It's a shield from sanity.
When the news came down yesterday that we’re in for four more years of Bob Bradley with the USMNT, I said I didn’t know how to respond. Frankly, I still do, but my compatriots had no problem responding to the news.
This post started on the daily UF e-mail thread, and we’re bringing it out here in the open. We might add to it as more UFers come forth with their thoughts.
My snap judgment? This smells like the path of least resistance, rather than the brave move. Bradley has been a success by all accounts, but it’s HOW he’s been a success that makes me want him gone. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing sometimes, and the players have bailed him out too many times. Sunil Gulati and US Soccer must not have had a viable second option. If they did, whether Klinsy or someone else, they missed out on the opportunity to attempt to take the team in a new and possibly more successful direction.
Anyway, that’s my quick reaction. Now, here are the snap judgments from other UFers …
Spectator (who started the whole thread): Four more years of Huh Bob was sadly inevitable. If Sunil fires Bob and the US falters, than Sunil looks dumb. If we keep Bob and the US falters, than it’s Bob’s fault. Classic bureaucrat’s paradox. There is never an incentive to do something inspired.
Plus, Bob is a company man. Klinsy would have just come in and immediately wanted to change the curtains. Sunil has his legacy to think about when the US wins the 2022 World Cup bid. Can’t have your coach going around saying he knows more than the head of US Soccer!
I’m not sure that Klinsmann was really the answer, but at least it would signal that the U.S. is really serious about taking the next step in our development. Bradley was fine for what he is: an American with limited experience, very limited tactical knowledge, awful in-game decisions, a good understanding of the U.S.’s talent pool, and well-liked by the players. That’s fine for sustaining the status quo. But not good for developing the team into what we all hope it can become — a legitimate international force. It feels like the best we can hope for the next four years is exactly what we’ve already had. Plus, we have to worry about the next generation of players developing into decent players, not at all like Freddie Adu.
I should’ve known we were doomed when everyone blindly jumped on the Huh Bob bandwagon during the World Cup. The worst was when they deleted the Fire Bob facebook page. As if that proved anything at all. The U.S. led for a few minutes during the entire competition. We took advantage of a shaky England, barely got a draw against Slovenia, had a magical moment against Algeria, and crashed out against Ghana — a team we should have beaten — and missed out on the easiest path to the later stages that we will likely ever have. And for that, Bob deserves an extension? Please.
Oh and I blame SAF for saying Bob deserved an extension. F**k the brotherhood of football managers. This guy is simply not the answer to what the U.S. needs right now. Give us something to inspire hope, or at least show that we’re serious about competing.
Autoglass: There is a case for Bradley. I hate the extension, personally. But the only other option right now is Klinsy. I’ve met him. Very Orange County (in a bad way). And he was a disaster at Bayern.
I would prefer Klinsy at any price to Bob. But it’s not like it’s a crazy choice.
The Fan’s Attic: The Bob Bradley Extension is simply a face saving measure for both sides.
Sunil Gulati revealed his true feelings after the U.S. World Cup run ended saying “the team [was] capable of more.” He said everybody knew it, him, Bob Bradley and the players. Gulati concluded his assessment by saying “we’re disappointed we didn’t get to play another 90 minutes at least.” Despite his feelings, Gulati was unable to do what he should be able to do and is obligated to do: improve the USMNT. He knew the flaws but he has failed to do anything about it and stuck with the status quo rather than try to stand upon the shoulders of what Bob Bradley and the team had accomplished to reach greater heights.
It’s not so much Gulati is afraid to try to succeed, rather he is afraid to fail and this decision proves. Perhaps it’s the economist in Gulati that would rather take a more constant rate of return on an investment than a higher risk investment.
This is ok for a mature team and soccer nation. But the U.S. is not a mature soccer nation and has a great deal of time before it becomes one. Now is the time for higher risk investments. Something outside the box. Something new. Something not the same as the past four years.
For Bob Bradley’s part this extension represents his failure to secure a better job, or at least a new job that he believes is commensurate with his achievements. However, it is clear the rest of the world was not as enamored with the U.S. performance under Bradley. Yes, he achieved some dramatic results and got out of the group stage at the World Cup. But, these achievements only masked the tactical mishaps, motivational miscues and lineup mistakes of Bradley. The team routinely played from behind, could not adapt to in-game strategy changes and, this is a huge flaw on Bradley’s part, routinely had to make half-time lineup changes.
This is why Bradley was never a serious or viable contender for the Aston Villa or Fulham job. He has not displayed the chops necessary to manage in the big leagues of club soccer. And, much like Gulati, it appears that Bradley was afraid of failure more than he strived for greatness. If Bradley has displayed some interest in lower tier leagues of Europe, maybe he could have gone on to great success. We will never know because Bradley was afraid to step beyond his comfort zone.
