U.S. national team midfielder Michael Bradley scored two goals, including a side-volley game-winner in Heerenveen’s 4-3 win against Roda on Saturday.
For those of you keeping track at home, that gives Bradley 15 league goals for Heerenveen and a jaw-dropping 20 goals in all competitions for the Dutch club. Needless to say, Bradley will be moving on this summer. Don’t expect a transfer record for a U.S. player though, Bradley only has one year left on his deal, but should still fetch somewhere between $4 and $6 million in the summer transfer market.
Bradley’s second goal on Saturday, a 61st-minute goal to break a 3-3 tie, is a true stunner. Enjoy:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVFBwZXYoXw&hl=en]
also, anybody who thinks AC Milan will sign him this summer doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
I think an ideal trajectory for Bradley would be for him to move to Ajax or PSV this summer, spend a couple years there before moving to a team in the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, or Serie A.
As for the Scholes thing, I read a very good analysis (possibly by Ives) stating that in an ideal world Bradley would turn into a Gerrard/Ballack-style box-to-box midfielder, but that Bradley lacks both the athleticism and ball-striking ability of world-class center mids.
At his peak, I believe Bradley could be a starting center mid for a strong but not quite elite British club like Everton, Celtic, Aston Villa, Rangers, Tottenham, etc.
JMart,
I don’t feel that anyone is downplaying him as much as putting him in perspective and making sure not to get too much ahead of ourselves. It’s the same story with a college football player, basketball player or AAA baseball player. You look at the guy and say, “wow, he’s putting up excellent statistics. I wonder if how his performance will translate as a player in the big leagues? If a guy doesn’t have the ideal size/ speed/ explosiveness/ power/ skills that a true superstar needs, then you rein in expectation a bit. I don’t think it’s at all an insult to say that he’s the third best young U.S. player.
From what I’ve seen, I would consider him to be a Paul Scholes type of player – that’s certainly no insult – he’s an extremely smart, solid, and steady player who is capable of reading the pitch and contributing both offensively and defensively in different capacities. That’s a very valuable player!
I just think it’s unwise to start throwing around comparisons like Christiano Ronaldo and Michael Ballack – two names I’ve heard or to put him in the running for best player in CONCACAF when Clint and Timmy are having successful EPL seasons and several Mexicans are important players in La Liga and Serie A. It’s very tough to claim that a AAA player is better than a major leaguer. Let’s not get all down on the kid if he goes to EPL or Bundesliga next year and struggles. Don’t burden the kid with unrealistic expectations. I’d be absolutely thrilled if he became Paul Scholes.
i find comments downplaying MB’s abilities because his goals are the results of well-timed runs or tap-ins ridiculous. how many USMNT goals have been wasted because our players couldn’t put in a tap-in off a well-timed run. we should be happy we have someone someone actually can pull it off. did anybody look at the link to the first goal? i feel like most of our US forwards would completely flub that shot.
Oh my what a “stunner”. Can we all put our pants back on yet?
David Suazo is actually have a down year at Inter because stupid Mancini never plays him. He was a top scorer in Serie A the past two seasons (22 goals in 2005-06, 14 goals in 2006-07 for Calgiari). So he still remains the best player in CONCACAF.
Bradley is quickly becoming one of the best, and if he moves to the right team with the right situation, he will eventually become the best!
Ives,
Do the Red Bulls get a peice of any potential Bradley transfer fee’s. If so, what kind of numbers are we talking about?
Michael Bradley is my hero.
I find it humorous that some posters are trashing Bradley because he’s not Ronaldo. No one is Ronaldo (except Ronaldo). It’s amazing how many American fans are always looking for ways to cut down American players.
Mon’ the Veen’
Link to the first goal Bradley tallied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmSmBhQi9Ak
20 goals on the season in all comps.
What a beast. I’m thinking his fierce goal scoring ways are coming back.
P.S. Regardless of what the defender should or should not have been doing, it’s still an awesome shot, in my opinion.
