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Wednesday Rewind: One Bradley honored, one Bradley injured, and more

Bob Bradley (AP)

Bob Bradley was named the National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday. The honor goes to the top coach among U.S. national team coaches in all sports.

Bradley earned the honor after guiding the U.S. men's national soccer team to a Confederations Cup Final, Gold Cup Final as well as first place in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.

It wasn't all good news for the Bradley family though. U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley suffered a broken nose in training with Borussia Moenchengladbach on Wednesday, and underwent surgery to repair his nose later in the same day. Bradley was already missing the team's upcoming match vs. Hamburg due to card accumulation, but he is not expected to miss much time beyond that.

Wednesday was a busy day for Americans in Europe.

There were mostly disappointing results on Wednesday, with Clint Dempsey, Maurice Edu and DaMarcus Beasley all suffering Cup losses. Dempsey's Fulham fell to Tottenham, 3-1, in FA Cup quarterfinal action. Edu and Beasley both played 90 minutes, but  Dundee United upset Rangers, 1-0, in Scottish Cup action.

U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard struggled with a hip injury, but battled through it to help Everton post a 2-0 victory against Manchester City. The match marked Howard's 100th consecutive start for Everton and the win pulled Everton to within three points of sixth place in the Premier League, and the Europa League berth that comes with it.

What do you think of these developments? Happy to see Edu and Beasley earning major minutes? Worried about Tim Howard catching the national team injury bug?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. D,

    The USMNT played 24 games last year.

    Bradley played in 16 (66.6%) of them.

    He missed 6 Gold Cup Games, the Honduras game due to yellow card accumulation and the Brazil game due to the red card at the end of the Spain game (if you saw the incident it was a rather dubious card).

    So, Bradley missed 2 games due to cards (or 8.3 % of the total) in 2009.

    Wayne Rooney is another noted hothead and I didn’t notice England or Manchester United cutting his playing time because of his hot temper. You take care of that behind closed doors. Rooney is a better player but Bradley is just as important to the USMNT as Rooney is to Manchester United. I think if you ran your plan about Bradley past his Gladbach coach he’d probably look at you funny or at least tell you why it made no sense.

    If that is your response as a coach then you are losing his services anyway so what is the point?

    When Bradley first started playing for the USMNT I was terrified because I thought he would either break someone’s legs and/or get banned for life for his overly aggressive tackling. Plus he almost always went to ground and put himself out of the play. But he has gotten a lot better. After all the kid has just turned 23. Were you more disciplined than Bradley in such high pressure situations when you were 23?

    Of Bradley’s 16 games 14 were World Cup qualifiers or Confederation Cup games. In those games you play your best. And if you think the US can afford to go easy on our CONCACAF opposition, you haven’t been paying attention to our “B” team performances. It’s not M. Bradley’s fault if he is the best the US has. Where is his competition? They had 6 games in the Gold Cup to prove their worth. I’ll tell you where they are, they are hurt, unavailable or not as good.

    Given the injuries this year I would have thought USMNT fans would appreciate a young, strong, always present and usually healthy player who is a first team regular in the Bundesliga. But that’s not good enough I guess.

    I bet if his name was Michael Galarcep, Michael Wahl, Michael Chang or Michael Canales you would be going all moist and gooey over him.

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  2. What I mean is that MB missed at least one game last yr b/c he got at least one terrible card in the Conf Cup (and started chasing a ref after the game). It seems that he still has a propensity to make foolish tackles and get cards for that. Coach Bradley has built the centermid around MB and I think he will either be sent off and or miss a game b/c of card acculmulation at the WC. Thus, making every other midfielders adjust to MB’s style may be harmful, since MB is always on the field in qualfiers, friendlies, but may not be there when it really matters in the WC.

    Not sure MB has the discpline necessary to be an every game, every minute starter and player at the WC. Thus, he should at least be subbed early to prevent him from picking up cards at the WC.

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  3. holy crap, this headline gave me a heart attack… visions of severe leg fractures and torn acls….. damnit ives!
    broken nose schmokin nose, this boy ain’t injured, just toughened up!!

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  4. “the main problem I see with this was that MB was going to MISS the next game anyway do to card acculmaltion. This in my opinion is a serious problem and one major reason why MB should not be started and play every minute in WC qualifiers or friendlies. ”

    Could you explain what you mean? What is the serious problem?

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  5. Unfortunate injury. However, the main problem I see with this was that MB was going to MISS the next game anyway do to card acculmaltion. This in my opinion is a serious problem and one major reason why MB should not be started and play every minute in WC qualifiers or friendlies.

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  6. I’ve seen a fair number of players head the ball with a protective mask taped on. I don’t know if it affected them very much but if you did the mask right, they sure looked intimidating.

