According to this Kicker article in German that appears to be the case - also offered the South Korean job. Kicker is a reliable source for German soccer and there is even a direct quote. Is Bradley still an interim manager? http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/intligen/startseite/artikel/374967/
I don't know, Bradley's not doing bad enough to get kicked off. If we look like crap and erk by opponents during qualifying then maybe. I hope Sunil has a good replacement in the wings waiting if Bob pulls a McClaren.
I think Bradley has done a decent job, but nothing great, although we have gotten results we haven't really looked all that impressive and like someone else said he seems afraid to try different things, the only thing he switched was Donovan out right and Dempsey closer to goal, and he is dead stuck on the empty bucket 4-4-2, he isn't awful but if we can improve on him that would be better, one thing he does do is he knows the american game and players well so maybe they are thinking Bradley could be technical director possibly, and maybe this Pfister guy would take over as head coach, how good is Pfister as a coach anyways, is he really that much of an improvement over Bradley?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Pfister Apparently a lot of success at the club level. He also won the U17 world cup in 1991 with Ghana. A lot more international experience than Bradley, but all in Africa. Definitely not a sure thing. Not bad either though.
this is pretty shady of the USSF.... Reminds me of Auburn offering Bobby Petrino a contract when Tubberville was still coaching...
Otto's kind of nuts. Famous for his temper. There should be younger coaches available. But Otto is cheap.
Maybe Bradley has been offered a job in Europe that the press hasn't heard about yet. Although it sounds far fetched.
Up and out for Bradley. It's pretty clear that he will never take the USA to another level. Not sure we can blame him too much, as he doesn't have star material to work with. Still, he's blooded a young generation and it would be a good time to hire someone who knows what to do with them (besides defend with 6 at all times).
Does anyone think Bob would have taken Cameroon to the African cup final? I certainly don't. I hope there is some truth to this, just because Bradley is the same status quo we have been running for the past decade. Lets do something different.
I'm not going to make too much of this right now, but it's an interesting report. It will be interesting tomorrow, when everyone is back to the office, if Sunil or Soccer House shoots this rumor down to Goff or someone else. Are they going to come out with a firm denial? And what does it mean if they don't? And what does it mean if they do?
well no... and Cameroon were a pretty bad team this year also... but that's unfair of Bob because Otto has coached in Africa for nearly 2 decades... Gertjan Verbeek is available
Perhaps the folks at Soccer House think that since the last six years has brought 3 continental championships and a World Cup quarterfinal, then maybe the status quo isn't so horrible. Personally, I would've preferred something different myself. Our national team program is essentially designed to beat Mexico, which isn't as much of an accomplishment as the past since we seem to be in their heads. I think now that we're the best team in our confederation, it's time to set the bar a little higher. Like sending an A team to Copa America. But something different would've required the federation to have it's sh** together and actually have a plan B in case negotiations with Klinsman didn't work out.
I understand the sentiment, but realistically, what coach (outside of an American) is going you want to hear, "You're our Plan B: would you like the job?" Remember Guus Hiddink telling the English FA to pish off after they botched the approach to Felipao Scolari? At least the USSF hired Bradley - they ended up with McLaren! The point is, no quality coach is going to enjoy being second choice.
I expect Sunil to grin and bear it no matter how bad things get. But really, so far, the only things to recommend Bradley have been his inclusionary policies in looking at any and all options rather than sticking completely to a set collection of options (something Arena did as he became conservative in his second go round as coach), and in getting us a much, much more inspiring schedule in term of friendlies and tournaments. One could also add the miracle come back in the Gold Cup Final which showed a fighting instinct that was distinctly missing when the refs hosed us against Ghana, and after McBrides Post Header, the team completely quit. Beyond that, not much. The bogus record that helped get him the job, beating up on some poor c siders is now long gone, after seeing his c-siders/youth team get rolled in Copa, and friendlies against A squad teams of repute resulted in defeats against Sweden and Brazil. The empty buckett/dedication to dual destroyer midfield has seen our performances dim rather than bloom in year two. Suffice it to say, the reasons for his interim tag being removed are mostly gone, as are the early quality performances against mostly bunk teams. I don't think he's a horrible coach, I just think he'll be a disastrous mistake in '09 or at the latest in '10 when it matters most. As a stop gap he was fine, but I remain convinced that my '06 take was sound. That we had no business hiring a guy that was mediocre in our own domestic league when eight years earlier, a coach 10x as effective, and with 10x the resume in Arena, wasn't even wanted and won the job at the last minute. If Arena could barely get enough love to squeak by, how Bradley managed to hurdle into the gig after the strides made since '98 is beyond comprehension and remains so. In friendlies, and mostly bunk tournaments, I can stomach him as a mostly stop gap, particularly since he's helped us land us some nice friendlies, and he's been willing to look under every rock imaginable for new talent and not afraid to blood anyone. That's a plus, but in terms of in game coaching and crunch time, I look at him a lot like I look at England's disastrous and equally arrogant decision to promote from within with McClaren. Both England and the US screwed the pooch in landing coaching with genuine plaudits to their name, and settled for second raters, England's already circled the drain and gone into the toilet (and at least with them, there is more condemnation as its far more easy for England to pull elite coaching talent, then it is for the US), and I can't help but sense that our settling for Bradley is much of the same cloth. They're not the same coach, or even guys with at all similar flaws, but the "settling" and "second rate" gloss holds up in my view, and I can't shake the sense that Bradley's mediocre record will be more than telling in the World Cup, and possibly even in qualifying. Considering I haven't really gone cranky about the hiring in about 14 months, I'll try to shut up again now about it. Nothing can be done to change things, and I don't really by the Otto talk either.
