Fire Bob Bradley Now

So I’m still trying to digest what just transpired today in South Africa and am struggling to put my finger on my feelings.  In case you missed it the United States Men National Team defeated Egypt 3-0 and moved onto the next round due to an Italy loss to Brazil of the same score.  It was the perfect storm of consequences for the USA to move on, and I suppose this is why we watch & play sports.  To achieve the unachievable.

It’s hard to criticize the coach in these situations especially when everything that needs to go right, goes right and your team is moving on, watching the likes of Italy & Egypt pack it up and head home.  However, I think this game has more to do with the players and less to do with the coach in the end.

The players got up for this match and were simply the more determined team on the pitch.  This result makes the last two games even more painful for me because if they would have had this attitude against Brazil & Italy we might be praising this team instead of feeling surprised that we’re moving on.  Our boys were the more skilled, quicker, and physical team as Egypt seemed to be focused on their future matchup with Spain than what was happening on the field.

Bob’s  tactics were the same tactics that we’ve been criticizing for weeks.  Overly defensive formation with players who have been under achieving for consecutive games.  Instead of considering Adu & Torres, Bob Bradley opted with Ricardo Clark and stuck with Dempsey.  I was shocked to see this lineup and felt that we’d get lambasted once again but was pleasantly surprised that the players passion overcame any tactical shortcomings.  I’d love to know what the logic was behind Altidore getting subbed off for Feilhaber, considering we still needed another goal to move on, but today everything worked out for Bradley.

Do I now feel that Bob Bradley is the most qualified person to take our team to South Africa next summer? Certainly not.  The ball bounced his way today, even in Brazil’s win, but that doesn’t make up for the previous two months worth of frustrating football.

Will Bob Bradley be fired before the World Cup?  At this rate probably not.  This was the game that saved Bradley’s job, plain and simple so now we forge ahead and hope to see some new players for the Gold Cup.
Oh yea, there’s the game on Wednesday against Spain, but we can’t possibly win that, right?  Well if the soccer gods are smiling on Bradley like they did today, anything is possible.

Man its sweet to move on when Giuseppe Rossi has to get on that plane tomorrow for Italy.

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