Pre-match: International Friendly: USA vs Paraguay March 27th, 2018

Whether Bradley is the greatest American player, the worst, or whatever in between has nothing to do with the rationale to leave him and other known commodities off of this squad.

This is a completely meaningless friendly, played in the middle of nowhere with zero consequences. We have a plethora of young midfield options that need valuable minutes and there is zero upside to taking those minutes and giving them to veterans, in this particularly meaningless game.

Even Bradley's most ardent supporters over the years have conceded that we did not take advantage of games like this enough to find other options to potentially back him up, or help him out by finding better partners. Even given the argument that Bradley would be the lynchpin of the team still moving forward, I can't find a logical rationale for calling him up, let alone starting him in this particularly pointless friendly.

Can you?

 

I don't believe in exile unless a player did something unethical, illegal or something else that was morally wrong. Bradley has been nothing but a consummate professional for his club and country and the way he gets treated is shameful.

I would bet quite a bit of money that he and Jozy feel FAR worse about failing to qualify than anyone around here does. He's competed and bled for this program since he's been 16 years old. That's almost half of his life. It's the suggestions that he didn't give a shit and didn't try that are pissing me off.

If you don't think he's better than Adams, Roldan, McKennie at this stage - that's fine. McKennie especially is super talented, and somewhat proving himself for the 2nd place team in the Bundesliga.

But because his appearence makes you quesy? Yea, no. Not really acceptable considering how much's he done for the program. Without him we don't make the knock outs in South Africa, and while we likely advance to the 2014WC, he still played an integral part in that.

He had some good matches and some bad matches for us. Nothing he's done should make you question his place in the USMNT from a moral standpoint.

He's certainly talented, and I don't believe he should be one of our core players any longer thanks to his age - but based on his talent and phsycal fitness and position - we'd be silly to not ask him to provide leadership and minutes for us over the next 4 years. It's certainly not his tea any longer, but as a depth player he'd be a real strength.

Casting him off because we decided to make him the symbol of USSF failure is absurd.

 

I'm not a Bradley supporter. OR a Donovan supporter. Or anti-this or anti-that. Quite simply I'm a US Soccer fan.

And yes of course I agree that we haven't experimented enough. My biggest issue with Jurgen Klinsmann was that he was terrible at taking risks.

As for why call him up? Because we're playing a legit A-team and we owee it to them to put out a quality side, and also because with all the youth I do hope we call in, I'd like to have some veteran prescence. I'd be fine with him in just camp or coming off the bench as well. I'd like for our younger players to view him as something of a veteran role model for the National Team. He's been there, done that - and he's just 30 and playing a key position. He understands the pressures that come with the National team.

 

Bradley sucks he shouldn’t be on the national team

 

If we owe Paraguay and their A team anything, it should be the respect to feel this is a great opportunity for hungry young players that would see this as one of the biggest moments of their lives and give it all they got. As opposed to players that would view it rightly as the 786th most important game of the career and probably the least important one this month alone, no?

Separate from that, if I concede the point that veteran leadership might be helpful, I would then need to ask the question why Bradley? He was captain of the team that put in the worst qualifying performance in the history of the program. How would it make sense in any other context, for any other team in any other endeavor, to retain the same leadership that failed so spectacularly? Again conceding that he is or has been a great player, that he cares, that he fights for the crest, etc. As for leadership however, that case is closed, no?

I mean this in all seriousness with respect and admiration for Bradley's contributions and Dempsey's, Altidore's, Howard's etc. If the epic failure of our last qualifying campaign and the game in T&T means anything at all, does it not mean we need new leadership? In particular, does that not specifically apply to the captaincy?

Then again, this will be a team led out onto the field by coach Dave, so maybe what seems so obvious and logical to me, is in fact misguided and I am wrong, I would just like to see someone give me a valid reason for retaining any of the core, coaches and players, through this spate of pointless friendlies because I simply don't see it.

For example, why is Dave coaching this team and not Caleb Porter, or Ramos, or even fing Hackworth, Abmod or Hugo Perez for crying out loud? Anyone to whom this valuable experience might at some point benefit the program down the road when it matters?

I am struggling and sincerely trying to make sense of what seems to me to be utter nonsense.

