When I landed in San Diego and checked my phone, my stomach sank with the news.

“U.S. Soccer has agreed to a contract extension with #USMNT head coach Bob Bradley through the end of 2014.”

What an awful day for US Soccer.  I was hoping to once and for all put an end to this blog, but the unthinkable has happened; the man who played Robbie Findley and Ricardo Clark in the starting lineup against Ghana, somehow, got his contract renewed.

Last time USSF stuck with the same coach, Bruce Arena, for 8 years, we got bumped early from the World Cup in Germany.  The program, then, regressed over 4 years as Arena’s stale approach to the team surely stunted the development of the game in America for an entire cycle.

Now we have to live through this nightmare yet again, despite the majority of fans banging their heads against the wall in response to this recent bombshell.  It’s rare when the greater part of a team’s fans are so animate about seeing their coach fired, and its even rarer when such a coach receives a four year extension.

Because of their inability to address fans’ concerns, USSF will now have to listen to complaints throughout the country when Bob screws up (as well they should).  Anything from lineup selections, favored players’ failures, ugly losses, and poor progress will see the anti-Bob sharks circling, chomping at the bit to point out every one of Robobob’s failures.  I don’t see how any of this is healthy for the team or the sport in America, yet Sunil and Co. continue to maintain the status quo.  Maybe I should start a Fire Sunil website?

As one fan put it, “we’re already down 1-0.”  Indeed we are.

We look forward to the details as they are made available.

We crashed out of the 2010 World Cup in the round of 16 against a good, but not great, Ghana team.  Though the team has said that it reached its goals, one can’t help but feel that our soccer program, as a whole (from youth levels to the senor team), has been treading water for years.

The United States simply haven’t improved since their improbable run to the quarter finals in 2002.  Sure, we placed second in last year’s Confederations Cup, but that was the result of a lot of help from other teams, as well as a one-in-a-million game against Spain.  Also, this team needed almost every World Cup qualifying game to secure their place in South Africa.  In fact, they were one Bornstein header from finishing second in our qualifying group.  In South Africa, we won only one game, and led for only 3 minutes during the entire tournament.  Hardly a dominating four years.  Not to take away from their accomplishments, but to say that our 2010 team is more talented than our 2002 team is simple conjecture.  I’d say that the edge has to go to the team that got the results.

Either way, it can’t be argued that our team has progressed very little in the past 8 years, and US Soccer is in desperate need of a shakeup, top down.  Watching Germany steamroll the pathetic England today is proof of what a well organized plan for development can do to a country’s soccer program.

Jurgen Klinsmann is deserved of praise for building the culture and identity of Lowe’s young and talented German squad.  They play tidy, attacking football, and they play with with loads of confidence.  Six years ago, Klinsmann and the German federation put together a checklist of to-dos which would be crucial in the development of the 2006 host nation’s team.  This plan has been followed through to the letter and is still paying dividends in 2010, with Germany being one of the outstanding teams, poised to make a very deep run.

Klinsmann understands the mentality of the game.  He constantly harps on the necessity of a country’s team developing their own “identity,” as he puts it, their own culture.

The USA for the past 8 years, has had little identity.  Under Bradley, the American’s culture could be considered a team that is shaky in the back and gives up goals early.  It could also be summarized as one which does not have a killer instinct in front of goal.  Of course, the talent pool has a great deal to do with our shortcomings, but if you examine the list of players at our disposal compared to 2002, you can’t help but think that we underachieved this summer.  Bradley’s teams have always played with a lot of heart, but heart can only take you so far.

Klinsmann lives in LA and has a deep understanding of US Soccer.  He knows what we need to do to raise the bar here in the States, and Sunil Gulati and the USSF would be making a huge mistake if they pass him up once again.

