Re: Mike Braddley Sat 1/26 20:00 CET De Graafschap - SC Heerenveen In this game and from an attacking standpoint, Clint Dempsey. Dempsey is another big player who has a nose for goal from central midfield though he's played elsewhere. He was used as defensive midfielder with the Metrostars. At international level he's used as a two-way mid with a more defensive posture. His club role doesn't exist on the National Team.
Verbeek (Heerenveen's coach) just said on TV that Michael actually prefers to play defensive midfielder.
Re: Mike Braddley Sat 1/26 20:00 CET De Graafschap - SC Heerenveen But it could exist for the nats. IF (and that's a BIG IF) that's his best spot AND he continues doing it at a higher level in Germany or England or elsewhere, the team could morph around his skills to use them more effectively. I agree about Clint and Mike both having a nose for the goal, but also having the speed and ball skills to create for himself sometimes although its tough at Fulham recently. I haven't seen as much of that type of play from Bradley
It seemed that during this game, he was playing behind the two fowards. This was the first Hveen game I was able to watch in entirely. Sulamenji (sp.?) was also impressive, considering his age. Michael Bradley has taken some incredible strides. During the post game interview, they even speculated about "a lot of interest from england", which MB shrugged off a la Bill Bellicheck. What's with Mikey's accent tho... kinda a hybrid jersey/european thing goin
He makes too many mistakes and his lateral movement is a bit lacking for defensive midfield, though I can see Bradley enjoying the physical side of the role.
They are currently second with 40 points although the have played 2 more games than Ajax(also 40 pts) and Feyenoord (39 pts).
Michael's interview after todays match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Znouq8ays [youtube]W3Znouq8ays[/youtube]
Re: Mike Braddley Sat 1/26 20:00 CET De Graafschap - SC Heerenveen Agree. Well MB doesn't have the skill on the ball of Dempsey but does have a more natural affinity for the defensive duties.
Re: Mike Braddley Sat 1/26 20:00 CET De Graafschap - SC Heerenveen no doubt about it: Tom Dooley. A tall, lanky defensive midfielder who could finish very well.
Re: Mike Braddley Sat 1/26 20:00 CET De Graafschap - SC Heerenveen wow that kid is smooth on camera it's hard to imagine he is only 20 has anyone performed a bone scan on him?
For now on rep shall be referred to as as "Johan Points". Unfortunately I'm out of "Johans" so somebody hook him up for me. Mikey sounds Dutch. Maybe he should move to Ajax or PSV.
Yeah, but that guy isnt a NY fan, he's just a disgrunteled USA fan trolling out boards. Obviously he had daddy issues himself i think. Maybe middle child syndrome or something.
Wow. It's great to see an American on a scoring tear like this. And is that a hint of an accent on the interview?
Don't forget they have play-offs for the last (2nd) spot, with the Champion getting in automatically. Then the 2-5 squads go into the CL playoffs, with the losers going into the UEFA Cup (playoffs?). 6th - 9th club also play for a UEFA seat. And 4 clubs below play for the Intertoto.
Thinking about it more he's a little bit of Reyna in the sense that he's a guy who though not a great stopper by any means can sit in deep central midfield and make smart plays for the team and a little bit of Demspey as a guy who has nose for goal from central midfield.
Right, it'd be hard to beat out 3 other very good teams in a play-off for that spot. Isn't the intertoto done with going forward? I thought I read that they increased the size of the Uefa Cup and got rid of the intertoto but I could be making that up.
Dooley is the best comparison, IMHO. Mikey is just so damned fit that he can lie back in midfield and break up plays and win balls and still get forward to help with the attack (usually by trailing the play.) It will be interesting to see what his dad does with him on the USMNT. Against Sweden (and without his son) he played two central midfielders with defensive credentials (Clark and Edu.) Slip Mike into one of those spots and the style of play should change.