Soccer Portal

With the news that Bob Bradley has signed a new four year deal with the United States Soccer Federation to continue as the team’s manager, I have to wonder:  Is he the right man for the job?

There’s plenty to like about Bradley.  Most notably the fact that the U.S. is 38-21-8 under Bradley’s leadership, including a shock win over now World Champion Spain at last year’s Confederation’s Cup.  Bradley also led the U.S. team to first place in its group at this year’s FIFA World Cup.  Team USA won the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup under Bradley and finished at the top of CONCACAF qualifying for the World Cup.

No one with any actual soccer knowledge or intellect can honestly say that Bob Bradley has done a bad job at the helm of the United States National Team (though I still say his best achievement is his son, Michael, who could very well end up being regarded as the best U.S.A. outfield player ever by the end of his career).  Would I say he’s done a great job?  No.

Tactically Bradley is flawed.  How many goals have the U.S. given up from over 20 yards during his regime?  When will he make the change to have his defenders put more pressure on the ball around 20-30 yards from goal?  Remember the first goal Slovenia scored in the World Cup group stage?  A fine shot, sure.  But where was the defender?

I cannot sit idly by anymore and watch Ricardo Clark play in the midfield for the U.S.  And yet, Bradley has some faith in him that seems to defy logic.  In the 2010 World Cup, team U.S.A. gave up five goals in four games.  Two of those goals were the direct result of Clark errors (the Steven Gerrard goal for England and Kevin-Prince Boateng’s goal for Ghana).  Clark has never impressed me as a player for the national team and quite frankly I was never that impressed with him in Major League Soccer.  I actually recall the moment I saw Clark was starting against Ghana and turning to my friend and saying “Clark will cost us a goal, where is Maurice Edu?”

I still cannot grasp how Robbie Findlay made the World Cup squad while Brian Ching sat at home.  I know, Ching is older and Bradley wanted to add speed to the lineup.  I get that.  But in qualifying, the best games Jozy Altidore played were when he was beside Brian Ching.  Ching also added the dimension of being able to hold the ball up in the offensive area, to allow team U.S.A. to have more possession (see Brian McBride circa 2002).

Lack of discipline under Bradley has been another major concern.  Had the team had a curfew in October of 2009, Charlie Davies would not have been in a car accident at 2:30 A.M. and missed the World Cup (yes, I know he may have been injured and missed it anyway, but I can handle injuries on the pitch).  What kind of difference would Davies have made in South Africa?  Davies offers a rare combination for American players:  speed and a first touch.  Davies had really come into his own, to use a cliché, during the 2008/09 season and was starting for his club team in France.  Charlie still hasn’t made it all the way back to where he was.

Bradley supporters will tell you that he did remove Ricardo Clark from the Ghana game after 30 minutes, but by that time it was too late.  Goals are so hard to come by in International competition, especially in the biggest competition of them all.  Errors are unacceptable.  Look at Robert Green’s gaffe for England.  If he saves that shot from Clint Dempsey, England win the group and play Ghana in the knockout round instead of Germany.

Speaking of Green’s gaffe, let’s take a look at the results from the World Cup (really, isn’t that what International coaches are judged by anyway?).  By all accounts the U.S. was gifted a point against England, played poorly for 45 minutes against Slovenia and escaped with a draw, and then squandered chance after chance against Algeria, before scoring late to win.  This was not exactly dominant football.  The U.S. fell behind in its first two games and had to use an incredible amount of energy to get back into them, and to their credit they did.  But in the World Cup, you need to be able to rest some of your best players at the end of games to have anything left for later in the tournament.  The Americans simply had nothing left going into extra time against Ghana.

Team U.S.A has rallied last in games many times during World Cup qualifying and during the World Cup itself, and for that I give some credit to Bradley.  I also give credit to the fact that American athletes never really believe they are beaten, even when they have been so clearly outplayed.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the Bob Bradley contract extension is that rarely if ever do teams retain a coach from one World Cup to the next and see an improvement (see:  Arena, Bruce).  Italy won the World Cup in 2006 and returned in 2010 with the same manager.  They didn’t make it out of the group stage.

The next four years for American soccer will be critical.  Other countries now legitimately do not want to play the United States.  Granted, Spain and Argentina wouldn’t exactly be afraid to take the pitch against the Yanks, but the USMNT is more respected globally than ever before.  U.S. Soccer must move forward now and not miss out on another generation of great young athletes who would choose to play another sport.

Bob Bradley signed a four year deal with U.S.A. soccer and I’m conflicted with this decision.  Mostly, because I feel almost indifferent to it.  On one hand, Bradley hasn’t done a bad job.  On the other hand, isn’t there someone out there better?  Sure it would be great to have a European coach take over the team and offer his expertise and experience.  But it would be difficult for someone with no knowledge of MLS to coach the USMNT, due to the ridiculous schedule where teams play through the summer and the schedule does not match up with pivotal international games.  Oh, and did I mention that MLS players had not played a meaningful game for several months in the lead-up to the World Cup?

I wouldn’t be surprised if in two years, Bradley steps down or is replaced by another coach heading into the qualifying for 2014.  Is he the right guy for right now?  I don’t have a problem with it.  Is he the right man for the future?  I have my doubts.