Bob Bradley’s Team Has No Passion
Bobocop
I told friends that if we had a pathetic showing at The Confederations Cup that I’d start this blog. I didn’t want to do it. I’ve been behind Bob longer than most fans and even after our sickening loss to Costa Rica a month ago I thought he’d turn it around.
We escaped Honduras at home (and I use the word ‘home’ loosely, thanks Sunil) with sloppy late dramatics and are completely nose diving in South Africa.
So many things about our team, performance, attitude, & roster are wrong and Bradley is responsible for all of it. I understand that we don’t have world class talent. But neither does Egypt, neither did Senegal in 2002, neither did Australia in 2006, the list goes on.
I’ll be touching on these in more detail so I wanted to start off with this blog with something that permeates the entire program right now: lack of passion. Regardless of the talent on the field, condition of the field, quality of the opponent this United States Soccer team is devoid of inspiration.
The El Salvador game is when I first started to notice this important ingredient missing from our game as the players stepped on the field clearly unprepared to play. The Cuscatlecos jumped to an early lead and followed that up with a goal in the 2nd half, doubling their lead. Amazingly the United States rallied and luckily (and excitingly) netted two late game goals, stealing a valuable point as they rushed out of El Salvador. Things weren’t looking good but we wrote this one off as an aberration; nothing to worry about.
Costa Rica was a nightmare in the making days before kick off. The media had everyone convinced that the United States had no chance of winning and Bob Bradley apparently didn’t prove to the players that the media was wrong. The team trotted around uninterested, almost expecting to lose from the opening kick off. There was little to no tackling and Costa Rica was the more physical team by leaps and bounds, which made its impact on the game almost instantaneously as the United States allowed a goal within minutes and never got into the game. The rest was table- punching, couch-kicking history.
Tail between their legs, Bob Bradley’s team got off to an almost identical start in a hostile Chicago (once again thanks to the genius of Sunil Gulati) when Honduras trotted down the field in the early stages of the match to stun the Americans with a cracking goal. It was looking dire until the Americans decided to be inspired and take the match into their own hands to dominate the 2nd half and get an all important, scrappy goal from their defender Carlos Bocanegra.
So after 3 World Cup Qualifiers and almost 3 loses against weak regional opponents, Bob Bradley prepares his team for South Africa where they first play World Champions Italy. The first half begins well, until the team’s heart was crushed with a foolish red card in the first half by Ricardo Clark. Surprisingly the US moved ahead with a penalty kick, courtesy of Landon Donovan. After the break with a one goal lead, Bob’s players stepped onto the field a completely different team. This team was tentative, confused, slow, and disorganized. Playing a man down against one of the best teams in the world is no small order, but what just destroyed fans watching from home was the utter lack of grit and determination on the field. They played as if getting scored on was only a matter of time, which of course it was as The Azzure dropped bombs into our net. This team was defeated when the score was still tied! Still some fans (and players and Bradley) had the ‘man down’ scapegoat and used it wisely.
Next up, Brazil, another world class opponent and Bob Bradley’s lineup did not exude confidence. It reeked of status quo, boredom, and fear of the Brazilians which was mimicked by the players who almost immediately after kick off allowed a goal. In fact watching our guys walk out for the anthems I said to myself “wow these guys don’t look like they think they have a chance.” You could see it in their eyes… there was no way they’d take it to Brazil. Our players gave the Brazilians space, didn’t move off the ball well, and passed with the quality of an AYSO team. The first goal made it all but official, we had given up again and only 5 minutes into the game.
As I said, many many things have been going wrong lately but Bradley’s inability to inspire our players is the one issue that should be making decision makers in Chicago worried. We didn’t see Egypt fear their opponents, we saw them play with creativity and passion though their player pool is light years away from our team, let alone Brazil and Italy. If you can’t field the best players in the world then you’re supposed to make up for it in a desire to upset your opponents and make an impression on those watching the game worldwide.
If Bob Bradley can’t get his team to put on their Stars and Stripes with pride then he is not the right man for the job. Bob, you’re a nice guy and we thank you for your service, but its just not working out.
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Firing Bradley makes no sense unless there is a quality upgrade waiting in the wings. Who might that be? Huddink, Rickjard, Klinsman, Sigi, Preki? This is a difficult question to answer, and one that must be settled before any changes are made.
A good point that USSF I’m sure is looking into right now. I agree that if there isn’t a suitable replacement in the works then we shouldn’t dump Bradley, but that doesn’t change the discussion that he SHOULD be let go.
there are most certainly options out there.
for the record, preki should never be mentioned in this conversation again.
Fire Bob, fire Sunil Gulati too! The entire organization of US Mans Soccer is sleeping!
Agreed, they run USSF more a business than a sport representing our country.
