Oh bullsh*t. You cherry-picked that article to find the one paragraph that would semi-support your contention of IT'S THE COACH. If you read the rest of it, Trecker is clearly laying blame on "the playing pool just aren't good enough", to which Bradley's coaching is little more than side-effect at that point. If you don't get that, think of how every Celtics fan thought of Doc Rivers a year before they won the NBA title and then after. It's not like Rivers drastically changed how he coached over 12 months and became this basketball genius.
I'd say you're the one cherry picking. He clearly says, "If U.S. Soccer really wants to change things, it is going to have to do something risky — blow up the squad, and seek a new coach. I'm not convinced this team is playing for Bradley right now in any case, so the latter isn't as painful as it sounds." There's also: "There's also a huge cultural gap. Players who go abroad realize quickly what full-time professional practices and veteran European coaches look like. They may be stunned to come back to our national team camp and run around cones. Privately, players have griped about this for years, but nothing has been done about because U.S. Soccer seems unwilling — or unable — to bring in a coach with real, top-level club and country management skills."
I pulled out at least half of the article as opposed to one paragraph, which by definition means I could not possibly be cherry-picking. That's because the coach is always the first person to blame and the first person to go when things go wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean the coach is the sole cause of the problem, he's just easiest to replace (New York Knicks: Isaiah Thomas as GM, Stephon Marbury as star player, Owner James Dolan...and Larry Brown gets the axe?) Bradley's fault right now lies solely in he's entrenched and what's there now is his baby, which is the same fault that any manager has when he's been around for awhile and is struggling. I just don't agree that if we fired Bradley and brought in "Random European Coach X" tomorrow to coach the remaining 6 qualifiers and the Confed Cup and would see any greater success unless the players have quit on the coach, which if they have means they share at least half the blame with Bradley. However, the players, as Trecker correctly points out, aren't going to change. If Random European Coach X is going to put out our best team to win these games, he's not getting rid of Donovan, Dempsey, Onyewu, etc. If someone thinks the problem is solely Bradley and his selection and absolutely nothing else is contributing to the fact we play like crap on the road, please post your Starting XI that was going to at a minimum get one point last night if you were manager, that way the rest of us can criticize and pick it apart. The problems with this team, which we saw in our away qualifiers in the semifinal round as well as in the hex's away qualifiers so far in El Salvador and last night in Costa Rica, are far deeper than Bradley and people on this message board are sugercoating the fact that the players, especially our defense, are just not as good as they used to be. (all that said, as I stated earlier in the thread, if we lose to Honduras I expect Bradley to get fired because they can't remove the majority of the starters)
1. I don't agree at all with taking out Torres but maybe BB did it because Torres was worn out after the Mexican playoffs (again, not defending BB). 2. Dempsey has done this before. Go re-watch the 2007 GC final against Mexico. When Clint is subbed out he sulks. When the team celebrates the title he does so half a$$. 3. Bradley had a bad game. I, unlike most on big soccer, do not think he's playing because his dad is coach. As for the fouls, he usually does make boneheaded bad challenges (Canada red card in GC) but his card last night was not deserved in my mind. It was a weak foul, a foul, but a weak one. No reason for a card.
god dammit i cannot agree more with your last paragraph. why torres was pulled is beyond me. we have to get rid of this clown (bradley). now!!!!!
the problem is totally bradley. the players he picks for the positions he picks are just nonsensical. i would have played.. ------------------jozy--------------------- robbie rogers---------------------donovan -------torres------------bradley/edu------ -------------mastroeni------------------- bornstein---------------orozco/anyone who can defend. not hard to find 1 -------carlos------------gooch
Well, this makes absolutely NO SENSE!!! You're down 2-0 at the half. You're gonna need all the offensive power you have on the field to try to come back. Did BB already throwed in the towel after 45 min and and decided to rest his players for Sat? If that's the case, shouldn't MB, LD, CD, etc. be pulled out and rested? Why are they all going 90? Is Torres that detrimental to the team that he's the only use deserved to be rested after 45 min? This is ludicous, and I can't believe anyone buying into that. The truth is, nobody had a clue why BB pulled out Torres. And there's no one in the media with the gut to demand an answer (or at least ask the damn question).
I believe Torres played 18 min as a substitute in that Pachuca game, so NO, he's NOT WORNED OUT by any means.
Yeah, for some reason a post-game thread was never started. Suggestion to mods: Can we get it separated off?
Dempsey didn't show up, but ultimately the mentality is prevalant. Adu's experience is a good example. The US soccer establishment has been figuring out every conceivable way to humble him as opposed to embrace his skill. In "soccer nations", it's much different. At the youth level which I played, it's quite common for the skilled players to be looked down upon as "ball hogs" or arrogant. It's a much more conservative game in the states focused on team-building skills for kids.
ha your funny. i actually forgot about him . instead of rogers I would have started dempsey. but i also would find someway to get rogers in there. thanks for the sarcasm
this is all D90's fault. i didn't see the match cause i was in Bath, but I'm pretty sure it's D90's fault.
