Seriously? Wynalda, in an interview publicly printed with his consent, called another member of the media a "dick" and then (though obviously not serious) threatened to "kick his ass". As accurate of an appraisal his first point may have been, there's no excuse for the second one in public discourse and you shouldn't say either in public if you don't want people getting upset about it. Mike got into a heated argument behind closed doors over story that was germane to him and criticism he faces. It's not everyday that a media pundit calls another a dick in print. It's probably pretty close to everyday that some professional athlete somewhere gets pissy with a reporter in the locker room over a story written about him.
I guess my counter-question to this is do you think anyone else on the team would ever have done something like this besides Mike Bradley? If no, which is what I believe, you might understand why it's news. If yes, then perhaps we have more of a cultural issue among out players than I would like. Remember, this isn't like Wynalda said something derogatory to Bradley and then MB reacted in the heat of the moment. That sort of thing I wouldn't care a bit about. But MB held his anger about the comment inside and then confronted Wynalda physically about it later. It wasn't even a derogatory comment about Mike as a person either, but a soccer-related comment. That response says a lot about the character of a person IMHO.
Maybe not any regulars on the team at the moment, but as we all know Mike Bradley is not just another player. It's pretty obvious that Wynalda was implying in his statement that the U.S. doesn't "work the same way" other national teams do in that, at a particular position, the best players on the roster were not playing. It was smug jab at not only Mike's qualities as a player (which would be one thing) but also his father's integrity as coach. Actually, if one player in USMNT history comes to mind as somebody who might have done the same thing as Michael in that situation, it would be Eric Wynalda.
If that is considered a "smug jab", Bradley ,must be lucky he is playing in the U.S. It this type of situation existed in soccer nation he would would be getting more much than this.
"Implying" and a "smug jab" is the only way to dance around the n-word since MB signed a pro contract? Will be interesting to see if he's in JK's XI. Maybe he'll wind up signing for whatever team his father winds up coaching. God forbid anyone dares tippy-toe around the n-word if that happens.
Comparisons are often illustrative for reasons separate and apart from a search for sameness or difference. I was certainly not arguing that Adu's career was in any way similar to Bradleys. That some posters see Adu and Bradley invoked in the same sentence seems to send them in a downward spiral of non-thinking in the same way that a suggesting that Dempsey or Donovan play the Messi role seems to provoke incredulity and outrage by by those who read such suggestions as equivocations. I am quite familiar with Adu's career arc, thanks. I don't care whether you find me credible and was using Adu as an example of why struck me as perilous and wrong headed to point to making the bench as as part of the calculus of failure or success for a YA. The YA is littered with examples of our players making the bench and not seeing consistent playing time (Feilhaber at Derby, EJ, Spector). Prior to yesterday's post to which I was responding, I can't recall having ever seen a post characterizing a YA repeatedly making the bench and not playing as anything other than an occasion for the assuming the worst about that players future, for a great gnashing of teeth about that player or the coach or about the lesser qualities of teammates or as some sort of failure.
Sorry, but it's a little different when the club the player can't get on the field for is a big EPL club with a huge payroll and a decent amount of trophies in the attic. It's one thing to not play in Greece or Scotland or the Championship. But I have a hard time believing any of our current pool of outfield players (Donovan, Dempsey, a healthy Holden, Cherundolo?) would've seen very much time at this Aston Villa squad.
You may have missed the news....but Bob lost the locker room, and the whole team. Anyway, let's give it a rest, Bob did his thing, Michael was stressed, Eric was right, now let's move along shall we? Presuming Michael extracts himself from his now German purgatory, either by playing himself back into the squad, or by landing a late summer transfer before the window closes, I am sure Michael will be in the mix at cm....and could maybe compete for a starting CB spot as I have advocated be given a look for some time. The options there are either past their prime or not in the their prime, or never had a prime...whereas cm is a bit crowded.
