When did Michael Bradley go from one of our key players to "damn wish he retired from the NT"?

When the game ended in T&T. If the US had drawn 0-0 and made the 2018 World Cup people would see him differently.

 

In short the TFC move made him disliked and the T&T loss put him straight to the top of the most hated players list.

The whole picture is a bit more complicated, though. Let's not forget many fans applied the "Baby Bradley" label for years earlier on on during his career because of his role on the NT under his father. I'd say only during his time in Italy did he come close to being universally embraced among NT fans.

 

I agree but would add that in the run-up he played every minute, took almost every free kick and was the captain there at the end. So since he put it all on himself he needed to put the team through but at the end he was walking when minutes or seconds were left. When you make it about yourself you better deliver and he didn't. I still acknowledge he had a good career for the national team but that time is over as it is eventually for every player.

 

The coach did him no favors. He needed to be pulled off of free kicks by the end and there was no reason to have him trying to be the lone 6 against the speed of T&T.

I doubt many players have the introspection to know when to pass the baton on their own.

 

Lots of people hated him from Day 1. Consistent calls of nepotism from his dad being the coach. Those people disappeared for some years but came back in force when the T&T loss was due to his being captain, which is silly.

He didn't really fall off a cliff until after 2017 qualifying, actually. He wasn't the same player he was at his peak, but if you actually watch the games, Michael Bradley was not the problem at all.

But after a VERY long year winning the triple with Toronto, going to CCL and WCQ, his legs went. He can still have some good games, but not every game anymore.

 

Last time I remember thinking that...

...he was one of our 3 top players: early 2015 (especially in the pre-Gold Cup friendlies)
...he was a lock starter: mid-2016 (through Copa America)
...he was still probably best XI: mid-2017 (when qualifying was still going okay)
...he still deserved a place on the roster: mid-2019 (at least for veteran presence)

 

He scored the Azteca goal in 2017 qualifying.

 

I still had him in my starting XI and wouldn't have benched him due to the lack of defensive midfield options at the time, so we're probably quibbling over lock starter vs probable best XI. But my recollection is that his performances were a bit up and down during qualifying -- for instance, I can't remember any solid away performance other than the Azteca match. That said, I've tried to put most of that qualifying campaign out of my memory, so I'll admit I may be fuzzy on the details.

 

MB played box-to-box in that Azteca match. Wish he'd been used like that more often.

 

Reyna's enjoying some revival now on his son's behalf, but him getting stripped against Ghana in '06 was the Bradley '14 moment before Bradley '14.

 

the one where he blew out his knee on the play?

 

For me it was incremental but began when he was named Captain - recall that JK anointed him when Deuce hilariously tore up a ref's notebook.
At that point he was a lock 90 min player and simultaneously began a slow but steady decline. Some of the worst manning decisions made by JK, Arena and, to a lesser extent EGG, have been made due to the necessity of designing a midfield that could cover for MB's deficiencies. Good, but probably not world beating options were, for years, beginning in 2015, not considered or played out of position to make way for Mike. By Couva, I had already become disillusioned by him as a starter (or at least auto-starter, auto-90 player). The sheer lack of leadership and fire he exhibited in that game sent me completely over the edge.

 

Yeah, I remember it was fashionable for a time to mock Reyna's oft-repeated strength of being a "calming influence."

 

This is one of my biggest frustrations from the last cycle, they didn't even do a good job of building around Bradley. Vanney showed the way but nobody followed it.

I wouldn't have played him 90 every game but if you must give him the sort of bodyguards he needed. Throw in a Delgado and/or Roldan in there to do the running or Dax to actually shield the back line.

 

He gets more hate than he deserves. He was a great player for us, but he has A LOT of miles on those legs.

Outfield players with 150ish caps are a rarity for good reason.

 

Afraid so.

Edit: I should say, that's not perspective. Just saying that's how some fans reacted at the time.

 

US Soccer has overworked our best players over the years. Bradley, Clint and Donovan played a lot of needless minutes and Jozy would be right there if he had been as healthy.

I got so sick of seeing Mike on the field for 90 in friendlies.

 

thats it for me, re bradley.

4th place in the gold cup was when us soccer crossed the unacceptable red-line for me (theres nothing thats happened thats more inexcusable to me than klinsmann not being fired before the team got on the plane that night). that began the full on crisis. klinsmann continued the nose-dive, arena clung to "safe" old players. it all should have ended the moment the final whistle blew in couva.

