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Yeah, and Michael Bradley is NOW, after stints in Netherlands, Germany, England briefly, and Italy, the same age as Clint Dempsey when he left New England Revolution for Fulham.
Playing in Serie A has made MB much, much better. He plays smarter now for the national team, no silly cards. For the nats, along with Donovan, Dempsey and Howard, he is a MUST player. Just looking at his optachart (distribution) on mlssoccer.com for any of the past few games, its easy to see that he is one of our key pivots on the team. In seeing the field, leading the transition, the attack, helping the defense, distributing the ball, taking shots, putting passes into the final third. I only see him getting better when he goes to a bigger team in Italy, and helping the US critically in the next WC. I think Serie A is really the best fit he’s had as a pro, outside of the Netherlands, which was great, but not as tough as Serie A.
With the nats, its important that we get a d-mid to play behind him and not put him in the d-mid role. He’s a box-to-box midfielder. He shouldn’t be playing alongside Jermaine Jones, he should be playing ahead of Jones, with Jones guarding our defense (and Edu sitting on the bench).
I’m also impressed with MB’s Italian — he has really embraced that culture!
Yes…but Palermo is a larger club with more money and better supported. In general…they would be expected to do better than Chievo. That being said…they have an owner who gets far too involved and generally spoils everything.
No hot wifey – me not watchy.
I think the accent thing is a pretty common phenomenon. I find myself doing the same thing when I speak to non-native-English-speakers. It stems from trying to speak clearly and simply to people who might have difficulty deciphering an accent. I just moved back to the States from Prague and it took me a little while to get used to speaking without monitoring my pacing and word choice.
Hands down my favorite player. I saw that too, that they will probably sell him this summer so they don’t lose him for free next. just hope it’s a team that really wants him and he plays and not another Aston Villa situation.
I saw him play some great through balls when he was in Germany. He’s about 24 now and he always had these various skills. He just did not necesarily display them for the USMNT very much.
What is different now is he is obviously more relaxed and confident and when that happens you express yourself more naturally.
I think all of the free kicks he has taken for Chievo have helped him focus on being able to deliver a great service. There is nothing like the pressure of having to perform to make one focus on the technical details. It seemed to me that Cheivo used MB in a more attacking role in the last half of the season, could that mean they expect him to dribble past a defender? If so, I would not be surprised to see that part of his game improve as well.
It seemed that he might be using a direct translation of the Italian phrase in order to make it easier for the kids, whose english would not be perfect.
Which is also an indication of a keen intelligence. Formulating his response in a way that his audience would best understand him, even if it is not the most natural way of saying it in English.
His Dad is kinda going through the same thing right now. Heard some audio of Bob on the Extratime Radio podcast and it sounded as if he has forgotten how to speak English. His cadence was completely different.
Italy has been a great move for MB. He is picking up new skills and reading the game much better from an offensive perspective as evidenced by his numerous through balls in these recent US National Team games that put other players into dangerous attacking position.
Actually you spelled that correctly.
” I disagree. ”
-Clint Dempsey
according to the fantastic ESPN piece on him a few weeks ago, he only knows a few phrases. he has a translator that is always with him.
haha i noticed this too
At MB’s age, it’s difficult to improve technically. I think Serie A is perfect for him.
It’s too funny to see MB SMILE!
Good to see him playing so well for both club & the Nats. Moving up in Italy seems like a very real possibility, would be interesting to see him somewhere like Spain to improve on the technical skill even more.
Still have yet to see a really successful USMNT stint in Espana. Maybe somewhere like Atletico Madrid or even Malaga would be a good fit.
I would guess 4. English, Dutch, German, and Italian.
He also said “when you make the training” instead of just “train,” which could mean that he doesn’t know how to conjugate the verb in Italian, and is using the passive/subjunctive tense to speak (easier for learning a language while still speaking clearly).
Seriously awesome that he attempts to learn all the languages.
Anyone know if his dad has been dabbling in Arabic? Based on MB’s capacity at language acquisition, I’ll bet you Bob will be coaching in Arabic by World Cup time (if they get there).
He’s quite obviously a special player. He really takes his business seriously. Congratulations to him on all his successes, and I hope for more!
Ha, i was thinking that too…pulling a “Schteve” McClaren!
And yeah, he still has an accent – that’s the last thing to go (and usually doesn’t ever go away if you learn a language as an adult). But it’s not especially thick.
As a native Italian speaker, I can tell you that he speaks it extremely well for someone there for just a year or so. Also in the first part you caould see him using a lot of phrases (at the coffee shop, etc.) that are very casual and appropriate for the setting – not just literal translations in his head from English. Blows me away. And the other (Germanic) languages he knows have nothing in common with Italian, so it’s not like he had a head start. Wow.
Serie A is a great place for Michael to grow his game. I wish him the best and his best years are still ahead of him.
He also speaks German pretty well from his time at Borussia Moenchengladbach (i’m sure i butchered that). His work ethic and mental aptitude to achieve conversational fluency in a relatively short amount of time is incredibly impressive and an indicator of a keen intelligence. Was it just me, or did he sound like he was speaking english with a touch of an accent when he spoke to the school children?
Nice bit of knowledge.
I did not know this.
love it. i need some more. it’s been too many days without a Behind the Crest video.
Wow, how many languages does MB speak?
I remember when he was in Heerenveen, he spoke Dutch in postgame interviews and here he is in this video speaking Italian.
Twitter was active a few days ago with statements from several sources expecting him to leave this summer. Chievo has been approached by teams from England, Germany, and Italy. There was specific mention of Palermo, but they finsihed beneath Chievo this year.
Problem is, his contract length pretty much dictates that he either move to a bigger club this summer, or his club risks losing him for free next. From a player standpoint it might be nice to stay another year to continue to improve in a stable environment and then have your choice of basically any interested club when your contract’s up, but something tells me the club may choose to cash in sooner rather than later in order to avoid losing him for free. This is all assuming Bradley wouldn’t sign an extension to his contract. I could see him extending one more year but I can’t see why he’d do it when it’s clear that there are bigger teams that are very interested in his services. A player’s career is only so long and sometimes you just have to pull the trigger on a big move. Your next game is never guaranteed.
It was interesting to see his teammate speculate that in a few years he would be on to a bigger club. I wonder where that would be?
On a serious note, I know he’s ambitious but I think this is a great home for him for the foreseeable future.
When/if he’s able to maintain this level and take it to another would be the time to move up.
11 seconds to 20 seconds in the video.
“Me too, bro.” -Giuseppe Rossi