At the end of the 2010 World Cup, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati made it his mission to not allow himself to be swept up in the emotion of the U.S. team’s dramatic, yet disappointingly early exit from South Africa.
After time spent reflecting and analyzing, Gulati decided to extend the contract of coach Bob Bradley for another four years.
“I came to the conclusion that the experience and the record, the work over the last four years, overcame any issues about staleness, that we could overcome that,” Gulati said last August.
It only took 11 months and a similar roller-coaster tournament for Gulati to realize he was wrong and hand Bradley his walking papers.
Stale is exactly what the U.S. has been in the last year, with a mediocre 5-4-4 record since Bradley’s extension. Things simply got worse in June with a 4-0 embarrassment to the same Spain team the U.S. had upset in the 2009 Confederations Cup, the first-ever U.S. loss in a Gold Cup group stage game against Panama and a relinquished 2-0 lead in a 4-2 Gold Cup final loss to Mexico on home soil. The slow starts, tactical mistakes and inflexible roster selections were achingly familiar; they have defined Bradley’s tenure throughout.
Of course, so has determination and fortitude, the kind of which had saved the U.S. time and again, in the 2007 Gold Cup, in the Confederations Cup and most memorably against Algeria in the group stage of last summer’s World Cup. But programs aren’t built on emotion and drama. Players and systems need to evolve and improve, and the U.S. wasn’t doing either under Bradley.
But Gulati already knew this last summer. Jürgen Klinsmann, who has long been the speculative frontrunner to be Bradley’s replacement — U.S. Soccer will make a statement on Friday — said himself that he’d had discussions about becoming coach before Bradley’s contract was extended. Klinsmann also said it was Gulati’s unwillingness to cede certain decision-making responsibility that prevented him from taking the job.
Gulati refused to acknowledge those discussions with Klinsmann, and he refused to be influenced by a principle concern over extending Bradley’s contract. Even if Bradley deserved to go, there’s something else with U.S. Soccer that might be getting stale.
