For my weekly Press-Enterprise column, I wrote about Bob Bradley's first year on the job. There is one game left on the calendar of course, Saturday's friendly at South Africa, but the year is pretty much over, to the point where I think you can reasonably assess his performance.
I didn't attach a letter grade but if I had to, I'd give him a B. He won the Gold Cup and had a couple of important friendly wins - the 2-0 win against Mexico and the 1-0 win at Switzerland. But I wouldn't give him anything higher than a B because of the United States' performance in Copa America.
Luis - good column. I'm not sure why you specified that "European" clubs weren't obligated to release their players for the Copa America. MLS wasn't obligated, either, and was in season. Clearly we took an experimental lineup to the CA, and although it's never fun to lose, hopefully we got a learning experience out of it for younger players. I'd hope we're not afraid to experiment & lose some games this early in the cycle.
ReplyDeleteNice Job Luis. You might have mentioned some of the players that played well in Canada in the Sub 20 WC. They too will determine the future of the USA.
ReplyDeleteI think he did well for not being Jurgen Klinsmann.
I did mess up on the club obligation. What I should have said was that no clubs were required to release players and in particular European clubs would not have allowed guys like DMB, Bocanegra and Howard to participate in both.
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