ESPN's Jeremy Schaap asked the question that not many reporters would have dared to pose just minutes after the vicious punch to the gut that the US national team succumbed against Portugal on Sunday in a 2-2 draw.
And he asked it to Michael Bradley.
"Do you blame yourself for what happened?" Schaap inquired in a clear reference to the 95th-minute turnover which led to Silvestre Varela's equalizer at the death (WATCH THE PLAY HERE).
Bradley's response, which was aired on ESPN2's World Cup Tonight on Sunday, was uncomfortable.
"I put my heart and soul into every game every time I step on the field," he said. "It's a cruel game sometimes, you know? So again, I'm proud of that and proud of what I'm about every time I play and there's certainly no regrets in my book."
Just prior to that response, the Toronto FC midfielder described in more detail the play that will haunt USMNT supporters for some time, at least through the group finale against Germany on Thursday (noon ET, ESPN).
"The ball popped up and I was able to make a few quick steps and get there. It was tight," Bradley explained. "Unfortunately, [I] wasn't able to make a good enough play and keep it for us or get a foul and obviously at that point then the ball turns over and it's up to us to deal with the situation.
"Certainly the way it ends you rack your mind thinking can you do this better? Can you do that better? But the reality is still that over the course of a game there are a million of these kinds of plays and you can't let these plays ... they go on in the course of a game and so there's nothing else to it."
