photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com
Michael Bradley was left off the U.S. mens' national team roster for the upcoming friendlies so as to allow him to find a resolution for his club situation. Bradley appears to have found that resolution, and it will take him to Italy.
According to multiple reports out of Italy, Bradley is on the verge of joining Chievo Verona from Borussia Moenchengladbach. The move is expected to be a permanent one, and the reported transfer fee agreed upon by the two clubs is around $2.89 million.
Chievo finished in 11th place in Serie A last season. The club kicks off its postponed season on Sept. 11 against Novara Calcio.
What do you think of this development? Think going to Chievo Verona is a good move for Bradley? Just happy you get to see an American in Serie A?
Share your thoughts below.
cin cin!
lots of passion in Italy. they’ll test MB early and often I predict, physical, mental, emotional…lots of tricky BS in that league, but they play hard
The back and forth banter on this goal is great. The knowledge and passion for the USMNT has grown leaps and bounds in 10 years.
I agree with both. It was good not great defending by Bradley, but still he could have done more. But bottom line it was a good half lucky goal where the credit has to go to the goal scorer.
That said, the whole team, except in my opinion Torres, looked anemic Bradley included.
I think if you are looking for a 1-0 or 0-0 result, Bradley is your guy as the second DM. He can get stuck in and can arrive late and get a where did that come from goal. Vs any other opponent he doesnt have the creativity to be the catalyst nor the positioning or clean distribution to be the lone DM.
Serie A is a much slower paced league that will probably suit Bradley better and get him improve the weaknesses in his game (namely defensively. He is OK but not nearly as good as a CM/DM needs to be)
From a soccer point of view, he could really benefit from playing in Italy. There is such an emphasis on tactical discipline and fundamentals that Bradley could develop professionally more than if he had gone to the EPL.
It is really up to him now. If he can prove himself at Chievo he can be picked up by a larger team.
Cheers
At least he will enjoy the food and wine in Verona, catch some nice operas at the Arena and vacation with Germans at Lago di Garda.
Not a bad place to live, between Milan and Venice and just north of Bologna, the food capital of Italy.
Cheers
More than likely he wont make the first team before he is eventually sold to a lower level team, especially with the class Chelsea has coming up.
does Bradley realize nobody in Italy speaks English? You gotta have real thick skin to play in an enviornment where you can’t understand anybody/they can’t understand you hah…you would think building chemistry might be tough in those situations.
Good for MB. Hopefully he’ll handle the situation with a bit more maturity and both he and the club will benefit.
Anything is better than not dressing for arguably the worst team in the Bundesliga.
+1
Goal was a helluva highlight, but was >50% luck.
Considering the amount of PT he’d been getting at the club level, I’d say he was awesome (relatively) against Mexico.
Good move. It’s sad though it took this long to get something done. Ulises Davila the Mexican midfielder just signed a 5yr contract with CHELSEA. 🙁 … sub-20 is very very important tournament & i wish folks on this board would respect the importants of the sub-teams.
We would have had atleast 4 players go to decent clubs if we would have qualified. 🙁
Here’s an idea – come back to the states and play in MLS? First we can all say that the money isn’t there, I get that. Then we can say the competition isn’t there, perhaps. Then there’s the playing time, yep, that usually comes to mind. Maybe the real reason half of these guys won’t stick with MLS is because they are going to discover something very fascinating – That they just may not be as talented as some of their domestic counterparts.
Er, it was a fabulous goal. Boy, my typing and editing skills are failing me today.
I concede that Bradley should have been looking for the ball. Still, at least eight times out of ten Peralta doesn’t finish that. It was a fablous goal.
The fact that Bornstein would have been criticized for the same play doesn’t is essentially meaningless. Bornstein is always criticized, even when his play isn’t particularly poor. Some supporters just hate the guy.
There are guys that hate on the guy and then there are guys like you. Why didnt you list the team names?
Would Michael´s haters and lovers please keep it in the middle. People either say he sucks or they act like he is our best player.