Booking a WCQ against Honduras in Chicago was like a stab in our back, clearly a ploy to earn a quick buck. Sad.
i never liked this hiring in the first place. the ussf said they got rid of arena for a fresh, new approach to the team….well bradley served as an assistant to arena for many years under different programs. and his style/tactics appear to be quite similar, so im baffled as to why they hired the exact same guy after letting bruce go…
if i had my way, we would bring in roy wegerle, tab ramos, and jeff agoos to form a tri-force that would reside over all soccer matters in the states
I think Sunil Gulati & Bob Bradley go hand in hand. You fire one, you fire both. I lay more of the blame at the feet of Sunil Gulati. US Soccer has been pretty stagnant for years now. Honestly, I see how many bloggers say we haven’t been the same since 2002. Which is correct, however, even in 2002 we only put together one good match in the group round against Portugal and if not for the help of South Korea, the Natl. team wouldn’t have even had the chance to beat Mexico in the 2nd round.
Gulati is the bigger issue here. The whole dealing of Bruce Arena after 2006, the Klinsmann negotiations (still have no idea what happened there) and the hiring of Bob Bradley.
Face, it we have always faired well within the CONCACAF region in WC qualifiers and Gold Cup competitions. It is when we play European & South American natl. teams is when the US falls flat on their face. Sad.
The next coach (Klinsmann) needs to not only understand the American game (whatever that may be – which I don’t take too much stock in that) and the WORLD game.
Huddink is not available – his contract runs thru 2010 with Russia and we know Russia has more money to offer him than the US right now since Abramovich (owner of Chelsea) has deep pockets.
Sven Goran Erickson may be available – his style never meshed with Mexico, but his style is more conducive to the US.
Seriously, let’s fire Gulati!!!
First I want Bob Bradley fired as much as the next guy. I think a world class caliber coach could make a huge difference. The US coaching job should be ideal for someone; 1) no pressure 2) no real expectations 3) 4 year job cycle 4) decent pool of players. We need someone not from the USA to come in and show these players what it’s going to take to make the next step.
That said, to start making a real global impact the USSF needs to start marketing soccer to the inner city. That is where all of the athletes are. Somehow they need to show those kids there are just as many opportunities to make boat loads of cash playing soccer as there are in the traditional US sports.
Couldn’t agree more. He’s gotta go. We need someone from outside the USSF.
Shameless plug…we just posted about this over at Project2010 (there’s a good illustration as well.)
http://project2010.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/fire-bob-bradley/
If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t Bradley an interim first, then deemed worthy of a hire?
That should have given us a clue as to how we would fare with Bradley. We weren’t interested enough to comb the world for a suitable coach, so we settled on the guy who was doing an OK job at the moment.
Hey, let’s not argue this: Bradley gets respect from his player’s. He earned that in Chicago and it looks as though the player’s respect him now.
But he’s not the right fit to lead our country. We need a man devoid of favoritism and a man willing to make hard decisions. Bradley hasn’t been doing that lately.
We need confident coach willing to work with guys like Freddy Adu, Kenny Cooper, Charlie Davies, Brad Davis and get out-of-form but young talents (Lee Nyugen, Kamani Hill) into the player pool.
We need a new coach.
This is my favorite website of all time. I will come here every day from now on.
I agree with you Mo of everything except that we need to play Charlie Davies. I have not seen anything from him that would warrant time over Altidore, Cooper, Donovan, or even Casey.
good write up. i couldn’t agree more. i do agree that it is risky talking about this with no one lined up to replace, but we don’t really have a choice.
I disagree about Davies. I’m not sure how Casey would get the nod over Davies for you considering Davies has scored and Casey hasn’t. Davies has looked more dangerous too (they both have hit crossbars, yes). Not to mention, he has been tearing it up at Hammarby (not getting lucky standing at the back post waiting for the ball to fall onto your head). And he certainly deserves time over Cooper (I like Cooper more than Casey too, but that is pure bias).
I think you pair Altidore and Davies together if you play with two forwards (depending on formation). If you play with 1, you start Altidore only. My lineup with be something like this:
GK: Howard
LB: Boca
CB: Gooch
CB: DeMerit
RB: Spector
CDM: Jones
CDM: Bradley
RM: Dempsey
LM: Torres
CAM: LD
ST: Altidore
ST: Davies
Possible Subs: Adu, Edu, Bornstein, Hedjuk, Cooper, etc.
———————————————————————————
GK: Howard
LB: Boca
CB: Gooch
RB: Spector
CDM: Jones
CDM: Bradley
LW: Adu
RW: LD
CAM: Dempsey
ST: Altidore
Possible Subs: Torres, Edu, Feilhaber, DeMerit, Davies, etc.
sorry, meant to add Davies as the second striker in the 3-5-2 formation i put up. i also forgot to post my 4-5-1:
GK: Howard
LB: Boca
CB: Gooch
CB: DeMerit
RB: Spector
CDM: Jones
LM: Torres
RM: Dempsey
CM: LD (Bradley?)
ST: Altidore
Possible Subs: Edu, Adu, (Bradley?), Feilhaber, Davies, etc.