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  7. Dan O,

    I’ve always wondered why players aren’t more two footed. I’m a right footer but I shoot much harder with my left. My theory is that by the time I got around to learning how to shoot with my left I had a better idea of what I was doing…not that I was ever any good.

    Funny you should mention those Maradona/Messi goals because if you watch the end of both goals, Maradona finishes with his left and Messi finishes with his right. I’m probably biased but I think George Best was better going right down the middle than either of those two, with the original Ronaldo (feels funny to say that) not far behind.

    I’m torn because part of me thinks Bradley would do very well in the EPL with a team like Manchester City but I also think he might improve more technically if he goes to Italy or Spain.

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  8. Lefty,

    I hear what you’re saying. I agree whole heartedly about Bradley working on his discipline and aggression/bad challenges, in addition to being less predictable with the ball (whether footedness contributes to this or not). Nevertheless, I think our definitions of one footed players differ, but that’s not the point. I think we both want Bradley to succeed and become “elite”, and yes, he’s 23, so give him time.

    By the way, perhaps the two greatest dribbling goals of all time were done primarily one footed (Maradona and Messi).

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  9. Dan O.

    You’re right and I apologize.

    However,we’re losing the point here, which is that you maintain Bradley’s one footedness, so to speak, is what is keeping him from being a better player.

    It’s not, because not every great player did everything well; what they did do was take what they had and make it work. Zidane was predominantly right footed and not that fast but he did okay.

    I think everyone forgets Michael Bradley is what? 23 years old? What he mostly needs to do if discipline his aggression and be smarter about what he does.

    Oh and if you don’t like the list of one footed players I gave you go to You Tube and watch England vs. Brazil 1970 World Cup. The Brazilian side was maybe the best of all time. Watch that game and tell me how many one footed Brazilians you can count.

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  10. Congratulations to Bob Bradley…”the first soccer coach to earn the honor since the initiation of the award in 1996″ Antother FIRST on the U.S. Soccer landscape.

    Well deserved

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  11. Lefty,

    Let’s talk about what we agree on. Bradley is a very good player, deserving of his place on the national team, and has a bright future.

    All of the players you named at the end of your last post are great players, whether or not they are truly one footed is debateable, but we may not ever agree on that. They all have a dominant foot for sure, but they are all also more willing to use their nondominant one as well.

    Humor me and just notice how Bradley will go 270 degrees with this right foot to avoid pressure instead of going 90 to the left. He does it a couple times a game and it drives me nuts.

    Lastly, please spare me the condescending “watch an EPL match sometime ” and “just so you know” routine. We are allowed to have differing opinions and this debate is interesting, but that kind of stuff is just lame IMO.

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  12. outside a the handful at the beginning of the season due to a disagreement with the manager and yellow card accumulation, i dont think MB has missed that many games.

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  13. Dan O,

    Beckenbauer made his name as a midfielder and later moved to sweeper. He is regarded as maybe one of the best of all time, just so you know.

    “Being able to settle a ball and distribute with both feet under pressure is paramount if you are going to be an elite central midfielder.”

    I have news for you, this matters no matter what position you play.

    I think you are making way too much of this.

    Most players use one foot most of the time. This does not necessarily mean they can’t, they just usually don’t. If Bradley uses his right 95% of the time my reaction is, so what? He’s probably going to be starting for a World Cup team that’s what. Whatever he is doing works for him. He is already at a level where a very, very small percentage of players in the world would love to be and never will be. And it’s probably too late to be making major changes right now. Bradley has other, more important issues to deal with. When I look at Bradley I’m more interested in what he can do rather than what he cannot do.

    Finally, to answer your question:

    “However, how many elite one footed central midfielders can you name? ”

    Maybe you’ve heard of Zidane, Messi, Ronaldinho, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Cambiasso ( I know defensive midfielder) and Maxy Rodriguez, Tierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (not central midfielders but I thought I’d throw other elite players in)?

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  14. None. I broke mine and was back playing the next weekend. Since Bradley has about a week and a half before the next match would expect him to be fine.

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  15. Lefty,

    I respect your points. However, how many elite one footed central midfielders can you name? Robben and Beckham are both wingers. Beckenbauer was a defender. Their tasks are fundamentally different from what Bradley needs to do. Being able to settle a ball and distribute with both feet under pressure is paramount if you are going to be an elite central midfielder. I’m not saying the kid is rubbish, he clearly is not, I just wish he could go left under pressure instead of dumping the ball long with his right.

    Sure, there may be a bunch of one footed players in the EPL, but which ones are central midfielders? Carrick?

    Reply

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