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Another World Cup cycle has come and gone for the U.S. men's national team and it is time to consider the possibility that a new coach will be leading the team once the next World Cup cycle begins.
Bob Bradley helped guide the team through a period of transition after the retirements of Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and Eddie Pope. During his four years in charge the team enjoyed what is arguably the most succcesful four-year period in the team's history. The team won the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, finished second at the 2009 Confederations Cup, won the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group and finished first in its World Cup qualifying group for the first time since 1930.
That track record isn't enough for some U.S. fans who will look at the 2010 World Cup as a disappointment and will blame Bradley for the team not going further. His questionable lineup decisions against Ghana, specifically starting Ricardo Clark and Robbie Findley ahead of Maurice Edu and Herculez Gomez or Edson Buddle, has some calling for his departure despite the aforementioned track record of success.
So here's the question. Should Bob Bradley stay on as U.S. national team head coach?
What's my take? I think two World Cup cycles is a lot to ask of any coach. I do think Bradley has done a very good job, but I also see him moving on to new challenges. Namely, coaching professionally in Europe. I also believe U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati is ready to land a high-profile coach to take over. And yes, my money would be on a foreign coach.
What do you think? Think Bradley should stay on, or is it time for a new head coach? Cast your vote:
How did you vote? Want Bradley to stay? Hoping for a foreign coach to take over? Who would you like to see coach the United States at the 2014 World Cup?
Share your thoughts below.
I agree with you on Klinsmann. I think we should be happy he didn’t take it 4 years ago. We need someone who knows the American soccer setup (youth, NCAA, MLS, etc) since the majority of our younger players are going to be coming from here. I know, not what we want to hear but a reality. I’m not sure a foreign coach will know this.
Nice.
32 in ’14, history of serious injury. Recovery slows with age, too.
If he is healthy and in form, he’s totally useful for Gold Cup, not a lot else.
The financials are public info. Looking at it realistically, USSF can’t afford $3M/year. Especially not in this economy (a hefty chunk of the income is investment income).
Unless we start hosting mad friendlies and keeping the gate… like maybe we get Brazil to stay an extra week and entice them into playing Mexico in, say NYC.
This is crazy… got to bring Bradley Back…
I think Bradley did a great job. I also think he should go. Keep thinking about Arena’s second cycle, and it scares me to death.
All aspects of US Soccer need to develop, including BB. I’d love to see him try to get his hands on a managing job in a challenging club situation and see what he can do.
And I’d love to have him back some day.
Heck no we need a tactician because i noticed while watching the world cup that the team has talent but for some reason we started every game with the wrong people on the field… hopefully jurgen klinsmenn
We need a foreign coach. I by foreign I do not mean European. I understand that a few here would want an American coach. This would be fine if one has proven that he could do the job. We had the chance to get past Ghana and due to the bad coaching decisions we did not. If we had won a past WC with an American coach then I would be more than happy to put one in the hot seat. But since this has not happened we need to look elsewhere. The USSF should do some work and ask other top coaches their opinion. I think they would be honest and provide some suggestions that may not be household names but would be able to put together a team that doesn’t give up goals in the first 15 minutes of every game.
I think he’s done a great job, but it’s best to change every four years no matter what.
Agreed, I am very apprehensive of all this talk of Klinsmann. I honestly don’t think he could do what BB did with this set of players.
bradley did a great job but this is as far as we’re capable of going with him at the helm. we need an int’l coach to further acclimate us to int’l football. the USMNT already has the qualities other teams would kill for, unity, heart, desire, never knowing when theyre beat so they jsut keep pushing, incredible belief in eachother, and the way they seem to leave everything on the field not because they want to look good but because they dont want to let their teammates down. a coach like klinnsman or hiddink can take all of those attributes and up our style of play to a more int’l way of playing. yes the team improved drastically in all areas from when arena was in charge but nows the time to get a guy like klinnsy or hiddink to make us legitimate (well we already are legitimate) make us a force to be reckoned with
Should BB stay or go? here how I broke it down.
Did BB selected the correct 23 players? most likely although I think he should have passed on Gooch and taken Gonzalez. Some of his picks were forced on to him due to injury, otherwise we would have seen ching and the likes. Did he select the correct starting 11? probably not, somehow I got the feeling that he was going to ride his starting 11 the whole tournament, which it showed in the last game, where was holden, beasley, goodson? Did he subed correctly? I feel that he waits too long. Some people say, we did ok, so he should stay. I see it half empty, we had the best midfield corp of players that the US ever had and they weren’t used in the best way. Here my simplified anology….”just because someone can drive a sports car, doesn’t mean he is good at it, if he can’t get out of second gear”. BB should go.