As a USMNT fan, I can tell you this, I am not in a comfort zone with four more years of Bradley. Or Gulati for that matter.
The NY Kid: The retention of Bob Bradley should make fans of other footballing nations ecstatic. With Tracksuit Bob still in charge, the USMNT will not threaten the likes of Spain, the Netherlands, Argentina or even the hapless French, Italians and English. Instead, we will be forced to continue to settle for forced elation to advance to the group stages of major competitions, never thinking that we are capable of winning it all. The man lacks imagination, is tactically deficient, makes poor lineup decisions and is generally “successful” in spite of, rather than due to, himself. We are talking about a man who has a record of 38-21-8 which, considering the CONCACAF competition, isn’t all that spectacular.
Sadly, the nature of that competition means that there will be almost no chances to get rid of Bradley before WC 2014, where we will surely fail yet again.
In the end, it feels like Bradley is a bad joke continually played on us by Sunil Gulati. The USSF head appears to have only considered Bob and Juergen Klinsmann as his choices, so when he was unable to secure the services of the German legend, he was left with no other options but Huh Bob. You can’t really fault Bradley for sticking around – the blame here lies squarely on Gulati, who also clearly lacks imagination to the severe detriment of the development of the USMNT. Perhaps on October 9th, a crowd should pass by the USSF headquarters on the way to Soldier Field for the match against Poland and let Gulati know exactly how we feel. Of course, since he’s an “absentee dad” it’s unlikely that he would even be there.
Sigh. 4 more years of Tracksuit Bob. At least I can still root for France.
Ah, crap.
James T (who let him in here?): Look fellas, my condolences. But you must consider that any kind of longevity or continuity in international management is a good thing. Granted, he’s not the sharpest tool in the box, but in recent years, it seems like most gaffers willing to coach an NT want to do it the quick and dirty way: coach a major tournament, do little in the way of meaningful work, collect check with lots of zeroes on it.
And so it goes. Sven, Guus, Scolari, Parreira: these guys are bad news. As good as they can be in charge, they don’t care about your squad, your youth squad, and they certainly don’t care about your country. Pay them, then lose them.
So let’s shift to Klinsmann for a moment. Yes, it looked like he was interviewing for the job on ESPN after the USA/Ghana defeat, but I never got the sense that he was actually strong-willed enough to do all the legwork he laid out in great detail.
Consider his resume: he walked out on the German NT after declaring that he wanted more family time and that he didn’t have the strength to go on. When he did return to action at the helm of Bayern Munich, he failed to live up to lofty expectations and was rather unceremoniously dumped.
These incidents do a lot to a man, who’s been out of management for a while and clearly enjoying the freedom and relief of leading a normal, civilian life. He gets paid to chat about the sport and offer opinions, looking good while never putting himself in a spot to look bad.
In the US, with the sport clearly in the national mindset and pressure building for the USMNT to perform, is it any wonder that soft-hearted Jurgen would want no part of that in his day-to-day existence? He’s all too willing to opine from the fringe and offer ideas, but it’s clear from his post-playing days that his goals in life have changed. Therefore, he’s not the guy you want in such a job, tasked with rebuilding and continuing to push the US onto the international stage.
Bob’s got many flaws, sure, but he handles the gig well. In time, guys like Bornstein and Ricardo Clark will retire, meaning Huh Bob can’t pick them. Old dogs can learn new tricks, and considering the current candidates’ list beyond Klinsmann, keeping someone like Bob is not a damaging, terrible thing. You could do a lot worse.
My opinion lies in the territory of James T.
Spectator – You are the greatest soccer writer of alltime, in my humble opinion. You hit every nail on the head with your comments on f**kin Bob.
Thank you UF for not pandering to US Soccer and Sunil and f**kin Bob, and the rest of the f**kups that made this f**kin decision possible.
For those who wanted to hire “anyone else”, who are these people? And don’t just say anyone else.
Yeah, Ellis, I didn’t hear too many other names mentioned. If it were me, I may have given a look to some of the top MLS coaches as they clearly know the set-up: Dominic Kinnear, Steve Nicol, Sigi Schmid…
@Ellis: Why not anybody else? It’s not our job to find a suitable replacement. It’s Sunil’s job and he already said he was disappointed in the team’s performance at the WC. Clearly he thought something was wrong but yet he’s back to sleeping with his girlfriend who he tried to break up with after the WC but failed. He’s on the backslide now and we all know that’s no good.
How about–Martin O’Neill? I hear he’s not too busy right now.
@OM: Why would he want to go from managing an EPL side to managing a Colaship-level side?
@ Anon: Because of all the snazzy tracksuits USSF provides.
I’m kind of surprised by the vitriol directed at CBBob after this decision.
