Bradley Sacked as USA Coach

[Wonderwall]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14335698.stm

I think he has done really well for them, strange sacking IMO

[DoomMerchant]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14335698.stm

I think he has done really well for them, strange sacking IMO

most football fans in the US find him underwhelming. I'm more surprised that he had the job for almost 5 years than his sacking tbh. Good luck to him tho...he's a good guy and a hard worker.

cheers

[HeyMark]

Looked like he was nailed on for the villa job last summer but decided to stay with the US team. Bet he regrets that

[andeez nutz]

Jurgen Klinsman was rumoured for the job I seem to remember.

I am happy Bradley is gone. He did wonders for the team, some of his team selections were questionable - but overall we had a succesfull World Cup and Confederations Cup, and the Gold cup was just ok.

[twosips]

That post is a bizarre bunch of contradictions ^^^^

[andeez nutz]

whatever man, I just want a European coach to lead team USA to glory.

[Manx Blue]

Soft lad Beckham will be lined up me thinks

[halnone]

Kind of surprising. I thought Bradley did a great job considering what was given to him.

[DoomMerchant]

whatever man, I just want a European coach to lead team USA to glory.

by your European commenting, i'm guessing you really mean "internationally experienced." Which is what i want.

cheers

[halnone]

From living is the USA myself, I can tell you that most USA "soccer" fans are glory hunters. 90% of those fans support Man United or Barca. They think that success is winning everything possible. But that thinking just doesn't work because most of the USA squad wouldn't cut it in the premier league.
So when we don't win everything, all those fans begin bitching moaning about how we need a new manager, when in reality we need better players; which probably won't happen anytime soon.
USA fans have a tendency to be deluded imo. I've seen it firsthand.

[mr_nool]

From living is the USA myself, I can tell you that most USA "soccer" fans are glory hunters. 90% of those fans support Man United or Barca. They think that success is winning everything possible. But that thinking just doesn't work because most of the USA squad wouldn't cut it in the premier league.
So when we don't win everything, all those fans begin bitching moaning about how we need a new manager, when in reality we need better players; which probably won't happen anytime soon.
USA fans have a tendency to be deluded imo. I've seen it firsthand.

Sounds like they could be from Tyneside ...

[kinkylola]

From living is the USA myself, I can tell you that most USA "soccer" fans are glory hunters. 90% of those fans support Man United or Barca.

sounds like england.

They think that success is winning everything possible.

what does that mean in international terms? Winning the world cup? confed cup? gold cup? there are only 3 competitions we play in internationally. We have won the Gold Cup and are considered favorites along with mexico every time ... should it not be an expectation to win that? Should our aspiration not be to win the world cup? Or should we just sit back and know our place, like every one else in the prem would say about city?

But that thinking just doesn't work because most of the USA squad wouldn't cut it in the premier league.

Dempsey, Clint
Friedel, Brad
Guzan, Brad
Howard, Tim
Holden, Stuart
Lichaj, Eric
Whitbread, Zak

Donovan also proved that he could play in the prem at Everton, where he was very effective.

Jonathon spector has also played more than 100 times in the prem for west ham.

You can argue how good these players are, and obviously they are not world superstars by any means. But there are more and more americans in the prem and the usa team is better than it ever has been.

So when we don't win everything, all those fans begin bitching moaning about how we need a new manager, when in reality we need better players; which probably won't happen anytime soon.

I don't agree with either part of this statement. Of course we do "need" better players but Bob Bradley is not a great international manager by any means. He may be good at man management, the team may like him ... but every time the USA lines up in an important match, it is very obvious how out of his depth tactically Bob Bradley really is.

Your comment about getting better players not happening any time soon ... Every WC our team has gotten stronger. We are developing better and better players, and even better, more and more young US players are leaving the MLS early, and playing abroad in leagues much better than MLS (it's very hard to be worse)

USA fans have a tendency to be deluded imo. I've seen it firsthand.

is it deluded to go into a match thinking you can win? Or is it confidence? I've never been a top athlete, but I competed in several different sports at the college level in the USA and if I didn't go into every game thinking I could win, I had already lost. Would you say the same about City fans? Are we deluded because we believe we have a shot at the league and all the cups we are in? Other fans would have you believe so ...

The USA needs an experienced International Coach (not American ... no American qualifies on this basis alone). Once the players can start developing tactically as well as technically together as a team, we will see some much improved performances. We have seen glimpses of what USA teams can do, the Confed cup win against Spain is a great example ... and the first half of our final against Brazil (the second half is a different story all together, and probably ties in with the tactically naivety of our coaches/players)

Klinsmann would be amazing for the USA, and I hope we continue the trend of hiring experienced foreign coaches until we see American coaches who actually get experience outside of the MLS ready to step up. I repeat, there are no American coaches qualified to run the national team at this time.

[halnone]

From living is the USA myself, I can tell you that most USA "soccer" fans are glory hunters. 90% of those fans support Man United or Barca.

sounds like england.

They think that success is winning everything possible.

what does that mean in international terms? Winning the world cup? confed cup? gold cup? there are only 3 competitions we play in internationally. We have won the Gold Cup and are considered favorites along with mexico every time ... should it not be an expectation to win that? Should our aspiration not be to win the world cup? Or should we just sit back and know our place, like every one else in the prem would say about city?

But that thinking just doesn't work because most of the USA squad wouldn't cut it in the premier league.

Dempsey, Clint
Friedel, Brad
Guzan, Brad
Howard, Tim
Holden, Stuart
Lichaj, Eric
Whitbread, Zak

Donovan also proved that he could play in the prem at Everton, where he was very effective.