“We?” You got a mouse in your pocket?
Capello are you kidding me?
he’s already set to go to join the bankrupt US-Scouser Axis
Unless we have a good quality coach in mind to replace Bradley, I’d keep him. His tenure was not perfect, but he’s done enough good things to be fired “just because”, without a quality candidate waiting in the wings.
nation of immigrants, bro.
we beat england in 1950 with immigrants.
we beat mexico in 2002 with immigrants.
Carlos Alberto Parreira is available…who knows if that’s a good idea.
Look at Steve Goff’s SoccerInsider blog at the Washington Post for comments from Gulati about Bradley’s future and the team. Sorry it’s not letting me post the link here.
Only two coaches from the 2006 world cup appeared in the 2010. Lippi (who won it) and Domenech. How’d Italy and France do again? How did Bruce Arena do with his second attempt at a world cup again? Why on earth would we consider him again, unless he won the thing?
Bob Bradley has done a terrific job given the transition period of losing Reyna, McBride, & Pope. His record speaks for itself. He looked at more players than any other US Manager and he deserves major kudos for this. However he will not be viewed as a coach in Europe for the same reason that he should not be considered US manager for the next cycle. That reason is the persistent pattern of giving up an early goal which we saw in qualifiers and again in the World Cup. The first few times you can defend this by saying that it is the players fault or a lucky bounce but to have this continue as long as it has now has to be a reflection on the manager. That the manager could not correct this speaks volumes in the psychological makeup of the team. The players need to listen to a new voice.
what you say is true, but it’s never going to happen that way in the US, for a couple of reasons:
first is scale. did you know that there are 41 Association Football Clubs in London alone? 41. for a population of London proper (the City plus the 32 Buroughs) of roughly 8 million people. Sure, most of those are semi-pro but they are still getting professional experience and have the possibility of promotion and the odd game against a big team. After all, Jay DeMerit started off at Northwood, in the eighth division, so the dream is there. New York, just slightly larger than London has one team (the Brooklyn Knights) playing in the city. There is a football club for every 200,000 Londoners, give or take a few tens of thousands, there is one for every 8.5 million New Yorkers, give or take. (I don’t include Red Bull, because frankly, if we start to include every team within 25 miles of the City, we get into the triple digits in London) 99% of the UK population lives within 10 miles of a professional or semi-pro team. (after all, there are 40,000 clubs organized under the FA at all levels, and 92 serious full time professional ones- 20 in the PL and 72 in the Football League.) that’s all for a country that could fit inside Oregon. it’s not easy for a player to not get noticed by SOMEONE with that infrastructure. don’t like England? ok, the Netherlands, about twice the size of New Jersey with a similar population density, has 36 full time professional clubs in the top two divisions. What does Jersey have? the Red Bulls and the Ocean City Barons?
next: staffing. every other country has five generations of professionals or professionally trained washouts behind them. in all walks of life. we have less than one. if one in a hundred has the ability to be a decent professional manager or developer of talent, we’re never catching up.
Third: we already have this infrastructure. it’s just in basketball, football and baseball. We have a Lionel Messi (Kobe Bryant) a Cristiano Ronaldo (LeBron) and the next generation of starlets (John Wall, Stephen Strasburg anyone?) so we can produce stars, when the infrastructure exists.
Given all that, why bemoan the fact that we aren’t like other countries, and never will be? why not look for the ways we can better the existing system, instead of simply saying it’s not good enough. Since there aren’t, and never will be, enough professional teams in the US to cover the waterfront, people like you will always end up coaching youth. and someone has to pay for the training ground, the gas for the bus and, well, you. if not professional teams, besides their own developmental programs, then who?
i agree with zach
tell em.
Everyone conveniently forgets that Klinsmann had Joachim Lowe for his assistant when he was managing the Mannschaft. How’s Lowe you ask? He’s only the due who is the head coach for Germany now. Savvy?
Klinsy has overbilled goods written all over it.
can’t imagine what it would have done to Davies had we called him in if Gooch got so effed up by coming back toosoon….
