US Soccer Extend Bradley Through 2014…Lame (Updated)

Written by: tyler ransburgh

Disappointing…to say the least.

US Soccer just announced that they will extend Bob Bradley’s contract through the END of 2014.

I will admit that Bradley did some good things in the last several years including leading the USMNT to a 38-20-4 record, the Gold Cup (yawn) and the Confederations Cup final.

Two things bother me;

1. I believe Bradley royally screwed up in the World Cup playing Findley and Clark. Anyone that saw a game of soccer some point in their life could tell from the WC warm ups that Findley (missed open goals many times) could not get the job done and Clark (he was on the field but never really there) was a waste. Yet Edu, Gomez and Holden sit on the bench and watch us scrape through every game… oh wait, that made us the awesome team that everyone loved to watch, that could not secure a game till the last minute. Then we lost to Ghana….again…effing lame
2. The second is the US Soccer Federations lack of balls to go out and get a real world class coach. Don’t give me any BS that Bradley fills that spot. If he did, Fulham and Aston Villa would have picked him up. Fulham stumbled around for what seemed like forever getting turned down by candidates till finding someone and Villa is still using a caretaker manager even after Bradley made it public that he was interested in the job. It sounds like Bradley came back to US Soccer because no one in England wanted him and US Soccer welcomed him with open arms. Obviously Bradley isn’t that awesome.

Where was all the talk about the candidates the US Federation was looking at? There was a 2 second rumor about Jurgen Klinsmann but he must have turned down the job fast since they announced Bradley 2 days later. And why not a 2-year contract? That gives the US 2 years to find a proper candidate with time to prep for 2014.

My hopes for 2014 just went down a bit.  The only hope we have is that Bradley uses the upcoming talent on the U-20 team properly in 2014. If we waste another World Cup on crap selections it will be time to find a new federation president. I am amazed on how long everyone sits around and watches Sunil Gulati waste our time.

UPDATED … Early comments on twitter and facebook dont look good. Not too many happy US Soccer supporters at this point. The US Soccer’s facebook post announcing the extension is full of negative comments about the move. The Big Soccer forums have multiple threads all voicing disappointment on the decision and calling for Gulati to be removed.