So the United States finally fired National Team coach Bob Bradley. It took long enough for the powers that be at US Soccer to figure it out. Now, before I get going, I thought Bradley was a great coach for the US when he originally took the job. I also think he did a very good job at the helm of the US National Team, a team that, for all intents and purposes is like coaching Ole Miss in the SEC. The fans want success like a powerhouse while only possessing the talent and resources of a middle of the pack team. With the exception of those nations that can legitametly think about winning the World Cup in every single cycle (Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy), only the England job seems as difficult to meet fan expectations as the US job is. Needless to say, this is a difficult job and Bradley did a very good job with it.
Considering I liked Bradley as coach, why then did I start with saying words like finally and it took long enough to describe his firing. Those sentiments are gleamed from what I know in world soccer. And what I know is that coaches leading the same country into consecutive World Cups rarely do as well on the second trip and many do much worse than the presumed worst case scenario (just look at 2006 World Cup Final combatants France and Italy who both experienced among their worst World Cup tournaments ever in 2010 under the same coach). For that matter, the US should have learned from their own mistakes from 2002-2006. Bruce Arena remained employed by the US after his stunning success in 2002 reaching the quarterfinals. Then it all came undone in 2006 with only one gutsy performance aided by an own goad against Italy to show for that cycle. So knowing that, I was in favor of sending Bradley off to a nice club managing job somewhere (whether it be MLS or in England where his tactics are much more appreciated than they are here) instead of retaining him for another World Cup cycle.
On the positive side for the US side, Bradley's apprach became stale and the US results faltered well before they did under Arena leading up to 2006. This allowed US Soccer to get rid of Bradley with plenty of time to get a new program in order before World Cup qualifying begins. Heck, whoever the new coach is pretty much is starting anew at this point. The only drawback is no trip to the Confederations Cup in 2013 because of the ugly defeat to Mexico in the Gold Cup final.
Despite it being a firing, today should be a good day for US Soccer. As long as the new coach can figure out a solution to the long running left-back problem, the United States should be just fine as far as qualifying for the World Cup. The team also should advance out of the group stage again as long as they are not drawn into some sort of Group of Death like 2006. Will the team reach the quarterfinals again like in 2002? It's not likely. For one thing, even if rival Mexico were to somehow await in round 2 like then, the US talent level is no longer equal with Mexico's. The US would need an epically open draw, even moreso than the 2010 World Cup appeared to be to reach that far. At this point, we as a country need to have realistic expectations. Those should start with make round 2 and see what happens, not do better every single time. We don't have the talent base or the financial commitment for those kind of expectations.
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