I hate to say this because I loathe the Mexican team and a great many of their fans that behave obnoxiously. However, looking at Mexico now, with Nery, Guardado, Vela, and Dos Santos just essentially arriving on the national team in the past year, I happen to view Mexico as the best in the confed. I will freely add that for whatever reason we are in their heads as you mention, and still manage to grind out results. But I do believe that if Mexico can find a keeper, this side over the next 5-10 years will probably be their best ever and if they can ever land any luck at all in the draw, this side will be capable of a quarterfinal/semi-final run. This side looks like it can grow into something signifigantly better than their sort of '94-'98-'02-'06 editions. Those sides consistently ran into teams that were ghastly match ups for them in world cup knockout rounds (losing to semifinalist Bulgaria in extra time in '94, leading Germany with 15 minutes left in '98 only to succumb late, the size advantage being simply too tough if memory serves, in '02 getting arch rival USA, one of only a handful of teams that probably could have beaten them at that point, based strictly on familiarity, game planning and mentality, and in '06 getting matched with the best group stage squad (and still nearly winning), back in December of '05 after the horror draw for the US and bogus seeding got Mexico a cake draw, I remarked that "Mexico was still hosed as their draw directed them straight into a match of death they wouldn't survive against the group of death winner/runner up). I really and truly believe that this Mexico is probably gonna be the best ever so long as they can build around those attacking talents and find a true heir to Sanchez in goal (the joke they had in their last week didn't appear to pass the smell test). So while I agree with you, that we've got their number and still appear better in heads up games. They are the better team in terms of how they'll do against the various sides in the world as compared to ourselves going forward. I just don't see the same upside and overall caliber of talent. We both will be improved and more powerful, but for a brief period of 10 years or so, i expect Mexico will probably appear superior if these recent developments bear out. We'll win the long race, but in the short term they'll look better in my view. Of course if Landon can wake up, if Rencken and Nimo and a few other kids can turn the corner exceedingly quickly, if Adu and Altidore truly build like crazy on their summers in '07 then maybe I'll be completely wrong.
Disagree that Bradley has been the same as Arena (if that's not what you mean by status quo my apologies). Arena loved to have a creative attacking mid. He's not really conservative in his tactics. He just didn't have strikers in the 2nd go around, and that really hamstrung him. He made the decision to trust his attacking midfielders to create and score goals, and for his #9 to finish goals set up by his attacking mids. He used a system that wasn't unlike Man Utd's, it's just that Utd's a-mids are about 5x better than the ones USA has, and their #9 is a lot better than ours as well. The two central mids actually did a decent job of maintaining posession. Of course that could have been down to the oppposition knowing we couldn't score on a youth team at that point and just letting us have the ball. But back to the point, I think Bradley is FAR different from Arena. His tactics are a lot more physical and cynical. He really doesn't care about playing "GOOD" soccer, as much as he cares about getting results. I don't think Arena would have gotten results in Switzerland or South Africa the way Bradley did. Because Arena would have wanted his side to play "Good" soccer.
Got to agree on Arena. It's driven me to distraction to see his history completely rewritten by fans bitter as hell about the '06 disaster. While his cementing into a more conservative coach hurt him greatly (the closer the cup game, the tighter he became in terms of experiementing and willingness to look around for new and different options), I've always felt the disaster of '06 was a direct product of the dissolution of attacking options at forward from '98 to '06. Every single player developed in that era not named McBride failed or was injured or suffered both. Kirovski, Mathis, Casey, Johnson, Twellman, Donovan and many many more were tried and all failed. Kirovski just never developed, Casey just wasn't any good, Johnson was never the same after his injury in the spring of '05 and has only started to grasp again where he once was in the past 6-9 months, Mathis ate and unmotivated himself out of the league, Twellman just wasn't international caliber, Donovan was needed at forward and in the midfield and switching between both positions seemed to make him less effective in both with the passage of time....and by the spring of '06 Bruce was screwed, there was no forward worth a damn to pair with McBride other than a still recovering and sloppy as hell Eddie Johnson. I don't think he ever remotely was interested in a 4-5-1 as a preference, but rather hand to rely on it because every forward developed after McBride had failed and he was out of options in June of '06. Hopefully we won't suffer the same fate with Altidore, and instead will find a real answer to pair with him going forward or we may run into similar problems. Interesting thoughts on Bradley. I just wish he'd drop the empty bucket as it will only help us get squashed against any and all teams of strong caliber.
I pretty much agree with graywolfe. But I do wonder if Sunil is going to stick it out with Bradley. It seems to me that his ambition is to be the guy who turns the US into a world power. If that's the case, then eventually the coach is going to have to be a world class coach, and that means a high bar in order to gain that sort of confidence.