Rumors are heating up....
MLSSoccer.com, of all places, is running a story about the future of Bob Bradley.
Kick Off: Is a coaching change forthcoming for USMNT?
The second paragraph:
While the USSF say that Gulati’s statement is not necessarily indicative of a change, this news comes on the heels of another report from veteran soccer writer Mark Ziegler stating that “Bradley has lost the locker room” while citing a source close to the team as saying “the players are miserable.”
They link to the Ziegler article which says:
This is less about tactics or techniques than timing.
History has taught us that national coaches who hang around for a second World Cup cycle almost always fail, and of all countries, the United States should know that. Bruce Arena guided the 2002 team to the quarterfinals. He stuck around for 2006, and the Yanks didn’t win a game.
Everything that history told us would happen has happened: the team has gone stale, players lack motivation, Bradley has lost the locker room, inferior teams are beating now it. As one person close to the team put it: “The players are miserable.”
Another issue is Bradley’s son, Michael. He was a key piece of the 2010 World Cup team but clearly has lost something – a step, his composure, an edge, something. Yet he played 535 of a possible 540 minutes during the Gold Cup, and the whispers about nepotism, warranted or not, are growing.
The biggest problem, though, is what Bradley represents. He is an exponent of the very system that has delivered a roster of robots to his national team: the youth clubs, college soccer, Major League Soccer.