I've been puzzled by that as well. I've thought that BC should have been called in over the course of the last year, and do think it's a mistake that he hasn't been. While not fooling myself into believing he is a savior or anything, the weakness at that position screamed for him to at least get a shot. And yes, I think he is better than Bornstein. But hey, tomayto/tomahto, right?
We've seen Bornstein blunders before but that didn't stop him from seeing the field. So I guess we are so richly talented that we don't play our best players if they made US Soccer mad when they were younger? How does that reasoning let Bob off the hook?
Hey, don't ask me what's going on there. I'm just speculating. I'm not even really DEFENDING US soccer. It might be that Bob simply doesn't rate Convey. Or perhaps Bobby said something REALLY bad behind closed doors. I just don't know.
I agree with that. The WC was misleading. We didn't get to where we did because of Bob. It was pure determination from the players, and luck, a fair amount of luck. People say we've played poorly since the WC. I think it's prior to the WC. We easily could, and probably should have not advanced as far as we did.
He had to make a decision, and Bornstein was his solution. All 4 goals emenated from that decision. I'd rather have a 41 year old Jeff Agoos in a wheelchair than Jonny Bornstein on the field. This is a fireable offense. It's coming, but 2 years to late.
You're mentioning the 2009 GC. Do you really think you have to fool people into agreeing with you? Aren't there any actual arguments you could make? I can think of plenty...
That's about the best summary I've seen. As it is, it looks like CONCACAF is pretty weak right now. The current group plus Bradley probably nails down second place in the CONCACAF WC qualification. Maybe USSF is content with that. If so, we go to Brazil in 2014 and maybe get out of group.Maybe that's OK with USSF. I think that if Bradley is willing to gamble on developing some younger talent on the back line and demand more from his midfielders in defense, then the potential exists for something better.
I can't believe I'm going to defend Bob Bradley... The only "mistake" if you want to call it that was thinking we could squeeze one more major tournament out of a back line that was leaking last year. Like 2007, this was the end of the previous cycle more than the beginning of the new one. Now we have a year to get more experience for the young defenders at the club level and see what we have. It's not Bob's fault that Donovan was hurt/ineffective for much of the Cup, Feilhaber and Holden got hurt and weren't here, then Altidore and Cherundolo got hurt. Throw in Chandler not being here and we were pretty much out of options in a lot of spots. Plus, his goalkeeper flat-out killed him tonight. Bob showed tactical flexibility, the balls to bench LD twice, to start Adu in the final, etc. He's far from perfect -- I never wanted him back for a second cycle, or to finish his first -- but man are people overreacting.
The 2009 GC is just as legitimate a marker of the USMNT under Bradley as, for example, the Confederations Cup. It's a cute game, this RoboBolero one of deciding that the only tournaments that count are the ones the USMNT doesn't embarass itself. Apparently you judge "cute" a way "to fool people into agreeing with you". Which is both Nice, and Cute.
It's stunning to me that the best LB in our domestic league who is just 27? and has played many years in England and done well in the EPL and been on our World Cup team can't get a call up at our weakest position. And he led the league in assists last year. Yeah, I know Convey was very poor for a good 2-3 years there but that time is long gone now. And while I'm at it, I saw the Whitecaps vs. Union game in full last week and Jay Demerit was by far the best player on the field. A complete beast. He had been through a spell of injury so I don't blame Bradley for this one but we could have used him today.
You could hire Guus Hiddink or Jose Mourinho and it wouldn't make a difference. The bottom line is that our talent level sucks. Period. Changing managers is going to be like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Until we develop better quality defenders, the identity of the manager is going to be irrelevant. We're putting minor leaguers out there against guys who play for the likes of Man. United, Barcelona, Arsenal, etc. That's not the managers fault.
LOTS We were too slow to compete tonight. Mikey and Jones are too slow. Our defense was doomed when Bornstein came in... Didnt they score three from his side? We used to be the best in the region,,,, no more ,,, Mexico owned us except for a brief period when we got the goals. They beat us down and we couldnt get the ball. The team BB built is heading down fast, He MUST go and now
The second in the cycle Gold Cup is a tournament that doesn't even deserve to exist. I'm not going to give it credit for anything other than being a steaming pile of cash to line pockets of corrupt bureaucrats. We could take a college all-star squad for as much as the tournament matters. The tournament shouldn't be held at all, its about on par with the Milk Cup for relevance to the game.
Please. If you hadn't noticed (and apparently you hadn't), I'm saying that Bob needs to go. Bob and USSF judged (very rightly, IMO) that the A-team tournament of 2009 should be the Confed Cup as WC prep, and the GC was for fringe player evaluation, plus a few MLS domestic "all stars" to round out the squad. If you want to argue that the GC should've been the focus, then be my guest. (The other "major" squads were using that as a bit of an experiment, too, by the way, though Mexico very definitely brought a much greater proportion of their prospective "A side" as they were using the tournament as a rebuilding exercise looking to the WC under the new coach Aguirre.)
There is an article floating around about Convey having a falling out with the coaching cabal @ US Soccer after the 2006 WC and he stated that he would accept a call-up but does not expect to ever get one again.
So then maybe the likes of MEX, ARG, Spain, Brazil etc should save some cash and just not have managers. I mean the players are so great, they could just run things right? Nope, because this isn't how the real world works. The identity of the manager is NOT irrelevant. Bob must go.
Look, I am not a Bradley fan but Jay Heaps started the 2009 final. That says it all to me. He had a poor roster to work with because the A teamers were implicitly off-limits for two tourneys that summer.
A different philosophy about attacking and defense? Why was a player like Adu never saw the field until the last two games? Yet he was our best offensive option. The team morale ever since the world cup have been on a decline, the big margin losses to better teams are proof of that. The players we have can't play his empty bucket system anymore, we could barely beat lowly concacaf teams we faced and got trash by Mexico. Worst aging has caught up with many of our vets, especially on Defense. Yet the same oldies are the ones getting all the experience points. Boca , Goooch and Now Cherundolo possibly wont make it to 2014. More importanly its about time the US has coach that can teach players how to play with style for once. We have 3 years to do it, Bob has got to go.
Assuming Bradley stays as manager, if we do well in the next GC I will be interested in tracking your thoughts, then, as to the Gold Cup being on par with the Milk Cup.