Regarding getting usa “to another level”
I think people lost sight of the fact that we went into this tournament uncertain about key personnel in our back line (Onyewu-injury, Bocanegra-injury and pace, DeMerit-injury, Bornstein – form, Spector-form), uncertain about our Strikers (Davies-injury, Ching-injury) and uncertain about our Defensive Midfielder (Torres-youth, Clark-form and Edu-injury). That’s 4 or 5 positions out of 11. Show me a coach that ever overcame that to take their team to the final of the World Cup and I’ll call you a liar ’cause there’s never been one. Yes, Cherundolo, Bradley, Donovan, Dempsey, Feilhaber, Edu and Altidore were great, Howard was very good, Gomez was good, Demerit and Bocanegra were admirable, Bornstein and Findley were competent, but it’s not enough at this level.
They overcame the missing pieces by willing themselves out of the group, but were simply too gassed to do it again against Ghana on two days rest. All of that is beyond a coaches control, really. What he could control he controlled quite well. He’s grown into a very very good coach who I think will continue to grow. We should be as proud of him as we are of the players he prepared for this run. I’m saying this as a former card carrying fire bob bradley bandwagoner
That said, it is the exception to the rule to have a coach preside over two cycles–but I wold totally understand why USMNT would opt to keep him on board. If he leaves I do hope he gets a job overseas, either as an assistant for a Big Club or running the show at a smaller one.
I want the potato
I agree. I posted that closer to the top.
With all due respect, your last statement is completely off target. In the US, presently, if you don’t have money you don’t play on travel teams, you don’t go to soccer camps, and you don’t compete in ODP. The larger Hispanic community is therefore totally out of the US soccer development loop.
Yeah. Maybe Brian McBride and Cobi Jones could be brought in to teach the young guys how to finish.
Outstanding response — I totally agree.
I totally agree and the questions should be: (1) “What have you done in words or deeds to promote or encourage the development of a larger and more skilled talent pool through outreach to the Hispanic or Black communities?” (2) “How would you(BB) propose that US Soccer change in the next four years in order to ensure that your successor has a larger talent pool than you do?”
In the US soccer community, the national team coach needs to use the “bully pulpit” of his position to help set the tone for youth development. None of our coaches have made any attempt to do so and it’s about time they did! I guarantee that Klinsmann would !!
We need Jones. He is better then any of our current center mids. And is a step above them.
tell me you’re joking….
I am with you C. Ronaldo tick me off like he is 11 men.
Jozy is a good striker dude he is only 20. He has much to learn. He is not over rated when he was upfront with Dempsey he played great when he was not up there with him and he was playing with Findley he was by himself, and tried his hardest. I do not understand why Bob started Findely over Gomez or Buddle either they had stellar seasons and Findley did not. Bob should have started Jozy, Buddle or Findley and only used Findley when pushed came to shove.
When we advertise for a new coach the only requirements that we should demand are that he is “smart, classy, and educated”. Oh yeah !!
No Klinsmann does not walk on water but he does have an approach to the head coaching position that fits the situation that the US is in right now. He envisions a more active role in changing the way we develop our players. He wants to change the emphasis of US soccer to that of skill and he wants to actively go after the ethnic and inner city players that have been pretty much ignored in the search for talent. It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that our pool is generally based on suburban middle class who can afford to have Johnny play on a travel team and compete in ODP. If available you need to listen to his comments on the Ghana-US post game show — very interesting and insightful.
Hodey — despite my agreement that he is not necessarily our savior, your history is a bit off. Despite problems at Bayern his stint with the German side was considered highly successful since the German team was quite young and nothing was expected of them but Klinsmann was credited with their exceeding all expectations.
I don’t think Bob is the problem. Perhaps it is Sunil.
Bob should stay he is good and has a nice personality. He needs though to get a little smarter on who he picks to be on the USA team and who he calls up. Taking an inexperienced striker to a world cup was not good. I know Buddle and Herc were a little inexperienced, but they know how to finish unlike Findley.