**Update**

Here is a transcript of Klinsmann’s comments on ESPN’s World Cup Live

Looking at the game yesterday you had three really quality players that did not live up to their expectations, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard. They were not there. It was not their game last night and if they do not step up to the world stage then you cant expect Michael Bradley and the other ones to pull it all off. I think its really important that they lay out a philosophy for US Soccer and say where do we want to go. I mean hopefully by the end of the US will get the WC 2022… and so you need to know how to develop the players. It is very difficult within the American culture to talk about that topic because you are the only country in the world that has the pyramid upside down. That means you pay for having your kid play soccer, because your goal is not that your kid becomes professional soccer player because your goal is that your kid gets a scholarship in high school or college. Which is completely opposite form the rest of the world…and it is a tough one because soccer is very similar to basketball you need it out of the lower class environment. Soccer worldwide is a lower environment sport. We all got up from moderate families and fought our way through. You need to keep this hunger throughout your life and I compare it to basketball because all these guys are coming form the inner cities so you need to find ways, whatever they may be to connect with the Hispanics, connect with everyone and get the kids that are really hungry. To get the kids on a technical level that are able to perform and what I mean by technical level is first touch. The first touch yesterday was not there and you cannot afford those in the WC.

It’s clear, this guy needs to be put in a position to help US Soccer.

Robbie Findley, hopefully, has played his last game for the stars and stripes.  He can’t hold the ball, and worst of all, he can’t finish.  His one on one with Ghana’s keeper is just what we all expected from a player who can’t find a start with his MLS team.

Ricardo Clark also should never suit up for USA ever again.  He allowed the goal against England in the first game, yet for some reason, Bob Bradley felt that he was just perfect for the round of 16 game against Ghana.  Like we’ve seen him do time and time again, Clark foolishly lost the ball at midfield which led to Ghana’s first goal.

Clark was subbed in the first half and Findley at halftime.  The hole that Bradley dug was too big for the team to crawl out of.  The players played valiantly despite Bradley’s setbacks,  yet only managed a 2-1 familiar scoreline with Ghana.

Another Bradley mistake was Jozy Altidore.  Time and time again, Jozy is the player who USA fans have come to understand that Bradley will never leave off the roster.  Doesn’t matter if he hasn’t scored in forever.  Doesn’t matter if he’s sick.  Doesn’t matter if there are better options.  Jozy, under Bradley, starts and there are no questions asked.  Well, the questions are being asked.  Should Jozy even have been on the field today?

Why Edson Buddle was left on the bench, even after his torrid scoring streak with the Galaxy and pair after the Australia game is beyond comprehension.  There is no excuse for playing Findley, no matter how fast he may be.  Buddle is a weapon that Bradley refused to wield.  Shame.

The Black Stars were just more organized, prepared, and cutthroat; characteristics that the USA team was lacking throughout the four years under Bradley.  Ghana players sprinted to our players when we had the ball while the Americans were seemingly happy to simply contain their opponents.  This allowed time for them to look up and find that killer pass.  Unlike our strikers, they finished their chances.

We hope Bob Bradley gets fired, Klinsmann gets hired, so the USA Men’s National Team can move on and finally play to their potential.  The Bob Bradley Experiment was great, except he sucks, so let’s all move on with our lives.

See, there are soccer fields in CO Springs

I’m sitting here, reflecting on today’s mess in Mexico City and just can’t come to terms with our preparation & execution.

What was the reason for the 80 minutes of bunker ball? Was the team absolutely winded by the conditions? A further look into the so called ‘home field’ advantage conditions doesn’t provide alot of answers:

1. The game was moved earlier in the day to supposedly smother the Americans in heat. It wasn’t hot, mid to upper 70s. Perfect soccer weather.
2. The pollution makes it difficult to breathe for American players. The sky was blue with a few clouds.
3. The Americans can’t play in altitude, Azteca sits at about 7,200 feet above sea level.  Well let’s examine this one a bit futher

If indeed the overwhelming factor today was the altitude then someone please explain to me why the team trained in Miami for a day before flying to Mexico?  When I heard of the United States’ pre game camp plans I felt like I was missing something.  Why only a few short days to practice together when the Mexicans were preparing much in advance?  Why train in Miami (6 feet above sea level) instead of Salt Lake City (4,226 feet above sea level) or Colorado Springs (6,305 feet above sea level).

