Yes, I do. What don’t you understand about me questioning your statement that he’s the soccer equivalent of a gym rat? He’s slow and unathletic. Is he in good shape? If he is, it doesn’t translate into mobility and skill. He’s terrible for the MNT now, for multiple reasons. He has some good long passes, but that’s about it. His social distancing style of defense is brutal, and he screws up the positioning and responsibilities of his teammates. I’m watching him play right now, and he’s terrible. He’s slow and his footwork is brutal. Hard to believe he’s only 33. He plays much older than that.
You clearly don't. Gym rats are people who spend all their time in the gym, working on their game, practicing, watching tape. That's who Bradley is. He's slow now, from a lot of miles and injuries, but he's always a been a guy consumed by the sport.
You should have just stopped at “people spending all their time in the gym”. The “working on their game, practicing, watching tape” is not part of being a gym rat. That’s just being a hard worker.
Right. Born and raised in the sport, and so consumed that his ego won’t allow him to accept that the NT is better without him now.
The current group has a completely different culture. It remains to be tested in the heat of battle. But out of an abundance of caution I would keep their exposure to Bradley to a minimum.
Jones being certified psychopath doesn't preclude Bradley from being toxic alpha male. One of them will end up in jail and another in USSF.
I tried to avoid the subject of Klinsmann. But I generally agree with what you said. As for Bradley/Jones, I'm not going to go back and research past incidents, but my impression was Jones was actually a better locker room fit than Bradley. They both had issues that could be characterized as toxic alpha male, but in different ways. I would say Klinsmann/Jones/Bradley was one hell of a toxic brew. Cheers.
I personally can't believe that a 33 year old hasn't recovered Wednesday to Saturday! On a serious note, Armas isn't using his subs as I would.
The current group has elements that: * ‘15 U20’s: beat Colombia despite being outplayed surviving a late PK in the process in the R16’s. Followed that up by taking the eventual champs to PK’s despite having lost all their paltry attacking talent to injuries. *’17 U20’s: Came back 3 x to tie Ecuador, beat favored Senegal, made the quarters and despite being badly outplayed pushed runner up Venezuela to Extra time and pull a goal back after being down 2-0. ‘19 U20’s: Lost to eventual champs Ukraine on an egregious defensive error by Dest, came back to beat Nigeria, beat Qatar and tourney favorite France and came back to equalize before falling to Bronze finishing Ecuador on a near but not offsides flukey goal in the quarters. I know some people laugh off the U20 World Cups (and U17) I obsess over, but success in those tourneys 20+ years ago foreshadowed the successes we saw ‘01-‘14 (and especially ‘01-‘10) and the fact that we’ve got these guys as a part of those qualifications and tournament performances: ‘15: Steffen Miazga EPB Arriola Acosta CCV ‘17: Adams Sargent LDLT EPB Ebobisse CCV E. Williamson ‘19: Dest Richards Ledezma Soto Llanez Weah McKenzie Pomykal Thats 5-6 of our XI plus a bunch of our 23 and 35 level depth and McKennie was a ‘17 call up largely denied by Schalke (they wouldn’t release him until the tourney was already underway). To me anyway, they’ve been tested in a lot of ways, Club performance in European cut throat atmospheres, qualifying for youth tourneys and youth tourney performances and have largely passed all those tests. Yes the hex or Ocho is another animal but I don’t think they’ll be intimidated. Respectful yes, but not intimidated. They shouldn’t be intimidated either. They are better, period, and they should go out there and prove it just as they have before.
I don’t believe two 90 minute matches in a week, with daily practice, is too much for an elite 33 year old athlete. I guess for Bradley, it is. Which goes to my previous point that his physical age is much more than his actual age. I can safely say I was more of an elite athlete at that age and beyond. I’m not arguing with whatever caused his decline, but his decline is what it is. I don’t care about how he performs for Toronto. I just hope he never plays for the NT again. It does bad things to me when I have to watch him do that thing where he runs towards a player with the ball, stops about 6 feet away, hunkers down, and does nothing. Drives me nuts. I don’t understand how an elite athlete has such slow and terrible footwork.
He never had good lateral quickness. Losing a step is a bigger deal for that kind of player than for one who is quick relative to his peers.
Nepotism obviously. He should earn a thread on his own terms like national team legends Efrain Alvarez and Duane Holmes.
Looks like he's working on his coaching badge. Tantos partidos en contra que la rivalidad se queda siempre en la cancha Un placer poder haber compartido contigo el curso de entrenador @FAWales Abrazo grande amigo pic.twitter.com/E8tYXP0NPN— Efraín Juárez (@efrajuarez) June 23, 2023
I am mentally prepping for the awesome shitshow that is going to occur in 10 years when Michael Bradley is named manager of the USMNT.
He might end up being one hell of a coach. He played at a pretty high level, was a hell of a player for a few years. Europe, MLS, World Cup, etc. Father was a coach. Not a bad pedigree to turn into a very good coach.
Don't doubt it, but that's not what anyone will be talking about on whatever social media platform we're using in 2034. I'm here for the shitposts >: ) Yes, like that one!
If he goes that route I hope he goes to work his way up in Europe and not jump in as an MLS coach on name before learning the ropes. I think he’d be served well to join someone’s staff and see how it’s done first.