(without looking at the roster for a possible exception) there should have been a line drawn on a piece of paper- pulisic, arriola, brook and yedlin on one side and every other player on that roster on the other side. there should have been a clean break. arena out, every old reliable player out.

i would argue starting with bradley. the "experience" everyone talks about (particularly the "knows how to get it done in concacaf qualifying) was/is poison to me. is a tuesday qualifier in a wet cow pasture in guatemala gonna shock some of the kids? yeah. im sure it was a crazy experience for wynalda and joe max and brian ching and connor casey- they all qualified for world cups. no ones experienced until they get experience.

our qualifying team was predominantly old and experienced and absolutely good enough to qualify. but more importantly than any of that- they were utterly arrogant. they took it for granted and wasted a world cup cycle specifically BECAUSE of their experience. ill never understand the logic of wanting mckennie, or adams "learning" from michael bradley.

we should have cleaned house, tore it down to the studs (no pun intended). we wasted a year and a half before going back to the exact same nonsense, trying to mold a younger, more talented (with vastly more potential) generation than weve ever had into the same, with few exceptions, mediocrity that came before. under the same complacent leadership- new faces, same lack of ambition- "a point on the road is good enough", strong second to mexico is fine, etc.

i just dont buy any arguments for institutional memory in our case. i have zero interest in bedoya needing to be there to talk to reyna about being a good professional- he can ask marco reus. i dont want bradley schooling pulisic on the environment in panama- hes probably heard willian talking about playing scunthorpe in the fa cup.

is bradley better than say, roldan, right now? maybe its close, but id say no. thats where hed be on my depth chart strictly based on ability. but every minute he gets over adams, mckennie, pomykal, yueill, etc retards any potential growth as a national team.

and thats been the case for 3 years now.

 

The biggest issue was never really Bradley, but he takes the brunt of it being the "face" of the team, on the field every game for 90 minutes, and walking in Couva.

The issue is he shouldn't have been an every game starter since probably 2014 or 2015. That's on the managers. Klinsy to a degree, though at least he initially benched him to try other options, before realizing MB was still our best. By Brucie's term, he might have still been an option, but there was literally zero competition. By the last Hex, we had zero players outside of Pulisic who should have been every game starters. But Bruce had just about every position on the field as a penned in player.

He was pretty bad the entire Hex, and I was one amongst a few who was wise to it. The fact he was never a player who really made others better was an issue. Game plans and formations had to be adjusted to account for him. He was never the "worst" on the field, because he was never responsible for anything, offensively or defensively, which gave everyone the impression he was useful. He wasn't.

Other options should have been integrated (John Gonzalez, McKennie, Dax), if for nothing else than to keep him from becoming complacent. That never happened, which I blame mostly on the managers.

Don't even get me started on the caps record, and how he has still been even considered after Couva, which is preposterous.

 

During the WC 2018 qualifying cycle. He was past his prime and he was hurting the team rather than helping (inconsistent play, focus on him as a key player).

Part of the problem was the coaches not finding a replacement or playing him too much. I don't blame his father as Michael deserved to be on the team at that stage of his career.

Sadly, he seemed to be better when he was younger and his game mainly consisted of being a headless chicken (I.e. running all over the field for the whole game).

 

For me, it was a quite a bit before 2018 - I would go back to before 2014. I don't entirely blame him for Portugal, as I thought it was clear he was tired and should have been subbed off before the tying goal. I agree he didn't fall off a cliff until 2018.

However, my problem with him was always that I didn't get why he seemed to be an automatic starter regardless of form - there were other periods he was not at the top of his game. It made no sense to me how JJ was automatically the one who had to sacrifice his role or position to MB, when I thought the reverse should have been the case. I think for many of us, the hate comes from that: the fact he always seemed to be guaranteed a spot as a starter throughout his career regardless of his numerous dips in form. They always seemed to want to build around him. And to me, he was just a guy who was probably good enough to be on the team, and be a starter a lot of the time; but, not someone you build team strategy around, and someone I certainly would have considered rotating out more often than he was.

 

The nasty ankle injury he got while in warm-up down in Saprissa.

He was never the same after that.

 

And then went into retirement with his knee, like he should have. If only Bradley did the same after 2017 and not continue to weaken our National Team.