 

Although I did not appreciate his last performance in T&T, I don't think Bradley sucks. The older he gets (as well as other field players ~30 now), the less useful he (they) will be to our NT. We should be using these "meaningless" friendlies to identify young, upcoming players at all positions, and not just his position in midfield.

 

Only speaking to this past qualifying cycle. Sorry if I did not make that clear or are you stirring? We have two cycles to get back on track. A 34 yo who has given his all will not be available in 8 years. As will many others that have been in the pool for sometime. Btw, what they gave all these years was great. Unfortunately in sports, the sun goes down on everyone. It also rises on the new talent. We have the luxury of time and now, new talent. There is no illusion about the outcome in games the likes of Paraguay, Ireland, and most of all France. Win or lose, we have to restart what the Micheal Bradleys and Landon Donovans have already accomplished. Best of luck to them all and thank you for what you gave.

 

I don't think Weah will be good as a single striker, but he can play as a left wing. Sargent is able to play as a single striker today. But in any case I don't foresee us to become so rich with talented forwards that one of them wouldn't be starting.

 

People need a place for their magic dust to go now that Nagbe seems to have just disappeared from the planet. Enter Timothy Weah.

b.t.w. I like Weah and was for calling him up to this fixture of this thread even before he got first team minutes

International Friendly: USA vs Paraguay March 27th, 2018

Having said that, his game may or may not be what we need most when the time comes. Hopefully we will have a manager who knows what he is doing.

The competition for Sargent will be Jozy (not Weah) which means we better have him ready because Jozy pulls hammy's for a living. Weah's competition will be Pulisic.

 

That was my post back in Feb before Morris got injured. We could substitute Weah in for Morris and see how he does compared to a Pluisic. I'd put Bradley in for Durkin. Thought Durkin would have more minutes by now and Bradley is playing well, plus looks like Paraguay bringing their A team, on paper anyway.

 

I'm ok leaving Bradley out of the NT long enough until people start missing him.

See how it's worked for Aronjo: being years injured and not playing for other reasons has increased his stock with the American fans to the point of near legend.

And Chandler is become a Candidate Saviour again.

Remember: with American players, not playing for the NT increases their perceived worth. And Mike has played nearly every bloody game.

 

Weah isn't good at moving into good attacking positions? What? Have you watched the few minutes in the 2 games he played for PSG? He was making the best runs on the field during his time on the field. And not only from counters and 1 v 1's. I have no idea what you are watching. You are putting more stock in his youth minutes (and Sargent's) than you are putting in actual 1st team minutes against grown men. Truly bizarre.

 

Those days are long gone.

 

I guess with Paraguay bringing their A team (originally we were told this was a u23 exercise) we could think of bringing in the lion as a reference point and see if we could make him as good as he plays at Toronto. Does that scare everybody to death? I would take a spine of Bradley, Delgado, Jozy and add WesMcKennie at the other cmid position. Now add Pulisic plus 1 and you've got your 3 man forward line and 3 man midfield.

"A" team

------x--------------jozy-----------pulisic
-----------Wes----
---------------------------Delgado
-----------------Bradley
---x--------x--------------x-----------x
---------------GK: Klinsmann

p.s. I"d play a 3 man back line with Adams/Rowe/Letget, et al as wb's personally but I dont think that would be Sarachan's style.

 

It's a near-A team. But close enough. Their interim coach had said literally "we're going to take the best players but always looking toward the future." And everybody interpreted that to be an "A/B team with several U-23s."

In the end, Morínigo went for the "best players" part and delayed the "looking toward the future" part probably because he won't be there after July.

 

Kind of interesting. I was wondering if he took a look at the youth team debacle and thought better of 'experimenting".

I saw their A team in last games of qualifying which were excruciating to watch for Paraguay but they were good.

 

With Paraguay it boils down to not let them score first.

If they score first, they can beat anyone.

 

Because one match doesn't really mean that much.

I don't view USSF biggest problem of youth development much different if Omar doesn't score an own goal and Dempsey hits it 2 inches the left. We;re still awful in developing our youth players, MLS still has a massive problem on its hand in terms of developing young American players, and USSF is still a mostly clueless organization that values $$$$ over welfare of their players or the competitive advantage of matches they play in, and struggles to hire quality mens coaches at all levels.