As a point of clarification, it is not possible for Bradley to be offside at the time (around 52 seconds in) he is waiting to volley the ball at the top of the six-yard box. Bradley could only have been offside when the ball was initially played into the penalty area (around nine seconds into the video) where he is clearly being kept onside by the defender to his left (our right), who is a couple yards deeper in the six-yard box than he is.
I agree that the defender who should have been marking him is a doofus for signalling for the offside call – instead of marking his man – while the ball is still in play.
Seriously, this kid’s on steroids… I’D SAY HE BAGS AT LEAST 5 MORE BEFORE THE SEASON IS OVER.
Yossarian, well said. And as someone else pointed out. This is Eredivisie. I huge difference from Serie A or EPL. Way more time given to attackers and as Modibo pointed out, Bradley was offside. Which is why he had so much time to set that up. The defender (stupidly) held his hand up instead of moving over to mark him.
With that said, I do think he is one of the best young US players. But lets keep things in perspective. I would imagine if he went to the Prem he would struggle to even get playing time. Same in Serie A.
DL: look for the MB thread in the YA gameday forum on bigsoccer.
@ben
Well put.
Honestly though, we might have to change our tactics in the future to take advantage of our glut of midfielders, and lack of prolific strikers. A more dutch type system might work better for us at that point than the typical 4-4-2, or the 4-5-1 that we have been running.
Does anyone have a link to a video of the first goal that he scored today?
I have that video frozen at 52 seconds; the ball is five yards above Bradley’s head, and what is the defender doing? His right arm is vertical, and he’s making no effort to actually defend. Bradley looks offsides but as a former center back (ok I was called a sweeper back then) you do NOT waste your time badgering the officials while the play is still going on – you get your body in there and disrupt the play. Bradley only did what he had to do – play until he heard a whistle. Good for him – and that defender? Bench him.
Definitely the best strike I’ve seen from him. As Bobby said, though, it would have been much more impressive if he blew fire out of his ears as he struck the ball. He’s not a world class player until he does it in a top 4 Euro league, Champions League and/or some large international tournament such as a World Cup or Copa America. I don’t think it’s remotely fair to even put him in the same paragraph as Christiano Ronaldo – that’s absurd.
Personally, I think he’s our third best young player behind Altidore and Adu. It’s certainly an arguable point b/c he’s had more success, but it seems as if all of his goals (this last one excepted) have been tap-ins as the result of clever runs (which is certainly an important skill). I have seen Freddie and Jozy score display truly virtuoso-type skills in scoring and assisting on a high percentage of their goals, i.e. Jozy’s goal in the Beckham game or Freddie’s spinnerama in the U-20 W.C.
I don’t feel like MB has quite that package of skills (or tools) in him (at least, I haven’t seen it, yet – would love it if I could see some Heerenven matches on FSC instead of catching MB’s goals on YouTube)
It’s an interesting debate, though, and it’s great to have this type of young talent going forward. Altidore at forward; Adu at withdrawn forward and MB at center mid is a tremendous spine of our future national team.
Who has more goals this season, Michael Bradley or every other American abroad combined?
Will Jozy Altidore be playing in Krako and the 3 friendlies in June against England, Spain, and Argentina?
Ummmm…one word.
CHA-CHING!
That was definitely a great finish. Props to Bradley and lets hope he gets transfered to a world class club this summer. Clearly he has what it takes to succeed (and score goals).
There are some good CONCACAF players in Europe right now. Suazo, Bradley, Jones at Sunderland, Marquez, etc. The difference with Bradley is the massive amount of goals he has scored. I’d like to think he could do that in a top league too. I think we will find the answer to that next season.
If he goes to the Prem I hope its to a team like Everton or Man City, teams that try to keep the ball on the ground and play good football but also where he can get good minutes.
Hopefully he gets some nice offers from Spain an Italy though. Fiorentina anyone?
Christian, David Suazo has to be considered in the top 3 CONCACAF players in Europe. He has been very productive for Inter this season.
