We’ll get to some key highlights from U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and re-upped U.S. head coach Bob Bradley’s call with reporters earlier today. But first, some issues were related and are worth keeping in mind. One, both Bradley and Gulati pretty much went their separate ways for most of the last two months before a deal was consummated Monday. Two, Gulati would not comment on or confirm that U.S. Soccer had spoken with any other candidates to replace Bradley. Meanwhile, Bradley said that while he had expressed interest in vacancies with Fulham and Aston Villa, he didn’t have discussions with those teams at all.
With that out of the way, here are some things that stuck out.
Gulati, on what decision to retain Bradley was ultimately based on: “I came to the conclusion that the experience and record over the last four years overcame any issues about staleness that we could overcome that.”
This isn’t a surprise, especially with Gulati relating that he’s familiar with the statistics for two-cycle World Cup coaches. What was missing was any discussion about holding Bradley and the team to a higher standard this time around. In fact, it was almost the opposite.
“We’re not going to look simply at the last cycle of the U.S.,” said Gulati. “Teams do well, and teams go down. It’s not just down to the coach. Italy and France would attest to that after having been in the final, and the progress that we’re going to have is not going to be for every World Cup. We recognize that, but we’ve put ourselves in the best possible position to continue to the growth we’ve had in reappointing Bob.”
Gulati also qualified his statements from immediately after the World Cup in which he in part said the U.S. was capable of doing more, saying that the expectations for the team changed, even within the tournament: “The disappointment was that we all – that wasn’t just true for me, that’s true for everyone involved with the team – that you always want one more game. At that level, 31 teams would’ve liked to have done more at the World Cup. With a little time to reflect, more than a day or two, you look back, and it was a good World Cup experience. It hasn’t changed my view that we all would’ve wanted another game or two, and Bob agrees with that. We talked about it. The disappointment comes that we were in a situation where we had a chance to advance.”
Neither Gulati nor Bradley mentioned anything about doing things differently over the next four years, instead only talked about trying to do them better.
“When you begin a cycle, you do an overall assessment, you take inventory of where you are with your team,” said Bradley. “There are players, depending upon their ages, in some cases decide themselves that their international careers are over. In other cases, discussions take place with players about what it looks like as we move ourselves through the next phase. But I think most importantly, it is identifying players and then beginning the process of bringing those players into national team camps, looking for opportunities to get them in games. I really believe strongly that our staff did an excellent job with that in the last cycle. We will try to do a better job as we begin this cycle.”
Bradley was even asked to talk specifically about how he could improve when he looked back on the World Cup, and he turned it onto the players.
“When we look back on things that need to be better, it’s always the ability to be more successful in the hardest games,” said Bradley. “For example, we had stretches in the last four years where our defending as a team was very good. We work a lot in terms of making sure there’s a good understanding on the field, how we move and where we pressure and how we cover each other. Yet, when you get to the most difficult games, that doesn’t always mean you do it as well in those games as you need to in order to win.”
But perhaps the strongest indication of an acceptance of the status quo by Gulati and Bradley, who both talked as much about the perception of the team – internationally and among fans – than they did about the players themselves, was an almost defeatist attitude about the state of the American player, whether it’s true or not. Here’s Bradley’s response to a question about his vision for the team:
“A vision that means that as a team, we take the qualities that we have – our mobility, our athleticism – we combine them with continued attempts to improve in terms of our understanding, the way we create chances, the way we pass, the way we move. I think U.S. Soccer, the idea that we are a team that’s mobile, athletic, technically while not yet at the level of the top teams, that we continue to be a team that’s improving technically and that shows in our ability to pass the ball well, create chances and combine those things with an overall team concept. Because again, if we’re not yet at a level where are talent is with the best teams in the world, then in order to have a chance, as we’ve shown, to compete with them and beat those teams, we still need collectively strong team efforts and a team mentality. I believe it’s taking those things that are in place.”
One of the final questions to Bradley was about whether he’d be satisfied in 2014 if the U.S. gets the same thing out of the World Cup in Brazil as it did in South Africa this summer.
“I’m not easily satisfied,” he said. “There’s always two sides to this. There’s a side in terms of again what the team is all about, how it competes, what are the performances like. I think again even when we look back at the last World Cup, in those ways, we felt good about things. In those ways, the response around the world, the response from the fans at home was positive. But at the same time, we also recognized that in every tournament, you want to go as far as you can. You want to win. You want to make the final and so we feel good about what we have accomplished in the last four years. But that doesn’t mean we think that it’s all perfect and so it’s with that, that’s what motivates us and our players. We’ll continue to work at it.”
