As the U.S. men's national team goes through its paces at day four of pre-World Cup training camp, one of the players with the most important roles on the team is Michael Bradley.
Though he's still just 22, Bradley has grown into a key force in central midfield and one of the few players who is locked in as a starter at a set position heading into the World Cup.
Here is my Fox Soccer feature on Bradley, who discussed his style of play, his experience as a teenager in the 2006 pre-World Cup camp and his reputation for taking too many cards.
Give the story a ready and stay tuned for coverage from today's training session, as well as a feature on Maurice Edu later today.
What do you think of Michael Bradley? Impressed with his development? Worried about him getting cards at the World Cup?
Share your thoughts below.
“I’d rather we utilize the strengths of Torres and to a lesser extent Feilhaber and get real flowing passing. In order to do that you need an anchor in the middle and that’s Edu and Clark territory. In a system like that, not sure that Mike has a place in the starting XI.”
Torres and Feilhaber haven’t shown themselves to be consistent enough to build any system around.
By international standards,MBradley is good to slightly above average for the kind of midfielder that he is. You know, more or less, what you will get with him.
By the same standards Torres and Feilhaber are mediocre to way below average for the kind of midfielders they are. You never know what these do will do for the USMNT.
That’s why Bradley,for now, is the player around whom the midfield is built not JFT or Benny.
I’m going with Dom Kinnear or possible even Bob himself.
Sadly, I feel Jones is done. I think his career is probably over
I’m telling you now. Bradley is a hacker. He was red carded before, and he will be red carded sometime before the USMNT is out of the world cup (4th game).
Klinsman will take over, get fired after a year and Louis van Gaal will build the team for 2014 that wins the World Cup.
HAH! starting Buddle a foward who has only ever played lackluster defenses in MLS? what a joke, id much fancy our chances of Jozy vs Maicon if we were to ever make it to that stage, i for one think buddle will get absolutely manhandled at this level, remember last year with LA? terrible even against the weak defenders in MLS
It’s not the talent in the players it’s the coaching. Crap teams throughout history have managed to dig out wins (or ties) based on parking the bus. You see it all the time in the Premier League, where a minnow earns a win from a United or Chelsea using this tactic.
Jose is the best manager in the world for tactics and he pounds that into his players day after day. The man spends 12 hours a day going over strategies and watching videos of his opponents.
Bob is not a tactics coach.
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I hear this all the time about Bob. What you seem to be saying though is interesting.
You seem to be saying that the USMNT players are crap but if Mourinho were coaching them they would do much better.
Well, I’m sure Mourinho would make us better right away. But I don’t think the US would look a lot different tactically; in fact, I suspect Mourinho might get a bit more conservative than Bob.
In fact, he might have a hard time coaching the US since everywhere he’s gone he’s always been able to bring in “his” players or guys who play like “his” players. A national coach can’t do that so easily.
I disagree with you about the talent level of the players. No matter what the tactics, the players must have the ability and the talent to execute them. I think it’s clear the US players do the coaches bidding. However, football is not a static game and at some point the players must think for themselves, must act on their instincts. I believe this is why the US does not do as well with “plan B” because their talent level is really only geared for one speed or one plan and they have trouble adjusting.
This is not Bradley’s fault, by the way. These players spend the vast majority of their pro time with other coaches and teams. That is why Bradley so desperately wanted Jones. He’s a guy that should be able to boss this team, get them through rough patches. Donovan and Dempsey are great but they are on the periphery. BB knows his son and his other midfielders don’t have the gravitas to do this. After all, they are also very young and inexperienced.
I think you are wrong about Bob. I think he understand tactics as well as anyone. And he knows that for now, he has to make chicken soup out of chicken ****. That the team is as far along as it is a testament to his ability as a manager and coach.
I think it’s ironic that many of BB’s critics point to his lack of European coaching experience or high level playing experience as reasons for why they criticize his unsuitability for this job. They don’t seem to give him credit for being able to adapt to his situation.
Yet those same people don’t have suhc experience themselves ( at least I think so, if you are all European coaches or former internationals, I apologise) , so why should their criticisms of him have any credibility?
I’m sure you all would tell me that you have followed the game since whenever or you done this or that and I would agree with you. I’m sure you all know a lot about the game. But BB does this 24/7/365 and is paid to do it and that’s all he does. So why would you assume his level of knowledge about tactics is not at least as good as yours and why would you assume he doesn’t have more knowledge of his players than you do?
He missed the final against Brazil due to the red. And I thought there was one other game where he was benched due to yellow card accumualtion but I couldn’t find it. Tim Howard did miss one qualifier though, because of yellow card accumulation. So Howar has lost just as many games to card problems as Bradley but you don’t hear about it.
The Gold Cup games were mostly MLS players but the point is smokarz if full it when he claims Bradley starts every f***ing game.
It’s amazing to me that people criticize M Bradley for playing 90 when this what you want your best players to do. Smokarz reminds me of those people who criticised Cal Ripken for playing every game, saying he should have sat down for the good of the team and that he was selfish.
+1
You summed his strengths and weaknesses well. Actually the comparison with Lampard is quite good. England always has problems with Gerrard and Lampard in the middle, because they are very similar players, i.e. both play makers. Lampard has taken a more defensive role in the national team, but they basically are the same player (with Stevie the better in my opinion).
Point is Bradley might work best in a 5 man midfield, such is a in a 3-5-2. Our defenders aren’t good enough for that formation and 1 up top would kill our offense. Thus, while Bradley is a great player he doesn’t really fit.