Soccer captaincny, IMO, is meaningless. What is important is in terms of leadership of keeping your teammates calm and positive thinking PRIOR to a match - as well as having a player who desires to take over a match, and force an issue. Landon did that for us, Dempsey did that for us, Pulisic does that for us.

I don't see our failure to qualify as a failure in player leadership & desire & effort, or even our senior teams ability to play. That failure was about coaching, plain and simple. We had TERRIBLE tactics for a number of matches, as well as questionable player calls ups, and you can add some poor player performances and it was a perfect brew for a literal once in a generation achievement of failing to qualify for a world cup.

Calling up Bradley doesn't mean we're trying the same thing as before. If you don't think he's good enough, or you'd rather just concentrate on youth - that's fine. If you're saying no to him because you think he represents a toxic leadership that led to our not making a world cup, and should be banished from the USMNT - then you're utterly offbase.

 

I'm fine with a wide player who doesn't excel in 1v1s - I actually like the idea of someone outwide creating havoc with off the ball runs, finishing, and passing (and I don't know how Weah rates as a passer). Landon wasn't the type of player to dominate 1v1 either, and did most of his damage off the ball and with his passing and shooting - often from a wide position.

 

USSF must respect the fan-base, which would go into full revolt if Bradley is included.

 

Take the following with an industrial grade grain of salt but, given the wide range of opinions on what our CM player pool looks like, exhibited by the proposed rosters for this friendly, I thought I would see what the market thought. YMMV on how much weight you give to Transfermarkt values, but it is an indicator (among many) of relative quality, all the same.

I may have missed a couple here and there but here is a list of the CMs I have seen most often included in member posts in this thread, along with their T Market value (in Euros):

McKennie - 4.5 M
Bradley - 3 M
Williams - 2 M
Bedoya - 2 M
Parks - 1.5 M
Morales - 1 M
Roldan - 1 M
Trapp - 1 M
Hyndman - 1 M
Adams - 800 K
Delgado - 750 K
Scott - No Value Provided (U-23 player)

I haven't seen anyone call for him but, fwiw, Cameron is valued at 3 M

 

Something doesnt make sense with Bradley having just received high praise for his performance against Tigres in a 2 leg play off in CCL

Why wouldn't bs posters be rejoicing and eager to see him play again?

 

Fair enough man I get where you are coming from and it is valid.

Having said that, those who are done with Bradley and view him as a piss poor leader, based on the objective evidence have every bit as valid a viewpoint as you do, if not more so. You may say captaincy does not matter, but the entire argument for his inclusion is "veteran leadership", so you can't have it both ways, he may have desirable qualities, but leadership is no longer among them at this moment, if it ever was. Whether or not you agree, he is toxic, fans are booing this player.

For my part I can't specifically apportion blame, but there is nothing of value to be retained in the previous coaching staff, or core players that would justify their inclusion, at least until we play meaningful games again and until such time we should be giving all available minutes to the young question marks that actually need experience, not the proven commodities that need a well deserved rest.

Calling up Bradley means exactly the same thing as before; never giving others a shot because they are not "experienced", but never giving them experience because of some arbitrary reason like Paraguay is bringing their A team. Particularly in meaningless games that absolutely and unequivocally do not matter at all, full stop. Period.

As if all that is not enough, as you said before Bradley has been involved in this team almost non stop since he was 16. He displaced some other warrior who gave his all for the shirt, asking him to step aside now is not some sort of insult, it is a common everyday occurrence.

 

I have nothing against Bradley; however, if he is called in now or the near future, we will be right back where we started several months ago. No, he did not lose the WC for us...I do not think anyone is suggesting that. The problem is old habits are hard to change. If he is called in, it will automatically be..."who is paired with Bradley." And, we start the same cycle all over again. He needs to be phased out, and now is as good a time as any. Yes, he could still be useful, but in limited amounts. We need to move on, and start thinking about the next WC, and we certainly cannot and should not count on Bradley being an automatic starter and playing every game.

 

How about Jozy? Same criteria?