A) CBB isn’t *that* bad. There are a lot of references to bad lineup decisions, tactical mistakes, etc. without a lot of concreteness. The only specifics mentioned above are “grumble grumble Ricardo Clarke and Bornstein” both of whom have put in some decent performances to go with their more terrible ones and for whom there isn’t a clear replacement.
little a1) The World Cup: was it tactics that caused us to hand out goals early on in all but one game? Tactics dispossed Ricardo Clarke or caused Boca to wuss out on the Ghana striker? I just don’t see it. Honestly, my read on the World Cup was: if our mediocre players play above themselves and we get what we expect from our good players, then we could really see something great. Instead, our mediocre players played about as expected, and the crapshoot that is soccer dealt us some sub-par cards. … and we still won the group.
little a2) The Confed Cup: Now I know it isn’t the WC, but let’s not crap all over CBB’s achievements. The Confed Cup shows how a mediocre team dealt spectacular cards by the soccer gods can really do well. And the USMNT managed to improve after the Confed Cup.
little a3) A successful qualification campaign. And I suspect the next one will be even easier. I would consider the following a success out of the next four years: Qualifying becomes fairly easy. The US stomps teams at home, so that games are more heavily populated by Americans than by the visiting team. And the US puts people away on the road. Then the next step target is to start putting away the Denmarks and the Swedens in the same way… and then some day you get really really lucky and win the WC.
B) WTF is all this Klinsy love? Someone above put it well… do we really want a Guus, a Sven, or a Fabs? I sure as hell do not. Those who are so caught up in the crap that comes with European soccer soap opera as to not focus on the task at hand– getting the most from what you have. Good lawd, the politics that those people bring is crazy. No thank you.
little b) I like JK, but he was not the Messiah of German national soccer that people make him out to be. He did play a large role, but there were others. And that kind of grass roots transformation would have been HIGHLY unlikely in the USA. MLS not equal Bundesliga. And how is a SoCal German personna going to engineer that kind of revolution here? Glitz-krieg? Unlikely at best.
CBB came on board at a very difficult time. People had for some reason started to think that the failure of 2006 was the anomaly, when in reality, the surge of 2002 was the outlier. Expectations far outstripped reality, and they did not deflate particularly quickly. Freddy Adu was being hailed as the next big thing. Etc.
CBB ignored all that crap and made the USMNT a better team than it was when he began. Will he win 2014? Not without a substantial amount of luck. Will he reach the knockout rounds of 2014, on likely Euro soil? I think so. And that will be a big step forward. Will he put us on more solid footing so that 2010 continues to look like “a chance not taken” rather than a halfhearted declaration of victory because we made the knockouts? I hope so.
^ Huh Bob just posted his first comment ever on UF. :P
I promise that was way better formatted in the comment box… Sorry gang.
Also, Hleb to Birmingham… welcome back, moron. See you at the Emirates.
@ Stephen: For me, it’s not Tracksuit Bob per se, it’s the four year cycle. In 2002, things were fantastic, Arena was wonderful, and USSF held onto him for the next cycle in 2006. Pants. 2010, US won the group, Donovan is Landycakes no more! USSF holds onto Bob for the next cycle. Prediction: Pants. Look @ Italy and France as well and that would be why I hoped USSF would move on.
DONOVAN WILL ALWAYS BE LANDYCAKES, GODDAMMIT.
James T said: “Look fellas, my condolences. But you must consider that any kind of longevity or continuity in international management is a good thing.”
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It is? Then why have half of the managers to be given a 2nd shot at the World Cup done worse their 2nd time around?
@Stephen: 2014 is in Brazil.
Why not King Otto? Steal Bielsa from Chile, O’Neill is not a bad choice, anyone but Bob. Gulati probably doesn’t know who these guys are anyway.
They won’t win a World Cup in my lifetime so none of this s**t even matters.
@Tiddiesnbeer
you’re also assuming that any of them are interested to begin with. Can’t hire someone who doesn’t want to be.
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@Ryan
Excellent point. I’d still posit that BB was a better choice over Klinsmann. And Bradley can get this team over the hump. Were close to beating Ghana.
Furthermore, half may have done worse, but the other half did just as well, if not better. For a team like the USMNT and all the issues that need to be addressed, one of these fly-by-night guys in it for the paycheck isn’t the answer.
@JT
Who was close to beating Uruguay.
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@Anon
Possibly one of the best comments evar.
About an hour ago I woke up from a little 24-hour nap. I’m still pretty much out of it. Feel free to ignore me completely.
@JT: Sure. But why were we “close” to beating Ghana as opposed to “actually” beating Ghana? That’s on the manager.
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I think Wahl did the numbers, and of around 50 coaches, 25 did worse, and then 12 (or 13) did the same, and 13 (12) did better.
