Bob Bradley signed on for a second cycle as U.S. national team head coach a little less than a year ago, but that term has prematurely come to a close.
Bradley has been relieved of his duties, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced on Thursday. The decision to let Bradley go comes after a meeting at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., between Bradley, federation president Sunil Gulati, and U.S. Soccer CEO Dan Flynn.
"We want to thank Bob Bradley for his service and dedication to U.S. Soccer during the past five years,” said Gulati in a press release. “During his time as the head coach of our Men’s National Team he led the team to a number of accomplishments, but we felt now was the right time for us to make a change. It is always hard to make these decisions, especially when it involves someone we respect as much as Bob. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
U.S. Soccer said it will have a further announcement on Friday.
Names already being linked to the vacant position are Juergen Klinsmann and World Cup-winning former Italian national team manager Marcelo Lippi.
Since last year's World Cup, the U.S. team has struggled under Bradley, posting a 5-4-4 record and falling in this year's Gold Cup final to Mexico. The decision to let Bradley go comes 13 days from the U.S. team's friendly against Mexico in Philadelphia.
Bradley's tenure as head coach ends with him posting a 43-25-13 record, winning a Gold Cup title, finishing in second place at the Confederations Cup and in the final 16 at the World Cup.
What do you think of this development?
Share your thoughts below.
10 years, or never. Sounds like a used car pitch to me…
You gonna tell us Right hand or left next Show some class…
The coach of theJapanese women? Interesting idea. If that were the case I think I prefer sundage.
Agreed, but someone needs to publicly break the glass ceiling, is he the man to do it? Personally I see Kreis doing that before he lands a NATS job. Now that would be great for US Soccer…
I think you could make the argument that MB’s club form should have made him less of an automatic selection, but Torres was not doing much better at the club level, and Mikey repeatedly vindicated his selections with strong performances. I can buy Edu deserving meriting more time at MB’s expense though, although I’m not sure he’s actually better.
As for Bunker Bob… yeah, still don’t get it. Dual d-mids does not equal bunkering. That was just a matter of Bob trying to get the eleven best players on the field. We’ve just got a glut there. We’re not going to stop playing 2 d-mids until a more attacking central midfielder can establish himself.
I think National Team coaches should only be around for one world cup cycle, no more than that
Now if only he would do it quietly….
Won the Gold Cup that mattered, first in qualifying, 2nd at the Confederations, 1rst in the group in South Africa, really the man has had an extremely successful previous cycle. God willing the Fire hire him because we are totally rudderless right now.
That said, the Gold Cup was poor and a certain malaise seems to have set in the camp. Taking Johnny B after he hadn’t been playing just strikes as either laziness or misguided loyalty. Plus, the Michael issue really wasn’t ever going away. Let’s hope that USSF has a plan and isn’t just caving into pressure from the raving fringe of the fans.
Peter Nowak would be a fool to leave Philly right now….
I do believe Torres was more deserving than Bradley Jr. for the past 7 months. I also believe that Maurice Edu was more deserving of starting (over Bradley and Torres)
In regards to bunker Bob… I think it depends what team we are playing against. Most of the games we have played the past few months have been against weaker teams so we were able to attack more. I still would have liked to see only 1 defensive mid instead of 2. But again, hopefully we will see some changes with a new coach. I think Bob did well for the first 4 years but after the world cup, it was definitely time to make a change.
Klinsmann’s coached Uruguay? I missed that…
And it’s not as if Bob was any more conservative than Arena was.
I checked three different websites before I believed it!
Bob gave Torres 11 caps. I think it’s tough to argue that he was particularly deserving of additional caps in the past year. I like Torres and I’m sure he’ll get more caps when he regains his form.
This “Bunker Bob” moniker doesn’t really make much sense to me. We rarely bunker straight up in the traditional sense. We do emphasize the counter, but our attack isn’t exactly particularly adept at scoring any other way.
Torres hasn’t been called up in over a year. The game before his last was against Turkey where he was the best on the field for the Nats. Hopefully things will change now that Bunker B is gone.
His play in the World Cup was a marked change, both in terms of his role and the things he did on the field. If you didn’t notice that, I don’t know what else to say. You’re probably also one of those people who thought Ching contributed nothing to the nats. (Not that I think that’s what Jozy should aspire to be.)
Jozy’s cup was crap.
He’s been bad since going to Spain.
It’s like his boots are clodd-hoppers.
Very preditable player….to the point of of boredom.
Luckily he is young…
just happy that there is equal opportunity in midfield now, and that MB might even be subbed in or out of a game sometime soon.
Lol he is our best striker. Such a joke to think He might be gone
So true. Check out these accomplishments.
“Bradley was named the head coach of the U.S. MNT in January of 2007 and during his five-year tenure compiled a 43-25-12 record. He led the team to a number of accomplishments, including winning the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, finishing second in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, winning their World Cup qualifying group and advancing to the Round of 16 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
U.S. Soccer will have a further announcement on Friday.”
