even before they sacked Arena.
Ridiculous. Let's be honest, no one was going to have success in that Metro setup. That's why Red Bull saw tremendous opportunity, swooped in, and now has the club poised for the turnaround that MLS desperately needs.
And Bradley? All he did was take The Goats -- a virtual laughing stock of a team on the field in Year One -- and in one season turn them into a legitimate contender.
Suddenly, he was Coach of the Year again and everyone remembered the guy knows what he is doing. Amazing.
The other thing about Bob, is he gets how big this job is and what it means. It's just another gig for Jose Pekerman, but Bradley gets it.
You could just tell when he was asked about why he left Chivas for the opportunity.
"I feel very good about the work we were all doing there, but when certain moments come you have to be ready," he said, and you could tell by the tone of his voice there was depth to that statement.
Kudos to the new gaffer also for some classy words about our late friend Mooch Myernick right off the top.
And to see how important Bob Bradley is, swing by the Chivas USA offices. I haven't heard anything first-hand, but trust me, they are reeling right now. They are a big-time organization with deep pockets and I'm sure they will find a great replacement, but Bradley had them thinking MLS Cup a lot sooner than owner Jorge Vergara ever imagined after the 2005 debacle.
So here's the thing with U.S. Soccer. First of all, I was on record as saying The Bruce shouldn't have been canned, but that ship has sailed.
With that, I do give them a lot of credit for locking into the guy they wanted and battling for months to try and make it work. There is not enough media or fan pressure yet in this country to matter, so they absolutely should have taken all the time they wanted to try and land their guy. Heck, they don't sound like they are done fighting for him yet.
And to his credit, U.S. Soccer chief Sunil Gulati acknowledged on a Friday conference call that Klinsmann was his first choice. No runaround, no spin.
As for what's next, Gulati said in addition to Bradley, there are still a bunch of candidates coming in and out of consideration, with a few of them coaching teams in major European competitions. In the meantime, Bradley is the new U-23 coach and the interim national team boss. Yikes.
Honesty from U.S. Soccer ... good. But interim tag for Bradley ... not so much.
I would have named Bradley manager today.
He has a Bruce Arena-type pedigree (and this program has precedent for that being a success) without being an Arena clone.
And Grant Wahl from Sports Illustrated had a great point about what the program's goals should be in 2007. The first year after a World Cup should be about developing and looking at young talent that could help you in the next World Cup qualifying, not winning games. But as interim coach, is Bradley expected to just win? How does bringing in veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller as opposed to looking at Brad Guzan help the program right now?
Bradley said it took him "a few minutes" to make up his mind about the new job. That is exactly how long U.S. Soccer should wait before removing the interim tag.
During the season, The Clean Sheet runs each week on MLSnet.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column views and opinions are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com. Send any questions and comments to tcsresponses@yahoo.com.