I started a Facebook page to get Jurgen Klinsman as our next US Men’s National Team Soccer Coach. Go to the link and post your agreement!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Jurgen-Klinsman-as-the-US-Mens-National-Soccer-Team-Coach/140190045991548?ref=ts&v=wall
I find interesting the love affair with Charlie Davies… not sure anyone can say he was exactly “proven” at the international level… not sure anyone can say he was such a prolific scorer that he would have finished some of the chances Findley had…
The one flaw i find in the “fresh legs” reasoning for the inclusion of Clark over Edu is that, if this were truly the case, then Dempsey should have also been pushed forward to allow for another set of “fresh legs” in the midfield (perhaps Benny or Beasley on the left or Holden on the right moving Landon to the left)… Dempsey had killed himself in the previous 3 games… this would also have hidden the fact that he had no real alternatives up front besides Altidore & Dempsey…
Anyway…
The fact remains that we are (and will continue to be) very limited in terms of our options relative to the BEST countries in the world (regardless of the manager)… i am thrilled that in 20 years time we’ve managed to go from a team who could not string two passes together against Czechoslovakia, Italy and Austria to a team that expects to be among the 16 best in the world and can dream of a semifinal… we have Bruce Arena & Bob Bradley to thank for that… and, quite frankly, unless they get one of us know-it-all’s to manage the team in the next 4 years, i find it hard to believe that any other coach (foreign or domestic) will be able to lead this team farther than Bradley (or Arena) has… perhaps another game… but not much more…
National teams, by their nature, are different from club teams… they represent the soccer culture of the country and the players that have grown up in that culture… there is too little time spent together to create a “philosophy” for the national team… the philosophy comes from the characteristics of the players in that country… Jogi Lowe isn’t magically injecting talent into Ozul or Muller or Lahm… those kids play, in some way, like Forster, Alloffs and Litbarski before them… Argentina’s Bollatti comes from a long line of #5’s who played before him… there is little, tactically or technically speaking, that a new manager will do better than Bradley (or Arena for that manner) with the limited resources we have at our disposal (please note that my use of the word limited is relative to the BEST teams in the world)…
Until we address the youth system in this country (something which we are doing albeit at a slower pace than some hope), we will continue to be right on the fringe of the best in the world… the process takes time… that we’ve managed to close the gap as much as we have in 20 years is a testament to the people that have been in charge… much like some of the best things in life, sometimes the process can’t be supercharged, “steroided” or “bought” into hyper-speed (no matter how famous or important or foreign the national team manager might be)…
This is a funny game. BB was two minutes away from walking away in shame, then Donovan came through with an improbable goal. If he doesn’t score, Bob is toast. We need to look at the big picture – we have the talent to accomplish more than we did, and we were a hair’s breath away from not even doing THAT.
I didn’t think Native Americans played soccer. Are you not a fan of Jozy or Onyewu? That’s what I meant by immigrants. America is a country of immigrants, and that should be our strength. A blend of every style of soccer on earth would be a formidable match for any country.
but I thought what we needed was a tactician as manager, to train up us Muricans? now we hear you can just hire one? why not do that?
Klinsy was successful, to a point, with Germany because he taught them to play like Americans, with German skill. He got them in shape and inspired them to never quit. He’s the German Bob Bradley.
This was the best and most astute post on here..especially the last paragraph! The USMNT needs a high profile coach (most likely foreign), with a very strong tactical acumen, and one who’s evaluation of players is neutral. Meaning there are no strong ties/bias to MLS. We need to field our best 11 as much as possible, and evaluating new, young talent all over the globe. Our reliance on fitness and determination is acceptable if your overall goal is group stage or round of 16 elimination. If the goal of US Soccer is to progress beyond those stages, then advanced tactics and techniques need to be introduced/emphasized. Players like Feilhaber, Torres, Edu, Holden, Spector, cannot be left in the dark!
Bob should go. He won’t coach in Europe. His mishandling of line-ups cost us games and no club in Europe is going to want that except maybe in some Eastern European league.
The replacement is already in the system: Wilmer Cabrerra (sp?) He has done a GREAT job with the youth teams and stresses having fun and creativity which always produces good results. I think he’d be a great addition. He has foreign experience but knows the US system inside and out. Bring him on!
plus, there wasn’t a single player on the team we sent with any ability or future with the team. well, except for that Charlie Davies fella. and that Jay Demerit guy. and that Herculez Gomez chap. oh, and that Bornstein guy (had a better cup than you were expecting, right?) and heck, why not count Heath Pearce as well? (and true, Rico Clark was there too) that is, by my count, (if you include Guzan) seven players who featured prominently in qualifying or the World Cup, all of whom had fewer than five caps at the time. Still think it was a waste, people?
actually, both were ‘discovered’ at Copa America in 2007. you know, when BB sent a team of developmental players? maybe he should have sent the starters after all?