Dont be an idiot and join a bandwagon led by a couple of high schoolers who dont look fit enough to play for my daughters 7th grade team
First of all. This discussion about firing Bob is going to cost us a coach that has the best chance of winning. If you think there is a better coach outside of Fabio, Guss, or Jose then you are mistaken. Jurgen would have been a big disaster, along the lines of what happened in Mexico. He does not have a lot to work with and doing what he can, and ill admit some of the choices have not worked out but its hard to build a log cabin out of toothpicks.
1st. No one has beaten costa rica on that crap turf field.
2nd. Michael Bradley is playing top tier German Soccer for a reason and it has nothing to do with favoritism.
3rd Brazil and Italy. Tough enough to play against them with 11 much less 10. There were 2 marginal red cards.
4th Landon is suppose to be the best player yet he is tiolet paper soft, no coach is going to change that.
5th US does not have the depth to compete at the top level so injuries to Edu, Hejduk, Ching and Bocanegra are devestating
6th: young talent, watch Davies, Nguyen, Hill train and you understand why they arent good enough
7th Brad Davis. Are you kidding? hes a muppet. Adu isnt much further behind
8th: Connor was chosen because of his good form in League play. When your starting forwards have not been good, bring in someone who has.
9th: Torres is a huge defensive liability and that is why he does not start. Its hard to score a goal a game to make up for your mistakes that led to the goal
10th: look what happened in 2006 with Arena. I still feel this team is way better than when Bruce left. Let him finish the job
We need to start a letter writing campaign to get Bobby fired. Anybody got any ideas who we should address them to?
Your case was very well written and heartfelt. I see your point on many of your statements such as lack of passion and giving up before it’s over! However, I disagree that Bob should be fired… 1. As many have pointed out, there really is no suitable replacement. 2. He has for the better part been a good coach. He did lead us to win the Gold Cup which brought us to the Confed Cup to start with. 3. We ARE in 2nd place in World Cup qualifying, aren’t we? 4. How much of the players lack of performance can really be blamed on the Coach? From my perspective if Brazil beats Italy and we beat Egypt by 5-0 we could still move on! Hey – Don’t laugh, it IS POSSIBLE!
Yes, we were slammed and shamed as a team and Country! We were good enough to get to this tournament and we should be bold enough to think we could still be IN IT! So let’s grab some gumption – quit the finger pointing and work with what we have. If we get on that turf tomorrow with confidence, unity & a few tactical changes I think there’s still hope for Bob and our boys! Bobs next test will be The Gold Cup!
Jennifer, first of all thanks for stopping by and explaining your position on Bob Bradley clearly. I certainly appreciate your opinion (though disagree) and am glad that you explained why you feel that way instead of just insulting people who disagree.
The Gold Cup was a wonderful result and beating Mexico with such a cracking goal was so special for me as fan, however please don’t forget that we almost and should have lost to Canada. They outplayed us and thankfully the ref gifted the United States the win. Canada did not make it to the 2nd round of WCQ.
I also appreciate your confidence in the 3rd game tomorrow, but Bob has already declared that he won’t be changing much. Perhaps that means Adu will get some clean up minutes…
Being in 2nd place in WCQ is fine, but our form of late in that group is the worst I’ve seen in years and after we lose to Mexico we’ll be competing for 3rd. Qualifying for South Africa is not guaranteed at this point!
All in all, I simply don’t think Bob Bradley has done anything to improve this team, which is what we’re all expecting for the next World Cup. I’m glad there’s smart people like you who care about what’s happening right now and if more people in our country shared the same passion as you and I, our team would be the best in the world.
I hope to see your comments again. Thanks!
Hi,
Amazing! Not clear for me, how offen you updating your http://www.firebobbradleynow.com.
Joker
Are we still thinking that Bob Bradley should be fired or can we close this website? Let’s give this man and his team the chance to perform @ World Cup 2010 and change this website into http://www.supportbobbradley.com.
i agree with brain….the game needs to be marketed to inner city. Our best athletes are going into football and basketball. America has the best athletes in the world and if we get them to play soccer we’d have great talent. Also i think we need an international coach. Past coaches have been like the blind leading the blind, USA needs to get over their pride. And Adu should be playing, he’s probably the most creative guy we have on our team
we need to stop playing qualifiers in the south, i dont mean to be racist but there are too many immigrants, and most of them are against the national team, we need to have them in the north where the good clubs are, people care in new england too
Bob should be fired. Two lucky games (3 if you count Brazil over Italy) do not make up for being up 2-0 at the half and losing. Any US fans that thinks this tourney was good for the US does not know soccer or Bob’s record before this tourney.
The only way Bob stays is because US fans do not know soccer and the bosses think Bob has any marketability left, given the uninformed US market.
If all you know about Bob is that his team beat Spain once, then you do not know Bob.
Interested?…
Great info, keep up the good posts!…