Quit looking at the stats. Did you see when Bradley kept losing the ball to Torrado? Or when Bradley was left 1v1 against Marquez and Bradley dribbled the ball straight to Marquez, Marquez didnt even move.
Bradley is a solid DM but some people think he is a Pirlo kind of player when he is not.
Why cant we all just realize that he is a solid DM instead of people just saying he sucks or that he is the second coming of Maradona?
Two Pato’s would be quite deadly… Haha, in all seriousness, I don’t think AC is about to challenge Barca for world football domination but they do look like quality this year.
yeah, such a terrible resume.
I think that is a stretch to say AC Milan will give Barcelona a run for their money. Van Bommel is an aging thug. Gattuso is getting older, Seedorf is no spring chicken and is well past his prime. Cassano could go off the deep end at a moments notice. Ibra has yet to have proven to be a clutch performer in the Champion’s League.
I just don’t see where Barcelona has these same issues.
I didn’t catch that. LOL.
3 mill isn’t something a mid-lower table team spends on a reserve player. If he isn’t a starter or the 1st guy off the bench then they are wasting some serious money..
Bradley is way better with the ball at his feet than Gooch……
And Lalas….come on, we can’t really be talking about Lalas can we?!
I think Bradley has a good chance at being successful in Italy. I’m not talking about a world beater, but sure he can rise to the level of the level of one of the four midfielders that Bryan listed above that none of us has ever, ever heard of.
If you look at the replay, MB is frozen, looks like a statue, does not appear to see the ball coming. It was actually not such a difficult goal to stop. Had MB taken a half step toward the oncoming ball or stuck out his leg, he would have prevented the goal. But he just stood their frozen. If Bornstein would have allowed that goal to happen, he would have been torn to shreds (figuratively) by the fans and commentators.
That is: He swung his leg around Bradley’s body for the volley.
Missed the tense change in the hasty revision.
C’mon, man, Peralta’s goal was ridiculous. He swinging his leg around Bradley’s body for the volley. Michael was suffocating him and Peralta scored anyway. Bradley wasn’t looking for the ball, but the individual effort and technique on the finish was outstanding. I’m not certain there was anything a US defender could have done to prevent Peralta from scoring that.
You may make a case that the team played more positive attacking soccer after Bradley was benched, but the whole “Michael-was-responsible-for-the-goal” line of criticism is weak soup.
someone else’s, that is.
On the other hand, Biff, that MB criticism is unfair. First, you never assign primary responsibility/blame for a forward near the box to a midfielder unless the CBs have a darned good reason why they aren’t around. MB was covering someone alarms blown assignment, most likely.
Secondly, he did a pretty good job of it. Peralta was only able to get off a prayer of a shot, having to stretch a leg around MB. It just happened to go in, so you basically have to just tip your hat
Those numbers aren’t actually all that great. The percentage is fine, of course, but the volume indicates less involvement than you typically expect from Bradley.
But the stats don’t show that MB was responsible for covering Peralta, who caught MB sleeping and scored Mexico’s lone goal. As that great soccer player Sir Winston Churchill once said, there are lies, damn lies–and then there are statistics. As for the rest of the game, MB was a weak link whose benching in the second half had a highly positive effect on team dynamics/chemistry. Not a good game for MB.
I checked the stats page you are quoting, and see that Brek Shea had only one more successful pass (5) than unsuccessful passes (4) and was tackled and lost possession as many times (5) as he had successful passes. What does that mean? Heck, I don’t know. Soccer stats are not quite Greek to me, but almost. But I do not need stats to tell me that Shea played inspired attacking soccer that infected the whole team and was seen by most as Man of the Match. CAn want to see him against Costa Rica and Belgium.
