong people on the roster that he choses himself, 2) he is incapable of teaching that same roster what he wants done in his scheme, or 3) his scheme sucks. (see also: "Fundamentals 101: Defenders that do not position between the ball and the goal".)

Winning group this year, IMO, was the result of a general increase in skill in the US players (a result of their professional careers, not Bradley) and the predictable incompetence of England.

Hiring Klinsmann in my opinion would bring a number of upgrades resultant from his German pedigree: better passing (result: more scoring chances); better marking discipline on defense (result: fewer idiot goals surrendered); better time of possession (result: fresher legs against the Ghanas of the world). And maybe the opportunity to not play from behind in all too many games.
 
I can say with no emotion that Klinsmann would coach circles around Bradley. Bradley has had a four year run of success beating up on CONCACAF scrubs (and Spain) and he did so with arguably the most talented US National team ever. He has a lot of weaknesses (all of which Loco nailed). Bradley was the perfect bridge from Arena to present. Klinsmann is the better option now. If USSF can get him, and I think they can, he'll help US soccer transcend its current state.
 
I'm no expert, but Bradley was unable to take the U.S. team to the next level, for whatever reasons, and it sure seemed like the starting lineup against Ghana was a big mistake. Maybe there needs to be a change and a new direction.
 
The new direction should include speed. Although the US has gotten better in this aspect, I'd say probably 25 of the 32 teams in the cup can run circles around the Americans.

You could see it best against Ghana. Both goals were just colossal mistakes, but the lack of speed was the main contributor to not stopping them. And on the other side, Altidore had to rely on stumbling into defenders to get calls instead of blowing by them. There was no help because it wasn't fast enough to get there.
 
Dunga... He might be available soon, and I truly believe that the USMNT could benefit greatly from his coaching.
 
good points on bradley's drawbacks - definitely merit to a lot of the points mentioned. but let's be fair in the final analysis of his performance. we got a result in every match of group play (2 disallowed goals and we end the group with 7 points). we beat spain. we put 2 in the net against brazil and i know we're all disappointed that they came back and beat us but they are brazil.

given the draw and all the big guys going out early or not in our side of the bracket til the semis, this was a golden opportunity that was blown. but a lot of these problems are bigger than bradley. gomez, buddle, and torres are nice young players and they'll get their shot but i'm not the biggest fan of changing up the lineup because it's tough to develop the chemistry if you're changing things up every game. rooney, kaka, messi - all did not score this cup. lack of production was not isolated to the U.S. strikers.

i'm not going to sit here and say bradley did an A+ job, but he doesn't get an F either. i'd put him at C+ to B-. i really wanted klinsman when his hat was temporarily in the ring, but bradley has progressed this team.

but be fair about the state of U.S. soccer and concacaf too. we don't get to play the elite teams on a regular basis. there's no european championship or conmebol for us. outside of a few friendlies every couple years we're not getting exposure to the best sides. most of other countries have a much better developed youth system than we do in part secondary to our collegiate soccer setup. the majority of the guys on our team are not playing for elite european clubs - there's no substitute for that lack of experience. we expect more from this team because we're americans. but this wasn't a 2006 disaster either. all i'm saying is be fair, acknowledge bradley's successes in addition to his shortcomings. few coaches could do better with what they were given - just ask portugal, italy, france, nigeria, brazil, england...the list goes on.
 
dude, our team just isn't that good and we don't have the raw materials or organization/development in place for it. if you want to make comparisons with Texas, make believable ones. Texas: college football : : Brazil : international soccer. there's not 1 player on the U.S. squad who is in the top 25 or 50 internationally. there are teams in this cup with multiple players in that group, some even sitting the bench during the cup (fabregas, milito) or left off the squad (ronaldinho).

you send very aggyish...oh why don't we win the national championship every year? we have the money, and the tradition, and the spirit, gosh darn it...face it american soccer is in the middle of the pack at best. bob bradley...freaking morinho isn't going to change that.

if you can't be fair -- be realistic.
 
i'm just trying to point out the pros and cons here about bradley and US soccer in general. i fully acknowledge bradley's shortcomings, not sure why you're having such difficulty accepting the good things he's done. whatever you may think, he had them inspired and they fought in every game. every game was close and he got maximum effort out of his players (albeit after the first 20 minutes). this is not a good team held back by a bad coach. fine, donovan may crack the top 50, maybe; he did do some near-miraculous things in this cup and was the biggest reason we went as far as we did and got the results we did. but the majority of our players are playing in the junior league (MLS) with the european hasbeens or they're 2nd/3rd teamers on mediocre european teams. i choose to believe that we fall more on the side of a scrappy, never-say-die team than a bunch of underprepared boobs (although there's definitely truth to that and i don't discount how we've come out underprepared).

notice how when brazil, spain, argentina, germany, etc. send a ball 40 yards across to the wing and it magically dies on the winger's foot or string together 10-20 passes? yeah that's not luck. that's superior skill. we have shown in pretty much every match that we're not capable of that kind of play. bradley isn't going to teach a findley or altidore or whomever how to have a killer instinct and finish a goal. the david villa matadore attitude is not something a player learns, it's something he's born with. he's not going to teach a bornstein or onyewu how to calmly take a couple touches when the ball is in the defensive third under pressure and distribute to the midfielders instead of just smashing it upfield and hoping we win the 50/50. that sort of skill that separates the good teams (which I include USMNT in) from the great ones (you know who they are) isn't taught when guys are 20-30 years old...it's taught when they're in grade school. to answer your St. DKR quote, none of those elite coaches are going to trade places with bradley and come up with any other result consistently than what we all expect.

as far as currently being a top 16 or top 8 team, i guess we didn't watch the same world cup. ghana is good. did we have a chance to beat them? sure. but look at the uruguay game. look at us in the overtime period. we were out of gas, they had superior fitness and poise in the end. i'm not sure how much of that is due to us expending so much energy to make up deficits. we got an amazing draw which doesn't hurt being a top 16 team, a nice matchup for the second round in ghana, and the best possible scenario to get into the semis with uruguay. sure we made scoring chances and showed some great defensive play at times...but algeria and slovenia are not exactly juggernauts here. i felt like in each of those games we could have easily won 4-0, but multiple players on our team, not just the strikers have either an awful first touch or can't make that crucial last pass or consistently control possession.

just because you and i have the desire for US soccer to be great doesn't mean it is. we are a good team, but we're not top tier. but as long as you can make a scapegoat out of someone it's nicer to have a tidy reason for underachievement than to face the reality of the situation.

by the way i would agree with you 100% on your thoughts on the USMNT coach if you just change the name bradley to bruce arena...
 
YAY! I would rather see him resign than get fired. He is not a bad dude. He's just not the guy to get us into the next gear.

Now the debate begins. Bielsa? Dunga? K'man? GemStateJim? Who will our next USMNT coach be?
 
Mirror Football UK is a pretty good source for EPL new/ gossip and they've reported he's no longer being considered for the Villa post. surprise. Which means his best option would be remain with USMNT.
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I'm guessing caretaker Kevin MacDonald rides out the rest of the season as boss. He's cheap, and Lerner is broke. That a good fit.
 
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