Who makes these decisions and why?  Is it because they don’t want the European players to have long flights?  Why not do the necessary amount of preparation in similar conditions to that of Mexico City to win a crucial game in World Cup Qualifying?  Whatever happened to ‘Winning is the only thing’ and ‘Whatever it takes to win?’

Needless to say there’s alot of questions that should be answered.  Of course they won’t be.

The most recent display of Bradley’s coaching quality was today in Mexico City when after 10 minutes the United States decided to pack it up and pray for Mexico to be unable to put the ball in the net. Surprisingly, Charlie Davies had provided the Red White & Blue with an early one goal lead, but Bob Bradley did everything in his power to render his star players useless for the rest of the game.

Using Donovan as a defender just simply is a waste of talent. He’s our most explosive player and needs the ball at half field or higher, not in our own box. Needless to say, Donovan was basically non-existent with his handful of worthless touches. Don’t blame Donovan for his disappearing act, blame Bradley for bunkering down for 80 minutes and not allowing Donovan be in a position to explode at the Mexican defenders.

When our players were time wasting at about the 30 minute mark, I couldn’t help but be reminded of our collapse against Brazil in the Confederations Cup 2nd half where we stopped making runs forward and relied on U-10 boot ball to the other team. We were bound to lose and we did in classic USA fashion, with a whimper.

Stranding Ching up on top seems to be the preferred strategy in games that our coach clearly doesn’t think our team can go toe to toe against which must be a wonderful sight for our opposition. There’s no need to hold 4 defenders back against one striker and Mexico enjoyed pushing the ball forward slowly with 10s of yards of space. I feel bad for Ching because he just cannot succeed in that role with absolutely no support.

All in all a worthless game with one moment of excitement for USA fans and we basically learned nothing about our team. If this is the way we have to play against superior teams then I am going to find it harder and harder to get excited about the World Cup.

Fire Bob Bradley Now, he can’t win big games and will take us nowhere in South Africa.

With the obvious Brazilian onslaught continuing, Bob Bradley made the audacious decision to field Sascha Kljestan & Johnathan Bornstein while removing Jozy Altidore & Benny Feilhaber respectively, thus dooming the United States to a defensive shell which ultimately was their demise. In doing so, Bob Bradley signaled to the Brazilians that the Americans were done pushing the ball forward (despite needing a goal to win) and were content sitting in the back defending. The game winning goal wasn’t far behind Bradley’s decision to bunker and in a last gasp effort to tie the game, Bob brought on Connor Casey in the last few minutes of the game.

Nobody expected the United States to win this game and there’s no shame in losing 3-2, but what hurts so much is how the USA succumbed to Brazil. In the first half, the US took it to the Brazilians and were rewarded with 2 excellent goals but they completely fell apart with a different second half game plan. Everything that could’ve gone wrong did. They got scored on in seconds after the start, made defensive substitutions, and allowed two more goals.

This feeling of being letdown that I have right now sucks and I know that next year in the World Cup, at some point, I’ll have this feeling once again. Just one time I’d love to have that feeling of winning a big competition instead of surrendering to the ultimate understanding that it takes a near miracle to win these type of games.

Impressed that we made it this far, but ultimately still disappointed with the result.

This will be my last post on this site, Bob Bradley will be our coach through the World Cup.

I regret nothing, however, because I honestly think we saw the emergence of the United States Soccer fan throughout this tournament. I have never heard such loud voices from the soccer community here in the States, and though it came from wanting to get a man fired I feel that this type of passion displayed by the fans helped to inspire the team to come out against Egypt & Spain and win. We all read the comments after the Egypt match, the players knew that we were down on them and they used that to fuel their desire on the field. Hopefully both team & players can rekindle that passion on Sunday as well as August in Mexico City.

Go USA!

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.

Freddy Adu = Good. Bob Bradley = Bad

Since we’ve already talked about the biggest issue with Bob Bradley’s coaching in the lack of passion instilled in his team, now is a good time to continue the biggest discussion spreading throughout US Soccer at the moment.  Why doesn’t Freddy Adu see any playing time under Bob Bradley?

