Bob Bradley

I’ve no other way to explain the decision by US Soccer to make a change in the National Team’s head coach right now.  Bob Bradley was obviously blindsided as he was seen scouting earlier this week.

Personally, I’m surprised.  After all, while Bradley didn’t set the world on fire and over achieve in the position, he didn’t do an awful job.  He did about as well as could be expected with the tools (players) he has available.  He really hasn’t had the chance to do much since his contract was renewed and what he did do could have been a lot worse.  Losing in the Gold Cup Final to Mexico isn’t the end of the world.  Don’t forget, there’s a friendly against Mexico in just a couple weeks.

Honestly, I don’t think the US has gone backwards at all.  In fact, even with the recent results, I think other countries (well, Mexico) are figuring things out and finally playing up to their potential.  The Panama game was, in my opinion, an off day.  I don’t think the new coach, whomever that is, pulling out some results.

But who will that new coach be?  Maybe there’s a clue here from the announcement.

U.S. Soccer will have a further announcement on Friday.

In other words, they’ve already got a replacement lined up and are just allowing a little time to pass for all the opinions to fly around before naming the new player.  The fact that Gulati is in LA (announcement made at HDC) probably gives us as big a clue as we’ll get.  My money is on Jurgen Klinsmann (who lives in Orange County but works…sorta for Toronto) being the named tomorrow.  Now remember, Klinsmann was the choice last time round after Bruce Arena was drop kicked.  There were “details” which couldn’t be ironed out which lead to Bradley being the next best candidate.  Perhaps Gulati gave in this time to enough to make it worthwhile for Klinsmann.  We’ll see tomorrow.

Honestly, Gulati has been in charge of US Soccer for a while now.  If Klinsmann (or whoever he’s naming) doesn’t do a great job, Gulati needs to step down before the next change is made.  I’m not sure quality of the entire program has improved under his guidance.  After all, the player pool Bradley and Arena had available is pretty much out of their control while they are the head coach.  Of course, this, I believe, is part of what Klinsmann wanted when Gulati backed down a few years ago–more control over the youth program.  Either way, if this next move doesn’t improve things, Gulati can go back to lecturing at Columbia full-time and let us have someone lead US Soccer full-time as well.  We’ll see.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Related posts

• Who’s in charge anyway? (0)
• The sky isn’t falling US Soccer fans (0)
• Pride for Africa, Gold for Spain (0)
• It’s a dirty job but (0)
• Is TV starting to like Soccer? (4)