All Roads Lead to Roma: Bradley in the Eternal City v. I

Paolo Bandini has an article on Bradley and Roma in the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/28/roma-close-record-serie-a

 

He doesn't exactly look like a hugger, anyone surprised?

 

In the old days, all games were played on sunday at 3 p.m. in all European leagues (maybe with an exception for England, don't remember). They started moving some games to saturday for those who played European football in midweek in the nineties and then, roughly 10-12 years ago, the tv revolution erupted and games got moved all over the place.

 

Here are the ratings from La Gazzetta dello Sport for Udinese 0-1 Roma:

Udinese: 6
Kelava: 6.5
Heurtaux: 6
Naldo: 6
Danilo: 5.5
Gabriel Silva: 6
Badu: 6
Pinzi: 6
Lazzari: 5
Pereya: 5.5
Muriel: 6.5 (chosen as Udinese's best player)
Di Natale: 5.5
Basta: 5.5
Maicosuel: N/R
Ranegie: N/R
Guidolin (coach): 6

Roma: 6.5
De Sanctis: 6
Maicon: 4.5
Benatia: 7 (chosen as Roma's best player)
Castan: 6.5
Balzaretti: 6
Pjanic: 6.5
De Rossi 6.5
Strootman: 6.5
Florenzi: 5
Borriello: 6
Ljajic: 6.5
Marquinho: 6.5
Torosidis: 6
Bradley: 6.5
Garcia (coach): 7

The comment with Bradley's rating: "He didn’t send the keeper the opposite way, since he wasn't born to play like Gianni Rivera. But the execution was cold-blooded just the same."

 

Can't remember if folks caught wind of this while he was being courted but it would of been terrible had Bradley gone to Cardiff. I can't believe that that's the highest level Bradley could get shopped for at this point.

 

The following players are 1 card away from suspension

DDR, Castan, Benatia and Florenzi

I think were goign to see some rotation for the home game on Thursday with another game on Sunday away that will be tricky.

 

After having lived in Italy, I found that only Italians like to hug and kiss other men. Anglos for some reason have a problem with it!

 

& Thursday will be TRICKY TREAT or rather DOLCETO O SCHERZETTO!

 

Wonder how he reacted the first time one of his teammates kissed him on the cheek.

 

Its both cheeks!

 

So he turned the other cheek?

 

All 4 of them!

 

Really enjoyed this piece and I often enjoy Paalo on the Football Weekly podcasts (incidentally, I think he also covers the NFL for the Guardian). The only quibble with the article--and indeed it is a quibble, one which I point out only because I thought it noteworthy--is that it left out the fact that Michael was instrumental in getting the ball to De Rossi to begin with.


"...but after De Rossi picked out Strootman with a direct ball forwards from midfield, the Dutchman laid it off to Bradley on the edge of the D. From there, he stroked an immaculate first-time finish into the bottom corner of the net."

 

Youtube video of then Italian announcer for the Udinese game at the time of MB's goal. Posted by Goff

 

Love Carlo Zampa!

 

And here I thought only MLS back in the day used to pull crap like this

 

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/bootroom/id/529?cc=5901

I'm just gonna put that there...it's an entertaining column where Ian Macintosh fires up Football Manager 14 and manages Man Utd. I put it here because one of his first moves is to purchase Michael Bradley (by selling Nani). Fun column.

 

Can I propose that we title the next MB thread,
"Michael Bradley: The Hush Puppy of Palatine Hill"

 

seriously? Cardiff? Relegation fodder. That's a shame that they would even be spoken with interest in his favor

 

Would Sunderland had been worse?

 

What I liked is the confidence to hit the ball first time. No hesitation.

 

He would have made them significantly better. PDC had $10M to spend on Jozy...he should have taken that money, added another $5M and bought Bradley.

 

15m wasnt going to buy Bradley this summer, maybe 20 but the club and player had very little incentive to sell/leave.

I would have to see both Bradley and Jozy on Sunderland right now.