I wonder who it will be.
you live by the bornstein, you die by the bornstein
Find us the man (or woman) who will secure a solid W at Estadio Azteca.
That’s my fear. Some think Bradley was so bad that a change will inevitably be an upgrade. But the grass is always greener… ’til you get there.
yeah!!! right!!!, i dont thing so man, a better coach makes a difference and you will see that very soon…
I like this analogy of BB’s reign of the NATS…”he was given an unproven race car, he couldn’t drive it past 2 second gear” should he be given credit because he got the “car moving” or should he be critisize because he couldn’t find third gear? I think we could have done better with another driver.
Great point, but i cannot see us hiring a coach in the latter category.
I like Torres, but his form has been poor over the last year.
Really? Changing the crest that’s been around a few years would be different than the country changing it’s flag? That’s a bold statement.
TBH, I’m no huge fan of the crest, but to say that it can’t have stars in it, aka be themed off of our flag, which is far older than people using stars to signify WC wins, is just silly.
Forget a verb?
F’ing grass I tell ya…screwed us over.
It was the 1st time a Germany team had failed to advance past the quarterfinals in the Euro. And the 02 Germany WC team was the one that needed the Torsten Frings handball to advance past the US.
That was a Germany side at low ebb when Klinzie took over. And his day-to-day role at TFC is minimal, an advisor whose primary input was to provide the list for potential coaches. He is not the tactician, or responsible for player selection. I’d say he hasn’t taken another coaching job because he legitimately likes being Stateside away from the limelight.
The timing seems peculiar, but I’m guessing its because USSF has been searching for a replacement and now have someone lined up. Why else wait until a month after the Gold Cup ended to pull the trigger.
SH!T!
I really thought runner up in the gold cup to a more talented team (especially in lieu of how well brazil and argentina did in the copa) was definitely worth staying power. Curses! Argh! I don’t see them spending the money for us to get better, or stay the same… This could truly be the decade of el tri.
This is really all about the alternative and nothing else. If whoever we are hiring (and I have to believe that someone is in line, due to the timing) is really an upgrade, then firing him was a good move. If not, it was a bad move. It’s simple really. We can debate whether or not he did well all day, but Bob didn’t deserve to stay or to be fired based purely on his performance. He’s better than all the coaches worse than him and worse than all the coaches better than him. If you can get a coach in that latter category, then you make the move, and if you can’t then you don’t, regardless of whether he’s performing well or not. That’s how I see it anyway. So I will wait to see who his replacement is before I let myself react.
He’s given Torres a few minutes. And when Torres’ form improves, I’m sure he’ll get more chances. But if you don’t realize that Mikey has been one of the team’s most consistently effective players for a while now, I’m not sure you’re actually watching the games. Maybe not so much in the Gold Cup, but then again, not many of our guys had a good Gold Cup.
You realize that Bradley capped like over 100 guys, right?
If you didn’t find Jozy’s World Cup performance to be encouraging, I’m not really sure what to say. It was a big step forward in his game.
Could be the start of a new age of american football. Klinsmann said before he won’t come onboard without complete control – including development academies & philosophy. Might take 10 years, but maybe this is the turning point.
I agree with Colin!!!, bye Bradley
yeah!!!; couldn´t say it better than you man!!! ´-..,-¨Ñ^*¿? him
Me three.
rumors are that landon donovan is to coach and captain the team, and also stop global warming
And somewhere Bobby Convey’s prayers were just answered!
Thomas Rongen, you say?
Jason Kries has the ability to be a future NT head coach. It’s not his time yet though.
Best news of today. Not a BB hater just think the time for new blood is overdue.
Thank you Mexico!
Sincerely,
USA
I met Alexi yesterday at the MLS all star match and have got to say that he was by far one of the coolest people I met that day. Great guy and he has done a ton for US soccer.
I would suspect that the timing has more to do with Bob Bradley than Prof. Gulati. If you remember, after the loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup Final, Gulati was given the chance to voice support for Bob Bradley and he clammed up. Gulati’s silence all these weeks was a clear signal that something was brewing. But what just struck me after letting this wonderful news sink in, is that Bob Bradley had to be fired, did not step down like a lot of coaches would do to save face. I had expected Bradley announce himself that he was stepping down, maybe taking the Olympics coaching job next summer. I have no doubt Gulati was hoping Bradley would step down dignified and gracefully. But no, Bunker Bob forced US Soccer to ax him.
Wow, excellent comment–and I am in not a Klinsmann fanatic. Personally, he would not be my first choice as coach, although I will be happy if he is named. But I will admit that Jogie Loew bugs the heck out of me (as he does a lot of German fans) and the final chapter of his story is not yet written. I predict a weak European Cup Finish for Germany next summer…