Bradley to Get the Job (Crew)

Not wholly unexpected but not wholly unwelcomed either.

Bradley can coach when he has the horses and I think we saw he was developing those steeds in the February/March friendlies.

Good Luck Bob!

 

I just lost my dinner. Thanks Sunil!

 

As far as I'm concerned, Bradley has a lot to prove. Going from Klinsmann being a sure deal (good decision or not, it would have been exciting at the very least) to...Bradley? That's a bit of a letdown.

He's shown some good stuff so far (you can't beat a 2-0 win over Mexico) and I believe he's the first US coach to win his first three games as manager, but I'm still far from convinced that he's going to bring us to a higher level than what we achieved at WC 2002.

I'm willing to give him a chance, though.

 

I would say we will see how he is doing after the Copa tourney, but we are sending a half-assed team down to South America so that is not a true testiment to who we are. And in the Gold Cup, we send a strong team against a field that only poses one threat, Mexico, and we all know we can beat them, especially on US soil.

Just give the man a shot....if he fails this summer, Sunil better get someone else because US Soccer can not take another set back.

 

Good for....Michael.

 

So basically Sunil couldn't get anyone else.

 

I'm not convinced that he's going to be the answer to us making serious progress in 2010. But, he's shown enough thus far to warrant an honest shot with some room to really get his own system in place.

Besides, with Nowak as an assistance there's no doubt there's some good tactical minds at work that understand the US system.

 

Absolutely. I have to agree with Wynalda - it's criminal that Gulati took this long to realize that Bradley had earned the job.

 

He has done enough to warrant a shot, but I think you just need to check out how his club teams have played to know how he'll play. Mr. Archer said it best last year: cheating, dirtbag soccer. And no offense to his talent, but as a player and a manager Mr. NowaKKK is the same thing. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I don't think Bradley will be that great a coach. That being said, I'll still cheer the team, though it may take me a while to found out what that pain I feel is when I cheer them. Could this pairing be any more a kick in the gut to Crew fans?

 

Good for Bob, he deserves the shot at this.

The bad thing about this is that Sunil took so long to pull the trigger. There was so much discussion about the timing of the decision being held off until the end of the European/English season that every Yanks fan in the universe realizes that Bradley was at least the fourth choice of the USSF.

Sunil and the USSF handled this choice in the most ham fisted and clumsy way they could. It was obvious that the USSF was willing to bend over and take it from Klinsmann for as long as he wanted to give it to them. Eventually it became far too painfully obvious that we were coming across like the Plain Jane HS girl so desperate for a prom date that she throws herself at a guy regardless of the cost.

Then, after the USSF does finally make a stand they leave it to Klinsmann to release the news that talks were dead. So after all of that Klinsmann is still allowed to be assume the position of having chosen to break the talks off himself.

Sunil comes out and and says that he wants to wait until the end of the foreign seasons and basically pulls the same routine with the other two coaches being publicly courted. They run him around like the proverbial Plain Jane and then very likely use that interest to leverage pay raises with their current teams.

All the time assuming this imperious attitude toward Bradley. Appearing on camera and openly not giving Bradley support except to say that he definietly would be the Olympic Coach - YIPPEE that's supporting your guy.

Arena has said that what drives Sunil is being able to play big shot and hobnob with the international soccer names. His actions in this "search" have pretty much made it clear that is the case. Sunil has a case of Euro envy in the worse sort of way. And becasue of it he has further damaged the already tarnished image of the US mens team.

His approach to this coaching choice has shown that he doesn't have a clue about what he is doing at the international level. He let the USSF get played and played badly.

To follow up on the prom date metaphor: he let his desperation get the best of him, gave it up before the prom lost his bargaining leverage and wound up ********ed and dumped.

I hope Bradley does well he has always seemed like a good coach and an ok guy. He has most assuredly put up with a lot of crap for this opportunity. He has a big time rebuilding effort to pull off but he does seem to be willing to take chances on new faces and has a history of developing young talent.

And I hope that Sunil goes somewhere else in a hurry.

The USSF needs to start getting over their inferiority complex and realize that we have the base laid for an excellent program, thank you Bruce. We don't need to go around begging for some mythical European coach to lead us out of the wilderness. If we can land a top shelf international coach who is interested in coming here to coach fine. But I don't really even think that is all that necessary. We are developing coaches in this country who are more than qualified to coach on the international level and we need to give them international stages to exhibit themselves.