As for MB, the move to Italy looks as if it could be a good deal. Hopefully he gets playing time and improves his game and can earn a spot on the USMNT. Until then, I am going to enjoy seeing how the USMNT’s midfield performs without him.
true they finished in 11th, but they also were a mere 5 pts from 17th place. the lower half of the serie a table is extremely weak, and its truly a wildcard on who goes down and who stays up. MB should improve chievo’s chances of survival while hes there
Michael Bradley sucks, right? Holland, Germany, and now Italy.
if you like watching the most skilled players in the world, Serie A, La Liga, and the Bundesliga is where it’s at. You also need to tune into every Neymar game. Playing for a Serie A team is a very big deal because you have to be considered very technically skilled to get signed and play. Onyewu was just wanted in the past as a big defender to sub in if 5 other players got injured.
AC Milan is going to give Barcelona a run for their money because they have four good defenders now with Prince Boateng and Van Bommel to clog up the midfield with Seedorf playing the trequartista behind Pato, Ibrahimovic, and Pato. AC Milan…scary opponent. They have an advantage in fights with Ibrahimovic and kevin Prince Boateng.
plus 1. The middle and bottom EPL are so boring!
It makes me mad they could not offer him $2.9 million! 🙂
Excuse me, but that is absolutely not true. First, Lucien Favre is not only an excellent coach, but by all accounts is a good guy who gets on well with the players and appeared to be willing to give MB a chance on his return in July to Gladbach. Second, all reports are that MB earlier this year wanted to leave the team and had the loan chance with Ashton Villa and Gladbach obliged. And, unfortunately for MB, the team played much better without him than they had played with him. You tell me, do think those teammates who MB happily bid adieu in January as he left for what he thought would be the Big Time in the Premiere League would be welcoming him back in July?
You should check out the MLS.com chalkboard for his past few team USA matches (and beyond, all I’ve looked at are the more recent matches)the stats truly differ from you opinion on his inconsistent passing. Just google USA vs whoever chalkboard and you can find the stats for all the players.
I can’t speak for MB pre-fallout for at BMG as I did not watch that much.
I had never seen that. Thank you. Bradley’s not a perfect player by any means but the abuse he gets is unwarranted.
Ok, then noshortcorners.
I agree. It’s Italy, not Brazil. Italian league has plenty of hustle players – Gattuso is a prime example.
They were 11th last year. Are they expected to battle relegation this year?
Terrible? That an overstatement he completed 18/20 passes, had a tackle, an interceptions and two ball recoveries.
And note that his passes should he did a good job spraying the ball wide and forward.
However, what the stats do not reflect is that he failed (along with the whole team) to create and dangerous chances in the first half while playing in a new, more attacking role (I prefer him as more of a defensive mid).
I would say MB had a okay game not bad, did show enough to be a top performer.
I really hope for your own sake that your not serious. You think he’s a 2nd division player? Don’t think he has the potential to be a solid distributor of the ball in Italy? See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7JhGnJvw8s
It’s not as bad as watching the middle and bottom of the table EPL teams play each other. Like the Fulham vs. Toon game — that was sooooo exciting. At least Serie A has some tactical sophistication. I hope that Baby Bradley can learn to position himself better and not do so much needless running around. This is potentially a great move for him if he behaves himself (doesn’t get into a fight with the coach) and plays regularly.
Hey, Predicto, the Chievo Verona news is not news to us, is it 🙂 I see you are now checking out the German web sites.
My recollection is that MB helped BMG fight off relegation a few years ago. Then, sensing they would be relegation fodder again, allowed MB to seek a transfer or loan to get him off the books financially, and hopefully get a transfer fee in return. I don’t remember MB demanding to leave.
The bad blood has started when the new coach arrived, who looks like he didn’t want MB on the team.
Yes, nice response. And MB in Verona will give me a reason to watch Serie A.
MB is a solid player but his skills are greatly blown out of proportion, many times at the international level he’s give naway balls in important places on the pitch resulting in goals, in fact one of his screwups led to Pablo Barrera’s first goal in the Gold cup, and he’s very slow when tracking back,in addition to his inconsistent passes that have the team scrabbling to reset on defense persistently.
How do you say “Did not dress” in Italian?