Pre-ordained iron clad guaranteed lock on the USA midfield position given to M Bradley by his father Bob Bradley will qualify the young substitute professional for a UK work permit. Look for this to happen by December of this year. The prior to the January transfer window and on ward will give the young in experienced professional the time to play all or almost all the USA's competitive games. Abscenes from the national team for playing in the FIFA sanctioned age group World Cup is an excusable abscence in terms of UK work permits. Having earned starts and played a meager 4 full 90 minute professional games in two years at his Holland based soccer club will not get in the way. His father and USA head coach Bob Bradley seems to be on a mission to guarantee the national team appearances needed for the son to qualify for a UK work permit. Can a move to England or Scottland be motive enough to for his 19 year old never to sit on the bench for the USA National Team? USA midfield hopefuls are suffering at the cruel fate that has fallen upon their futures. Some may even be robbed of fame and adoration for the warm wonderful play that would have come from them out under the lights and under pressure from other national teams. They will not have the opportunity to undue another team and enlighten the public as to how truly gifted they are becuase they are riding the bench. There is no rotation into the starting 11 of perhaps 3 other heirs to the world game. How sad for them.
You are delusional. He is about to inherit a midfield starting spot at Heerenveen. Read and Heed: Bradley Respect for Dutch Master
bradley started and was subbed/rested throughout both rounds while benny- clearly the better player (if you want to quibble that fine, but you cant argue that hes been by FAR the better player this tourney) gets run into the ground in the group stage just to mop up for bradley in the knockout stages. to his credit bradley had a very strong game last night (his first since his first two caps, but thats neither here nor there), but his being a fixture isnt close to explainable by on field play. earned the chance to be on the squad? i think so, yes. deserves to be the starting cm over feilhaber (or even getting 5 times the look clark does)? not by a friggin long shot. obviously this thread is a little nutty, but hey- at least qualifying him for a work permit makes sense. it isnt any more out there than nepotism- and if choosing between conspiracies ill take this one, thanks. easier than admitting we have yet another coach whos going to stick to his favorites for no discernable reason...
if coaches picked players just on past performances, you could have a computer just average Sam's Army ratings. Coach's pick playrs who have potntial to contribute at the next WC. Benny and Mike Bradley are both good players and the coach clearly thinks they are the future. Based on what I have sen I would not argue. As to Bradley vs Benny, they are quite different players. Bradley has a lot more bite.
Cue the voilins, Francoise! Jeez, talk about yer over-wrought prose! Get a filter for this stuff, will ya? Besides which, is Michael Bradley out of contract with his current Dutch club? Is he trying to leave Heerenveen to go for England - is that his ambition? I mean, it's not like he's played badly in the the Gold Cup, red card aside...
Best game I have seen him play so far against Canada, then he had to go and do that very stupid challenge from behind. But hey, he is very young, so we will give him a pass on that. All in all I think he is the real deal, just needs to stay on his feet more and keep his wits!
I would disagree, but don't know if I'm allowed because I can quibble, but cant <sp> argue. : ) Bradley's better and should play every minute he's able to. If his father wasn't the coach, this wouldn't be an issue. And shouldn't be.
The biggest open secret of Bob Bradely giving his then 19 year old son the iron clad lock on starting every single National team game for which he may be available in the USA national team. Many said then it was so he would qualify for England work permit and that he would start if possible every single game for the USA until he qualified. Though some bigsoccer clones and other jock sniffing fanboys denied the obvious. Others have always questioned what did Bob Bradely plan and when did he plan it? It became no longer necessary to speculate when Michael Bradely the player publicly, during the recent Dutch season let it be known he would not be renewing his contract and was now officially qualified to move on to his desired destinations. He is now lobbying for the England career move. big surprise! http://www.soccer365.com/us_news/story_29508161226.php "It's a fantastic league and there are some terrific players. I watch the games on TV and the speed of them is incredible. They are competitive and I would love to play here. "I have one year left on my contract at Heerenveen, so I am looking to move this summer. Hopefully something will work out. I know all about Everton. It is a great club and I think anybody would be honoured to go and play there. I know I would. "We'll just have to see what happens in the next few weeks."
LOL. If that's considered a "very strong" game for Bradley I'd hate to what his "strong" or "average" game looks like. The guy was abysmal. Must have lost possession off his foot or through terrible passes / bad decisions at least a dozen times. Great attribute for a "holding" midfielder - coughing up the ball constantly. His best play of the night was a desperate sliding tackle from behind on Beckham as the 32-year-old (never known for his speed, even in his younger years) was about to leave Bradley in the dust. Nearly earned him a yellow card.
To quote Dan Loney, "Who? You and your head lice?" Although the Younger Bradley scoring 17 goals for an Eredivisie just has Bob's finger prints all over it...
Your point is that he should maybe get a shot at being called into the USA National Team at this point after having such a decent season. Yes bring him in and give him a look. Unless you have already brought him in ahead of all others before he ever earned it and he is the coaches pet project with a master plan of developing his own son!!!!! This was predicted a long time ago, the results have now already proven themselves to lend significant credibility to the argument.
If his plan to develop his son involves misusing a 17 goal scorer as an extremely withdrawn defensive central mid, then maybe you're right. Otherwise, I would say he's misusing his son...and should be encouraging him to be playing further up the field...as a 2-way midfielder, or even an attacking one. I'll welcome your suggestion as to whom should replace him in the lineup...who has "earned it" in your eyes? Who has performed as well as he has at the club level, in a good European league, in the center of midfield?
"Such a decent season"? What? 17 goals from the midfield is better than decent for anyone. He probably had the best club season of any American playing abroad. I think he's earned a starting spot for the US. I mean, who else? It's not like Clark and Feilhaber are lighting the world on fire. Adu deserves minutes, but he's useless in defense. Unless you've got a hankering for Mastro, Mike is the best option. For whatever reason, and I'm not going to straight off blame his dad for this, he plays a different position for club and country. For H'Veen he gets forward, and causes problems in attack. Maybe Mike gets gun shy against better competition, or maybe his dad really is instructing him to stay at home. I don't know, but I'd like for it to change.