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What About Bob?

Pretty simple: According to a press release, USSF has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday during which it is believed Bob Bradley will be named the US MNT coach, removing the interim tag that has hovered around him like dirt to Pig Pen.

Not so simple: USSF President Sunil Gulati’s explanation to US fans for why it has taken 10 months to hire a coach and why no information has been released about other candidates. With some foreign leagues still playing, all that talk about waiting to speak to foreign candidates is getting sucked out of the US Soccer vacuum and out the window. Is there anything he can say or do to salvage this mess?

Expect politically correct answers followed by non-answers, topped with the zest of cliché. You can watch the press conference Wednesday at 1pm on ussoccer.com.

Between games on Saturday, basking in the glow of MLS opening day, I checked my e-mail to see if any early opinions had come in from friends and TIAS readers. Stuck amid the notes from impassioned fans hyping their teams or writing them off was this piece from Yanks-Abroad, one of the few outlets I subscribe to (which I consider an enormous compliment given the militaristic manner in which I guard my in-box from not just spam but all unsolicited mass e-mails). The column took to task “Project 2010,” that forlorn scheme directed at preparing the USSF system for a World Cup victory in 2010. Maybe it was the timing, but something seems amiss here. Or was I missing the point completely. You make the call. But first, before we go any further, there are a few things we need to get out of the way:
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Wednesday’s game against Guatemala was the antithesis of Sunday, which may be a good thing for a team that needs to learn how to get through the frustration of playing lower level CONCACAF teams that seem content to saturate their half of the field and play for a draw. Historically, the US MNT hasn’t been strong in those circumstances, and that trend continued with nary a player showing the creative aptitude to move the ball through the midfield. The tired, picky, foul-laden game did however allow more time to consider that which I was most interested in, the starting line-up.
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After about 48 hours of reading articles about the weekend’s US MNT game, I’m pretty much sick of the subject. Too much of a good thing you might say. On the other hand, I’m even more excited for Wednesday given what we saw on Sunday, and it has me wondering about the line-up. Will we see more 1st and 2nd CAPS or will more of our (relatively speaking) veterans (some of whom have as much to prove about their form as the youngsters) be standing on the field at time zero? In the countless conversations I’ve had about the Ecuador match, the theories are split. Now it’s your turn to be the US MNT coach. Hey, you never know, that interim tag is still dangling.
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The conversation began forty seconds into the game and never stopped. On a day when a pinstriped jersey was debuted across the street from the Yankees’ Legends Field, it made perfect sense that the oft-criticized super star, our best player, took center stage.
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“Ultimately, Beckham’s stint in MLS will only be a true asset to the league if, once he leaves, the divide between his compensation and that of his peers is not so stunningly wide. The longer he remains the great exception in terms of impressive pay, the longer other young MLS prospects will set their sights and hopes elsewhere.”

Something occurred to me while reading this quote from Andrea Canales’ column on MLS salaries. That which was put in place to save the league might now be destroying it.
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Sunil Gulati read from his cards at halftime of the international soccer friendly between the United States and Mexico. The same cards we’ve heard him read from for the better part of a year. The same cards his economics students must grow tired of. Blah Blah Blah, the ball is at Bradley’s feet. As to the real story, the game, Sunil hardly addressed it, as if it were the underachieving student he wants to let slide past in class if only because by addressing the problem, he may have to look himself in the mirror, and what part is he to blame. He voiced his satisfaction with the score, 0-0, after what was anything but a satisfying first half. I can picture him now talking to that student whom he couldn’t connect with, and who may not be as smart as the other kids, but with a little direction you never know. I can picture Sunil saying, ‘at least you graduated,’ before moving on to something in less need of his attention. Eric Wynalda, any thoughts…?
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Big game tonight. Care to argue which new coach is better? Which team has better players? Whether Mexico can score a goal on U.S. soil? It’s been since 1999? It’s also worth noting we’ll have a harder time keeping the ball out of the net without Onyewu there, who after just completing his club transfer, is not going to hustle Borgetti this time around. Bocanegra and Conrad will need to be strong, and Bornstein will need to begin a game like he ended the last. Let us not forget Mexico called in all of their top players. We did not. Which begs a question. It’s not a new one, but one that never tires.

Of all the debates swirling around the US MNT as they head into what most agree is usually the biggest friendly on the schedule, there is one question that never leaves, no matter who or when or where we are playing. That query, and hopefully your answer (as well as mine), are after the jump.
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getting back to the feeling

And all is right with the world. Ok, me and hyperbole aren’t exactly strangers, but having the US team back on the field, no matter interim tags and a near absence of foreign-club players, gave me a sense of home. It’s about time. Reis, Conrad, Boswell, Bornstein, Albright, Clark, Mastroeni, Rolfe, Donovan, Johnson, Jaqua (subs: Cooper, Pearce, Mapp, Beckerman, Califf, Namoff). Given the opponent, I was hoping for a few more new faces in the starting 11 – only Bornstein was truly CAP-less – but as sports announcer Bruce Arena pointed out, Bradley’s leash isn’t as loose as the former coach’s. Results will mean more to him. He had a blank slate, however, as did our historically ‘best’ players, who must have been itching to put an underachieving 2006 behind them… those that were at the Home Depot Center anyway.
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2006 was a big year for US soccer, but most have argued it’s more akin to infamy than fame. Respect has been a tough sell abroad, while MLS has still been a hard sell here, ten years after its inception. MLS is expanding without a known talent pool to fill the teams, while youth development is only beginning to provide results. In a sentence, 2006 has been a lot of talk and not a lot of action. That goes for the Stay Puft team we sent into Germany and the laurel-sitting brass of the USSF. When most would agree the environment is ripe for the picking, it seems the marketing and actionable qualities of our game are overlooked for pomp and circumstance. When looking back on the past year, the best thing I have learned, right here, right now, is that the gratitude is gone.

Now maybe we can get serious.
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