June 29, 2010
After the US fell to Ghana 2-1 in added extra time on Saturday, the questions immediately moved to Bob Bradley's future with the USMNT.
US Captain Carlos Bocanegra has come out in support of his coach.
But, there is tons of internet chatter that the US needs a change.
US Soccer president Sunil Gulati is going to sit down with Bob Bradley to decide where they go from here.
Personally, I think the US could do a lot worse than Bob Bradley. Although, they could certainly do better.
And while the usual foreign names like Jurgen Klinsmann and Guus Hiddink will get thrown out there, I'd rather see names like Steve Nicol, Sigi Schmid, and other coaches that have more MLS/US Soccer experience.
Klinsmann reportedly was scared off by the unique landscape of US Soccer and MLS. Not taking that in consideration if the US replaces Bob Bradley will be a mistake.
But, with Bob starting Ricardo Clark against Ghana and not getting Maurice Edu and Benny Feilhaber out on the field more when it was obvious that they were more effective than Clark and Robbie Findley, I have no problem with going in another direction moving forward.
Although, developing talent for the USMNT will be the bigger task than managing the USMNT moving forward . The US still needs to develop more complete soccer players and not just athletes that play soccer.
News & Notes:
- Saturday night's Rhinos win over Puerto Rico helped me start to get over the Ghana loss [D&C.com , D&C.com - Notebook , Devo's Direct Kicks ]
- Now if the Rhinos can take care of business against Columbus in the Open Cup tonight......
- There are reports that Everton and Manchester City may be after Landon Donovan.
- The Portland Timbers have updated their MLS logo to make their fans happy.
- The English tabloids reacted calmly to the English loss to Germany on Sunday.
- Once again, there were a lot of eyeballs on the USMNT on Saturday. The interesting thing to watch is whatwill the ratings be like for the rest of the tournament and for USMNT games like say during the 2014 qualifying campaign.
- MSG hinting at Thierry Henry to NY?
- It is interesting to see where the players that have been called into Thomas Rongen's U-20 camp are playing.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