Listen to you. You are a bunch of whiners. What ever happened to 'Get your ass kicked..shake it off and move on..' Americans need a dose of reality, I think this game will allow them to remember how god damn embarrassing it is to lose in this type of fashion. This will help them prepare mentally in their up coming games against Honduras, Egypt, Italy, and Brazil. They have to WANT to win. More importantly, they need to relax, adapt and try to HAVE FUN. It's a game.
Look at the record Costa Rica has in their stadium this year, look at how many times the in the modern era, that the US has actually played well and won at Saprissa stadium in Costa Rica. No goal patrol 'til Donovan's "gol de el honor." Given that Edu is out - knee surgery out for 3 months. Kljestan played really well in the U-23 olympic tournament - he and Adu ran riot over Holland. Why not give Sacha another go at taming his shaky sea legs, and putting his hara on. Right now he needs to get the youngest and most promising, with the least international full MNT - on the field, and into the fire. Bob was just frying some fish. Tender baby fish - gettin' used to being bombarded with batteries and piss bags so they will do well later and learn to concentrate. The field in Saprissa turf blows - it's like palying on a bumpy dirt field, hard packed - littered with marbles and pebbles - Costa Rica's favorite canyon to ambush the Stage Coach, anybody's ride goes down in Saprissa. The US will never play in Saprissa again - nor will any other CONCACAF team after this year. New digs going up as we speak. I read baby Bradley's mind. "Oh wow, nice move. I'm done cleaning up Bease and Wynne's poopy shitses - I am beat - hmmmm another nice move - look at him go. Oh I hope he scores and gets a look from some teams overseas and gets out of this shit-hole of a Central American country - then he could feed his entire family, and all their relations, and the neighbors, and their friends too...................." If at the end of June the results show that Bob Bradley is totally incompetent and you still think that Bob Bradley is a total failure - then I will consider getting on and off my knees 500-1000 x every day while I pray for Guus Hiddink, or Mourinho, or Klinsman or someone of that caliber to come and cure us, save our asses from our national habit of speaking Portuguese-Brazilian, and Castillian-Spanish,.....of the foot pedal, and snapping header variety - WITH VERY BAD ACCENTS, AND A CRAPTASTIC VOCABULARY. What language do your feet speak? Gooch is talking Belgian and Flemish Celt, and Celt-Iberian pretty good these days. Boca is doing rather well with his French lessons. The Mediterraenaen tongues sprouting through the feet of Freddy Adu, and Josmer Altidore - are really beautiful. Josie is learning to speak lordly Spanish and a salacious blue streak of sexy Celt-Iberian disco slang. Language, language, language - the language that they taught us - the old ones. Be patient. The art of war requires retreat from time to time. Not every stratagem is successful. Unfamiliar terrain can greatly unbalance numerical or physical superiority. Be patient. South Africa might be rather interesting this June.
You mean like how his skill has been embraced in Portugal and France by having him sit on the bench and watch?
Edu's out for 3 months so he can't be in your lineup, you said Dempsey should be in there instead of Rogers in a later post. So the grand changes in your lineup from Bradley's lineup he actually put out is Bornstein for Beasley and Orozco for Wynne. The remaining nine are the same. So based on what we saw from those nine, are you honestly going to sit there and say your lineup would have won or drawn? How?
Simply naming a lineup is meaningless. The point to the discussion is that Bradley can't MANAGE a game. Sure, Bob can come up with an idea of how players can lineup. Sure, he can determine who he believes the best players to be. Perhaps he can come up with a plan of how to use those players in that lineup (I question this based on the absolute absence of a visible plan being used by the players, but I'll overlook this for now.). What did he change once the game was in action? How did he change to alter the final outcome? Torres' defense was weak, but he was one of the few players playing offense and the only one capable of keeping the ball on the ground when controlling it or passing it. Why did he come out? Most likely because Bob had planned to do it earlier. He was going off his ratings of the players rather than reacting and adapting to the ways they were playing. Why didn't the style change after we went down two goals in the first FIFTEEN minutes? Why did the only vestige of a plan you could find (attack, attack, attack) stay the same throughout? The players sucked. They didn't do their jobs. But the reason you have a coach at this level is so there is someone with a level head who can recognize the big picture and adjust how those players play DURING the game. Bob does not do this. Selecting a lineup just means you can name the best players on your subjective scale. Where you place them, how you match them up in the game, etc. are much more important. I don't like Jose Murinho, but he's a good coach. Ask him if his role is just to pick the best players, name a lineup and stand by watching while the game is played out like one of those old vibrating-board, electric football games.
Undoubtedly the stoicism on display on the sideline, and the lack of a tactical and personnel response is troubling. EVen if you lose there is a way to lose, and part of that is showing some fight and responding to the threats as they manifest themselves. Reminds me of Sir Alex' lack of ideas in the CL final.
Well, I was referring to how soccer nations embrace their own from very young ages. Walcott, Rooney, Messi, Nani, etc. Adu's experience in Europe is another topic in and of itself. He, like most other YA's, faces lots of additional hurdles. But Adu consistently delivers every time he's asked for the Nat's. Specifically when Adu and Davies came on the pitch in the CR match, the team looked markedly more dangerous.
And third string quarterbacks look good in the 4th quarter of the first preseason game when the defense is in vanilla mode. The game was over.