Unless your Eric Wynalda or some other status quo loving grouch, you want to see Freddy Adu play for the USA in South Africa next year.  He’s shown the flair at the youth level, provides creativity unprecedented in the American system (sorry Dempsey, your foolish ball tricks only create giveaways), and commands defensive attention from the opposition.  Though for some reason Freddy continues to rot on the bench despite our team’s last goal from the run of play being weeks ago by a defender.   Why?

The reasons for Adu’s lack of playing time have been many, from both Bradley-lovers to the coach himself but none of them travel too far with people who are fed up with the same underwhelming results and embarrassing performances on the field.  Let’s look at some of them:

Freddy Adu needs to get regular minutes with his club.

A standard anti-Adu stance on BigSoccer now also backed by Landon Donovan and Bob Bradley himself in a recent interview.  I could argue that it doesn’t matter how a player performs for his club but how he performs in National Team camps and more importantly while he’s on the field.  More often than not, when Adu gets garbage minutes with the United States he attacks defenders, draws double teams, frees up his teammates, eases pressure off our defenders.  Does his lack of time at Monaco somehow change that?  Ok, so if playing time is so important to you then please explain to me how the likes of DaMarcus Beasley & Benny Feilhaber continue to get chance after chance, despite not playing for their clubs; despite continuing to suck on the pitch?  Johnathan Spector?  Jozy Altidore?  Clearly you see the pretzel logic with this flawed prerequisite for club playing time.

Freddy Adu isn’t big enough.

How big was Diego Maradona before he discovered cocaine?  How big is Guiseppie Rossi?  The answer is not much bigger than Freddy Adu.  Freddy Adu is not a defender, he is an attacking midfielder, winger, or striker.  More often than not, the truly skilled players on the pitch are smaller but quick and agile.  This gives them the advantage in a 1 on 1 against a clunky flat foot giant defender.  The United States fields many tall & physical men and we’re still getting beat on set pieces and getting scored on, maybe we should try pushing the ball forward for a change and take the pressure off our defense?

Freddy Adu can’t play defense.

I think this is ridiculous on many levels.  The first is, Freddy is actually alot better on defense than most haters give him credit for.  Often times Freddy sprints back to cover for his teammates but apparently that goes unnoticed.  The second is, SINCE WHEN DO ATTACKING PLAYERS HAVE BE GOOD DEFENDERS!?  Last time I checked, nobody critcizes Lionel Messi for his poor defensive skills and Robin Van Persie isn’t known for his crunching tackles & physical play.  Sorry folks, but the old saying goes, even piano movers need a piano player.  This is a problem with the US Soccer system and American soccer development in general.  Young players are held upon high if they are big & physical and praised for being good defenders, while chastised for being creative and attack minded.  Clearly this is the problem right now with Bob Bradley (and the system, which deserves a blog on its own) and is something that won’t change under his regime.

Like it or not, Freddy Adu is one of our best attacking players and is the most creative thinking player the United States has ever produced, period.  Wasting him and others with skill on the bench because of the baseless arguments outlined above is restraining our team and United States soccer development from becoming a world class power in the sport.   Torres is another good example of wasted talent because Bob Bradley simply isn’t comfortable with their style of play and would rather opt for the “dependable” Beasely, Feilhaber, and Kljestan.  Why those nobodies play over Adu & Torres is mindboggling.  Why Bradley closed the Brazil game with one sub left and Adu on the bench while losing 3-0 is ten times more mindboggling.

Regardless of what personal problems Bob Bradley has with Freddy Adu, his insistance on not putting our best players on the field has hurt this team in the short run and in the long run will prevent Adu from developing into the player that even Bradley himself sees.  Bradley admits there’s a future in Freddy, “”Obviously, the fact that we call him in is an indication that we still see talent and the hope is that he can continue to move himself along.”  Well, playing him would definitely help his improvement, right Bob?

When your team is listless on the field for months and is stacking up loss after loss, what is there to lose with playing someone who you see as a potential player for South Africa 2010?  Aboslutely nothing, and Bob Bradley’s refusal to play Freddy Adu is one reason why Bradley needs to be fired effective immediately.