 

i think that having an interim coach at this point was really stupid. it seems like the interim tag was there because they were still looking, but i think it lasted way too long. we have a couple of years before WC qualifying starts so I say, let BB have his chance. i think the interim tag is crippling for a man who is supposed to be implementing new ideas for the program. he could potentially be too afraid to do anythingnovel, but now i think that fear may be gone. but as of now, he ahs done a good job. i think his ultimate test will be this summer with the gold cup and copa america. and if he sucks, fire him.

 

I'm not in the camp that this was handled so poorly.

When it got floated that Klinnsman was being courted, most of Bigsoccer was drooling on it's collected laps over the possibility of landing him while ignoring some of the more odd statements he'd made in the past.

While USSF doesn't have much of a track record with handling anything very well, they made it clear that they were willing to wait for Juergen to get his head straight, but weren't willing to hand him the lock, stock and barrel like he expected. And these were the same guys who handed Arena the reins and allowed him to get the program onto much better footing than we've ever had. They at least deserve their props for that.

While Sunil may or may not be a psychophantic europhile, he at least gave himself the time and space to look at all of the available options while giving Bradley the opportunity to handle the USMNT in a low pressure situation with enough time and money to justify leaving his other gig.

In the end, we didn't get Klinnsman, and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.

 

An interesting take and as easily seen as my polar opposite post. As these things go the reality is probably somewhere in the center.

I'm still not sold on Gulati in this job but he has finally quit screwing around and named Bradley as coach.

I was one of the ones who liked the idea of Klinsmann as coach. But in no way shape or form was I an advocate of letting him hold our program hostage. If he really wanted the job he would have made it happen, the controls were always in his hands. I now couldn't agree more that we probably are better off without him.

Bradley wants this job, his whole career has been focused on getting this kind of opportunity. I far prefer this to any individual who just sees it as a fall back if nothing else better pops up.

 

This is a little bit like when BA got the job after France 98... except that while I didn't like BA he at least had a more impressive set of credentials for the job than Bob does. Sure Bradley got the Cup in 98, but he really hasn't done a tone since then. He at least helped Chivas out, but then again, they basically had to get better from year 1.

 

While Bob has maybe earned his chance it is still a huge risk. I would feel more comfortable with someone who has proven success at the international level.

I still don't think it's all about the manager. It's about the whole system, from the youth to the full national team.

It's quite obvious we can do better with our younger talent. Too many promising players are failing to live up to their potential while many slip through the cracks and go unnoticed.

 

I like him personally. I'll hope for the best. But I really think we needed a foreign coach to clear the cobwebs and puncture that smug superiority we always award ourselves by gliding through CONCACAF.

 

if chelsey and i agree, you know its ********ed.

 

Bradley should do ok. Frankly, our weakness is player development aand that is getting better annually while EPL and tthe rest of Europe are looking all arround the world for talent to keep their leagues afloat. We just need to hang in there and keep infusing MLS with a mixture of american players and world class talent. Soon the 2 will become one in the same.

The thing a foreign coach would do is help us beccome more legit in the eyes of the world. Then we wouldn't draw so many yellow and red cards. Even a blind man has to admit the US got more BS cards than the rest of the world. Come on, a red card for a good slide tackle! Tell me the US competes on a fair playing field. Bunch of Euroweenies anyways!

 

Eggy's right though, the biggest thing is the total system, starting at the foundations, the youth development, etc. It comes down to the fact that we're still living with an outdated approach, and while we want to say we're up and coming when we look at our league and our national team, until there is a cultural paradigm shift, we're not going to come anywhere close to fulfilling the potential we have.

 

Great points, Eggy.

Whether you liked Bradley as a coach may not be as important as his organzational skills and front running for the program. I was impressed that he hired Nowack as his 1st assistant to get international background and someone with great technical knowledge. He'll build a great staff - which, IMHO, was one of Arena's major downfalls in '06. Most great head coaches are good managers of their staff - where the real work gets done.

My guess is that he can manage the player egos well, too. Seems to have done that well in Chicago with Nowak, and uh, yeah, that goof ball who played for us and is now with Cheeevus...oh yeah - ratzoff.

 

The only thing that made me feel better was the fact that Kasey Keller said some good things about him. I know for a fact that Kasey Keller is honest and speaks his mind (he's an asshole sometimes).

If I remember correctly Kasey even told Zak (of Massive fame) that Glen Hoddle was ********ing useless as a manager at Tottenham.

 

Just be thankful you don't have Steve Mclaren as manager.