The reason he doesn’t play like that for the national team is because Heerenveen plays a system that often relies on late runs into the box to score goals, which Bradley has proven to be quite adept at. Also, the better set piece service allows him to be dangerous in the box.
The US team has not evolved to the point where they can play a style like Heerenveen’s. Not to belittle or be a snob or anything. It’s just the way it is right now. More often than not, the USMNT is a counter-attacking longball side for the time being, which doesn’t provide many opportunities for center mids to get forward.
Nice goal. Possibly offside, but whatever. Now, why can’t he do that for our national side? He’s basically looked pretty mediocre playing for us.
Mike
I would say that Bradley is surely amongst the top 3 most consistent performers from CONCACAF in Europe this season. The other 2? hmm well I’d have to say Pavel Pardo from VfB Stuttgart and Dempsey up until a few months ago, right now I would have to say Friedel although he’s out of the USMNT pool. You can even make a case for Rafa Marquez, I mean, once he went down injured Barca’s defense crumbled. As for Gio, well, it’s hard to say but I don’t think Rijkaard’s system utlizes Gio in the best way but it’s his first season and we’ll see how things go in the future with him.
All i know is i pray to god that when Bradley gets transfered…he doesn’t get transfered to the Premier League. Odds are he would end up in Fullham or Derby or another American filled regelation bound team.
He is a really good midfielder, but id rather see him go to La Liga or the Italian League. Where he can truly learn to become a midfielder.
In my opinion Bradley is our hottest prospect at the moment. I’m an RBNY fan and think Jozy has great potential but i still think Bradley is a better prospect at the moment, because hes over in a top league(not to 4 but its up there) having a great season. I can see him going to Germany or Spain. I wouldn’t say hes the best in CONCACAF, thats a bit tough to judge. I’m very interested in seeing how he’ll progress.
Imagine what the u-23 offence will be like once we have bradley and possibly dempsey and donovan since we can pick two overage players
agreed,
as good as bradley is, cristiano scores more playing on the wing and he does it emphatically with style.
Bradley is good but ronaldo is great.
Modibo – Christiano Ronaldo is at least nominally a midfielder. He’s practically got Bradley doubled up at this point. Not to take anything away from Bradley.
Warning: completely irrelevant comment below.
Bradley’s great, but I wish he would grow his hair out again. That buzz cut just doesn’t look good on him, but I guess it gives him more time to focus on his game (less time shampooing and styling).
And now a serious question:
Following up on the comment in the interview that Johnny put up: does anyone else know who’s the leading scorer among midfielders this season in Europe?
Congrats Michael!!!
There is no way he is CONCACAF best player. You guys make me laugh. David Suazo is CONCACAF best player. There is a big difference beteen the Dutch and Italian leagues.
Goddamn, I love Michael Bradley.
If his team can build an attack, he knows how to get into all the right spots…
Interviewer: “Where will you play next year?”
Michael Bradley: “I don’t know I’m not thinking about that we have 4 games left (Please AC Milan come buy me).”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f9NR6PLCLg
Here is a link to the interview after the game.
You can make the argument hes CONCACAFS best plyaer right now.
Theres some with great potential like Gio “Denilson” dos Santos but Bradley actually gets a results….
Or possibly “th€ asking pric€” goes up with every goal.
With each goal the £asking price£ keeps getting higher and higher.
That goal is nepotism, pure and simple.
Ives,
when will the roster for the poland friendly be released
your usually on top of these things before they’re officially released. If you don’t know, when will we find out
Good to see Mikey tear it up this season. I can’t wait to see some idiot leave a comment here or ask Ives a question in the next Q&A about why he keeps getting called up and if it’s because of who his Dad is. Some people are just idiots. Go Michael!!
It is a beauty,
we need him to do that for the national team,
it’s nice to see him not score a scrappy goal for once, not that I like getting goals anyway but it’s better when it’s got considerable element of difficulty to it
Well gee, Seisco, what exactly are you looking for? You want him to blow fire out of his ears when he hits the ball?
Wow!
He could be the second coming of Roy Keane.
It’s a nice finish, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a stunner.
Fierce!