I think we can agree we have no strikers who would come close to cracking that Villa lineup. The two wingers are now playing for Liverpool and Manchester United. The central mids were the captain and vice-captain, two experienced players that most guys in our pool, including everybody but maybe Dempsey (and next would probably be Bradley) pales in comparison to on a European stage. Plus another guy that Villa just bought from freaking Lyon. Cherundolo might have been able to beat out Luke Young or Cuellar maybe? Lichaj certainly doesnt tyet play a starting role for them. Would Howard have beaten out Friedel?
Except... Jim Rome is a dick. And I'd love to kick his ass (though obviously not seriously). It's a separate topic, but it strikes me as odd that we have this elevated set of expectations for journalists vs the rest of society. Once upon a time it was an elevated profession, a pillar of society, pursuing ends other than profit motive... Sort of like the noble professional of law a few decades ago. But no longer. Back to Michael Bradley, I have to say I'm excited that this is likely the last thread (knock wood) where our evaluations of Mike will be bound up with our evaluations of Bob. Whether or not you believe he earned it before today -- and personally I think he did -- he most assuredly will have to earn it going forward.
If that were Dempsey or Donovan on loan to Villa instead of Bradley I think they would get off the bench once in a while. Anyway, I think that club won't be a top 7 EPL club again for a while.
Steve Sidwell started the year with Villa, and I think he's a perfect example of somebody that would be thought of as Claudio Reyna, Clint Dempsey, Brian McBride etc style an Yank Abroad bigsoccer hero! for his career in the EPL if he was an American and he never cracked into the Villa starting lineup (long term) in his time there and was shipped off (for Michael Bradley and Makaoun basically) in January to Fulham after not having a role with the team.
not saying that jk won't have his own players. every coach does. and eventually we'll be screaming at jk for having his own personal favorites. but, name all these skilled players that bb should have picked (let's say for the gold cup) instead of bangers and muckers. it simply idiocy to think that bb did not want skilled players. where were they? name them.
I don't know about skilled players, but Bradley brought guys to the GC that he had no intention of using.
This idea bout putting Bradley at CB is exactly what people like Klinsmann and Reyna say that we need. The reason why we have so many midfielders like Bradley, is simply because we don't have enough depth at other positions. By default our best have always played in the middle of the park since they've played competitive youth games. I agree with you.It's interesting to me that someone like Edu was tried at CB for the Olympics.We should be trying the same thing with others like Bradley.
"Skill" is only useful to the national team if said "skill" produces results. Many so-called "skill" players have found their way into the work-a-day world when coaches determined their "skill" did nothing to help the team. Juergen deserves the right to experiment for a year. Really, it makes no difference if he wins a single friendly. Pretty clear it was all about results for Bradley, including in friendlies. Juergen needs time to look things over.
Last season's Aston Villa is getting better and better. If they get much better Bradley is going to look silly for agreeing to go there in the first place.
It's funny that you say that, minus the fact that Bradley's most "successful" overseas campaign came where he was used in a more attacking manner.. Heerenveen's 2007-2008 season where he scored 18 in 32 matches (source: wiki) and most of those came from him playing in a slightly more advanced manner (if i remember the video from those matches).. His success came when he was attacking, rather the defensive end.. I didn't mind Edu's tenure as a center back in the Olympics.. He brought a lot of things that the rostered backs couldn't do.
Aston villa struggled against relegation for most of the campaign, they were not at all the club you are pretending they were. The central midfield competition for Bradley was much longer on quantity than it was on quality. Pires is 100 years old and it showed. Petrov was less than spectacular, Reo Coker played sporadically, was in and out of the dog house and is basically a Jermaine Jones with worse passing skills. Delph was okay but nothing spectacular and my personal favorite, Makoun, is himself quite young and it showed, he was in and out and had a three match ban for a stupid red card during Bradley's loan. This idea that Villa was so much better and the competition was so much greater than the teams that our other EPL regular starters were on, is wrong. Dempsey and Donovan would have started for Villa imo, just as they both did for two clubs that finished above Villa last season. Holden and Jones probably would have started, at least more often than Bradley in that very same central midfield, just as they did for their respective EPL clubs. Or, looking at it from another perspective, I have a very hard time believing braldey would have seen more playing time than his couterparts at Fulham, Blackburn, Bolton or the short time LD was with Everton.