So it’s a 75 percent chance of not improving at all. Being anti-HuhBob doesn’t necessarily mean I’m pro Klinsmann, or even that I’m anti-extension, but my goodness 4 more years? Seems like maybe another year or two would have been more in order.
@Ryan
I said it should be a 1 year deal to make him feel pressure to win the Gold Cup.
@ Ryan: Agree. 4-6 years should be the cycle for a national manager. Which means if England qualify for Euro 2012, Fabio should exit after that tournament regardless of outcome and give a new manager some time for 2014. As for the US, Huh?
@ Anon: Donovan will still be Landycakes, I was just using that to describe zeitgeist post WC-group play.
Bradley will have to navigate this next time around.
http://twitter.com/SoccerByIves/status/22646143040
@Stephen: well, let’s just start with the WC and his tactical decision.
1. Play an unfit Onyewu. Everybody could see it but Bradley persisted.
2. Once, Twice, Thrice, Bradley switched formations from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 to have immediate improvement with the USMNT performance.
3. Three times he started an ineffectual Robbie Findley when 2 above showed the team better suited to a different formation.
4. Ricardo Clarke had shown himself to be out of his depth early on and Maurice Edu had proven himself. The only reason he said Edu didn’t start in the Second Round was because he was worried about fatigue for him. This is a pansy ass excuse. Edu played a full 90 in the game after he was subbed in. If Bradley truly was concerned he would have pulled him later.
5. Halftime substitutions because of poor team selection robbed Bradley of later substitutions that could have helped the team so much more if he had gotten it correct the first time. He was handcuffing himself and his team.
6. A complete failure in making sure his team was ready so as not to concede early goals. Three times they conceded in the first 15 minutes. This is not a one off either. The team did this throughout qualifying and tuneups.
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There is more but I think that’s sufficient for screwing up a potentially great opportunity.
Also talking about US soccer bulls**t.
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http://www.matchfitusa.com/2010/08/new-qualifying-structure-hurts-azteca.html
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BOOOO WTF!??!?
@Tno: Yeah, holy crap. On the bright side, qualfying should be easier. But wow.
I think US Soccer doesn’t have as much money as we think it does to hire the top level manager.
As for Bob, I feel a distinct “eh”. I think he was OK as a manager — face it, we’re a mid-teens level footballing nation. It’s just that I wanted some fresh eyes for the next cycle.
One small positive — Mikey plays damn well for him. Mikey will be the main man in 2014 — 27 years old, fully in his prime, and probably the captain of the squad unless Donovan has the armband.
@ TNO: Well, if that goes through, that’s weak.
@Ryan
Think most teams try to tie managers up based on the World Cup schedule, though I could be wrong. Think France hired Blanc on a similar deal.
@JT: I think that’s right. At the same time though, I find it pretty hard to believe that there will be no managerial turnover after Euro 2012, or even after each domestic league season.
@Ryan
Oh, there definitely will be, but the 4-year contract thing should, in theory, tie down their managers enough that teams with turnover aren’t able to poach so easily (or can do so, but for more money)…
@ Fan’s Attic
I think a lot of those are fair, but some things to keep in mind:
– The change in formation might have succeeded because it was a change, and the opponent was squared up for vanilla US 4-4-2. Formations are a strategic interaction, not a one way street.
– Onyewu may have been wishful thinking, but DeMerrit is a constant liability. Even if Bob perfectly foreshadows Onyewu’s unfitness, there isn’t a major improvement.
– Clarke/Edu: I think this decision was made with attack in mind, and may have been to try and pacify the mob.
– Early goals, I have trouble blaming on Bob. I think against teams, we’ll see Bob and the team easing themselves more cautiously into games. In the past, we’ve competed based on physical prowess alone, and now that we have some skill, it’s like we don’t know how to use it.
As for the argument that 4 years is too long, there’s merit there. But I don’t get the impression that Bob is likely to be complacent.
See y’all in Philly for the Columbia game!
Totally with @TFA’s mindset. Complete lack of imagination or vision to go with 4 more years of HB, a big shrug from the organization. Bob not being able to find a real job should have just been one more clue.
The real issue is that Bob has never shown any ability to learn and grow his own skillset. And stasis, at this stage in USMNT so-called “development”, is decay. We’ll be just as bumbling with a suspect defense and no real striker in 4 years, but we’ll get walloped by someone who is serious about development.
btw, it’s the coach’s job to have his team’s mind and body in the game from the first whistle. I put the blame for the Magic 15 Minutes squarely with Bob.
blech. yawn. sigh.
::r
Horrible decision. Another 4 years of boring Bob. I can’t take it. I hope Bradley gets booed every time he takes the field. They should have hired Klinsmann. Fire Gulati too.