Jonathon spector has also played more than 100 times in the prem for west ham.

You can argue how good these players are, and obviously they are not world superstars by any means. But there are more and more americans in the prem and the usa team is better than it ever has been.

So when we don't win everything, all those fans begin bitching moaning about how we need a new manager, when in reality we need better players; which probably won't happen anytime soon.

I don't agree with either part of this statement. Of course we do "need" better players but Bob Bradley is not a great international manager by any means. He may be good at man management, the team may like him ... but every time the USA lines up in an important match, it is very obvious how out of his depth tactically Bob Bradley really is.

Your comment about getting better players not happening any time soon ... Every WC our team has gotten stronger. We are developing better and better players, and even better, more and more young US players are leaving the MLS early, and playing abroad in leagues much better than MLS (it's very hard to be worse)

USA fans have a tendency to be deluded imo. I've seen it firsthand.

is it deluded to go into a match thinking you can win? Or is it confidence? I've never been a top athlete, but I competed in several different sports at the college level in the USA and if I didn't go into every game thinking I could win, I had already lost. Would you say the same about City fans? Are we deluded because we believe we have a shot at the league and all the cups we are in? Other fans would have you believe so ...

The USA needs an experienced International Coach (not American ... no American qualifies on this basis alone). Once the players can start developing tactically as well as technically together as a team, we will see some much improved performances. We have seen glimpses of what USA teams can do, the Confed cup win against Spain is a great example ... and the first half of our final against Brazil (the second half is a different story all together, and probably ties in with the tactically naivety of our coaches/players)

Klinsmann would be amazing for the USA, and I hope we continue the trend of hiring experienced foreign coaches until we see American coaches who actually get experience outside of the MLS ready to step up. I repeat, there are no American coaches qualified to run the national team at this time.

I agree with that. I just hope they don't bring somebody worse than Bradley in.

[kinkylola]

well, that's the fear isn't it? I was hoping we'd take a big step forward and appoint Klinnsman after Arena was let go ... but I think it was a combination of Klinnsman not being sure, and the US wanting to stay domestic. I think both realize the error in their decisions now. Klinnsman probably has the itch, and the US has seen some dire tactical performances, they must recognize that. Our players are not talented enough to be set up with shit tactics and still win. We have talent, we have athleticism, strength, and even some speed ... but not enough to overcome fucking highschool tactics against clued in opposition, who are also more talented than us in general.

[Slim]

I think Bradley had the US playing better than their teamsheet would imply, cannot imagine anyone getting better out of them and with the better players hitting that age where they think about leaving the national side, the next guy will have a challenge keeping parity, let alone improving on it.

[DoomMerchant]

I think Bradley had the US playing better than their teamsheet would imply, cannot imagine anyone getting better out of them and with the better players hitting that age where they think about leaving the national side, the next guy will have a challenge keeping parity, let alone improving on it.

the "soccer intelligentsia" in the US believes we can win a WC in the next 20 years tho. Hard to balance vs. getting an average group of players on an INTL scale to be consistently ranked in the top 20. The loss vs Mexico last month and the FIFA rankings freefall has been concerning.

the problem with soccer in the US is that it's an elitist version of a populist sport, and until that changes we are about as good as we're going to get because we don't attract the best athletes...they will always play another sport instead.

i personally found Bradley to be drab and uninspiring, but time will tell how history sorts him out. Good luck to him...he's a class act i think.

[Mase]

Fuck maaaan! I'm so fuckin pissed right now! I can't believe this could happen to such a nice duuuude! Tomorrow morning I'm gonna catch a gnarly wave in remembrance of him. That guy was too radical!

[DoomMerchant]

Fuck maaaan! I'm so fuckin pissed right now! I can't believe this could happen to such a nice duuuude! Tomorrow morning I'm gonna catch a gnarly wave in remembrance of him. That guy was too radical!

interesting.

[mr_nool]

I think Bradley had the US playing better than their teamsheet would imply, cannot imagine anyone getting better out of them and with the better players hitting that age where they think about leaving the national side, the next guy will have a challenge keeping parity, let alone improving on it.

the "soccer intelligentsia" in the US believes we can win a WC in the next 20 years tho. Hard to balance vs. getting an average group of players on an INTL scale to be consistently ranked in the top 20. The loss vs Mexico last month and the FIFA rankings freefall has been concerning.

the problem with soccer in the US is that it's an elitist version of a populist sport, and until that changes we are about as good as we're going to get because we don't attract the best athletes...they will always play another sport instead.

i personally found Bradley to be drab and uninspiring, but time will tell how history sorts him out. Good luck to him...he's a class act i think.

A couple of things:

1. I don't see how the long term plan to win a WC in twenty years have much to do with the current national manager (unless he's hindering the development of young players). Surely, Shirley, the development of youth, and the plans for future success must be the responsibility of the board the US version of the FA?

2. Even in Europe I don't think that the "best athletes" necessarilly opt for football - they will more likely be found within track and field, gymnastics, and perhaps basketball and handball. And I frankly don't think that great athleticism is that important for a footballer. Of course you need to be fit, but you can still be a skinny, short guy like Silva, as long as you have technique, vision and football brains.

3.Even though the best "ball players" choose other sports, your population, and the number of football players should still make you able to compete on level terms to most European nations (which you also have been doing).

4. I agree with you that Bradley has done a good job, and probably have over preformed, considering the player material he had at his disposal.

[kinkylola]

klinnsman in.

gonna be good. and if he fails ... we have a ready made scapegoat!