Bob Bradley Under Contract through 2014

On one hand, there is the issue Dave brings up about not having the skill to be any better than 15-25 ranked. I agree with this, in general. It’s just not something out nation’s soccer infrastructure can produce at this point, but things look to be on an upward trend

On the other hand, I don’t think he is coaching the team to full potential. We had a tough time against both Algeria and Slovenia, who are minnow countries. I think there was a combination of poor lineup choices in some games and overall disconnection between players that I think maybe some more effective coaching would’ve been able to mitigate.

One thing a lot of analysts also never really point out is that we can very close to being in last in our WC group, if it weren’t for the incredible comeback against Slovenia and the last minute goal against Algeria. The Confederations Cup too also was flukey. I don’t think those achievements were masterminded by Bradley, I think it was something that just luckily happened.

I guess maybe I’m more negative on this than neutral. I don’t think Bradley’s bad, but I think there are probably better options out there.

“The United States of America just doesn’t have the talent to be better than a 15-25 best nation. That’s the problem, and Bob Bradley can’t solve that. American colleges, MLS Academies, the ODP, the lower divisions – that’s where the solution is.”

Dave, thank you. Thank you for opening me and the rest of the world to the idea, that a coach only has so much ability and power.

Like some others have said elsewhere, I don’t think Klinsmann was necessarily the answer, but we need someone new. I don’t think I can look back on the last four years and say that Bradley was spectacular by any means. Which to me says that he is probably not the right choice. Hiring Bradley again is the safe decision. They don’t want to pay anyone much and obviously too lazy to look beyond Klinsmann.

If Bradley has brought anything to the USMNT in the last 4 years it was luck, and luck ain’t going to get us farther in the World Cup. Every result in the WC really was kind of a fluke. We tied England on a horrid goalie mistake, we tied slovenia from being two goals down (any other day I doubt the US would have won that game), and Algeria we barely beat on a last minute goal. Even Ghana beat us even though we are the better team. We were lucky for the Confed Cup as well.

Here’s to another 4 years of barely edging out (or losing) against weaker opponents!

Getting a foreign coach won’t be easy. Those that are truly interested in advancing the cause (and I include Klinsmann in that group) will want to tinker with (or blow up) the existing player development paradigm.

I don’t see the federation willing to give that much power to one person. Therefore you’ll get a Bob Bradley. Hopefully he can use the next two years before qualifying to improve his decision-making.

If Greece can win a European Championship, the US can do better than fluking their way out of the group stages and losing in the second round.

We did get lucky, but it takes luck to advance in the World Cup. Bradley’s line-up and substitution decisions bordered on horrific, but then again, the games were decided by the actions of our best players, not guys 12-23. Also, getting pissed at Bradley doesn’t change the fact that while our depth of talent has improved greatly over the last 8 years, it’s not like we have Cesc Fabregas sitting on the bench ready to come in and take hold of a game if needed. Bradley did, in my opinion, do a good job organizing and maximizing the abilities of his players.

Sunil Gulati’s mission is to develop US soccer, players and coaches. Not only has no nation ever won a World Cup with a foreign coach, but Gulati won’t give a guy like Klinsmann latitude they would want to radically alter the player development paradigm. US Soccer by its structure, unlike other nations like Germany, doesn’t give the national team coach dictatorial power to shape the development program. Whether that’s right or wrong, it is, to be trite, what it is and changing it would be a massive political battle that would have to be fought by many people within US Soccer.

So that left basically two legitimate alternatives: Another round of Bruce Arena, or our very own Sigi Schmid. Neither one would have offered anything much different than Bradley, other than change for change’s sake.

Bradley does strike me as the kind of coach who does, given time, adjust his practices. I hope I’m right. Then again Graham’s spot on about Greece. I’ll now quit wasting your time and go prevaricate by myself.

I’ve talked to guys who are genuinely heartbroken and depressed about this decisions, but to me, it is just “meh”, I’m not quite worked up enough to be devastated by this announcement.

There was no guarantee Klinnsman would’ve succeeded, and at the end of the day USSF and Gulati chose evolution over revolution (although there are those who would, perhaps quite rightly, point out that we are not “evolving”). If it is indeed true that Klinnsman wanted to eliminate college soccer, well, that was NEVER going to fly, quite frankly…

so it is what it is. Bradley was actually not a bad manager for 4 years, you could even say he did a “good” job, but I think the general consensus among supporters was that we needed some kind of “foreign influence” and a “refresh” for the next W.C. cycle. We didn;t get that…

We have won 4 World Cup matches in my lifetime. Maybe we’ll win a couple more by 2022, maybe we’ll make a round of 16, but as always it will depend much on our draw. In this way, we have much in common with dozens of other countries, and any thoughts of us moving up a tier in the global pecking order by the time we next host the W.C. will always be optimistic or hopeful, whether we’d hired Klinnsman or not…

It’s now looking like we’ll have two coaches in 16 years. Countries that do that normally do so because they are winning. Bradley and Arena deserve credit for bringing the U.S. into competitiveness, but there’s no reason to believe the program is capable of taking the next step. Obviously, that’s more of a talent issue, but Bradely doesn’t seem capable of addressing that issue. Who’s to say if someone else could, but this is just … underwhelming.