Bob Bradley has broken the glass ceiling for American coaches, becoming the first to manage in the English Premier League when he was appointed manager of Swansea City on Monday.
It was a bold move, and well-received by the Stateside fanbase, but it got us in the newsroom arguing – does this unprecedented achievement make Bradley the best American coach of all-time?
When you look at the numbers, there's really only one other answer (with apologies to Sigi Schmid): current LA Galaxy and former USMNT coach Bruce Arena. He's got the big edge in titles, but Bradley – in addition to a strong MLS resume – has international experience like no other, and that's part of the reason he was handed the reins at Swansea. So which do we value more when looking at their legacies?
We'll let MLSsoccer.com Editor-in-Chief Simon Borg and Senior Editor Andrew Wiebe slug it out here, but don't forget add your take in the comments below!
BORG: It's not about titles
First let's all appreciate the irony of pitting Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley against one another as the primary subjects of this “Discuss." Not only are they good friends and long-time colleagues, but we know they will surely perceive this exercise as infuriatingly ridiculous and dismiss it out of hand.
That’s all well and good, but they’re not spoiling our fun here. Not with this debate, which has to rank up there with “Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey” as one of the more interesting American soccer bar conversations you can have if you're interested in sticking around for a few rounds.
Here’s why: Arena, who had interest from Danish club Brondby after the 2006 World Cup, obviously has more championships than Bradley and has tasted title success in all but one stop in his coaching career. But there’s something to be said for how Bradley has been able to take over 8 teams in 4 different countries — often with limited resources and in most cases facing real adversity — and he left each and every one of them in a better situation than when he assumed the reins (see below in chronological order):
- He took Princeton — not exactly a national soccer powerhouse — to three NCAA tournaments and an NCAA Final Four;
- He built a brand new MLS expansion team from scratch (Chicago Fire) into an MLS Cup champion;
- He brought consistency — three straight playoff appearances and a USOC final — to a stop-and-start MetroStars organization that had missed the playoffs the year before his arrival;
- He managed to get Chivas USA — Chivas USA!!! — into the playoffs the year after their woeful four-win debut season;
- He steered the USMNT to the top of a World Cup group for the first first time ever and to a Confederations Cup final they should’ve won;
- He led Egypt through national tragedy and strife to wins in 7 of 8 World Cup qualifiers — the one loss on a veritable cow pasture cost them World Cup elimination;
- He lifted cash-strapped Norwegian strugglers Stabaek to challenge for a league title and qualify to the Europa League;
- He guided Le Havre to a single goal from promotion to Ligue 1 after taking over in midseason.
And at every stop along the way Bradley has won admirers and respect — if not trophies — with his class and work ethic, building tight-knit groups that were somehow immune to controversy or scandal.
His most obvious legacy will be the players and men he’s helped shape and develop over the years — some went from unknowns to world-class players like AS Roma’s Mohamed Salah and Sacha Kljestan and others became head coaches (Jesse Marsch and Jim Curtin) or assistant coaches (Chris Armas and Denis Hamlett). Oh, and he reared his own all-time US great on the side.
But Bradley's real impact will likely only be noticed years from now in the change he will have helped bring about in the world’s evolving perception of American soccer, let alone American coaches. Until there’s a US star in the running for World Player of the Year, Bradley’s taking over of Swansea City (if he can keep them in the Premier League) has the potential to do more to permanently change the world’s stereotypical image of Americans in the sport than any past or current on-field accomplishments by a single player in Europe.
Christian Pulisic starting at Borussia Dortmund shows the Old Continent that Americans can be competent enough to be part of a good team. But Pulisic is only one of 30 players there. Bradley becoming the face of Swansea has the potential to prove once again that Americans know, feel and understand soccer well enough to be leaders of world stars and match wits with the best managers on the planet at a time when all the great ones are in England.
And that right there is worth more than all the bling that comes with multiple championships. And it's why Bradley is the most influential — and thus the greatest in my mind — American soccer coach that ever lived.
WIEBE: Still the master
I’ll start with a caveat, a comments’ section CYA if you will. I believe Bob Bradley is the most daring, unabashedly ambitious and obsessively prepared coach in the history of American soccer. The US soccer community, myself included, didn’t truly appreciate him until he left, and the historic opportunity wrought by Bradley's unrelenting drive to coach a big-five European team ought to be celebrated by anyone associated with the game in this country. I expect him to be successful, and at the very least well respected, at Swansea City.
That said, I don’t think there’s a shred of doubt Bruce Arena is the first face you'd chisel into the Mount Rushmore of American soccer coaches. However you measure it, Arena deserves his place as the godfather. Lest you forget, this is the man who — in midst of winning five national titles, accumulating a 295-58-32 record and developing a laundry list US national team stalwarts over the course of nearly two decades at Virginia — hired a young coach named Bob Bradley away from Ohio to be his assistant all the way back in 1983.
Arena pulled the same move 13 years later in 1996, this time luring Bradley to the professional ranks from Princeton, when building his first staff (and squad from scratch) at D.C. United. All he did in the nation’s capital was win back-to-back MLS Cups, a Supporters’ Shield, US Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions’ Cup before taking the reins of the US national team after the 1998 World Cup debacle. Four years later, Arena and the US were a Torsten Frings handball no-call and a little luck away from a World Cup semifinal. Of course, Germany 2006 wasn’t nearly as rosy, but his numbers with the US are still among the best all-time, and it’s his teams we have to thank for the proliferation of Dos a Cero.
What Arena has done with the LA Galaxy during the past eight seasons while juggling the David Beckham circus and the evolution of the MLS roster and salary structure in an age of expansion, makes him the most decorated coach in league history and a man manager with few equals, but it’s what he’s built that truly sets him apart. How many clubs are copying the Galaxy model of player development pioneered by the academy > LA Galaxy II > first team model? How many current MLS head coaches, assistants or academy coaches played for or got their managerial start under Arena or one of his proteges? He’s an NCAA Hall of Famer, the most successful coach in the history of MLS and the US national team and the root of the modern American coaching tree.
He’s Bruce Arena, and he’s the best.
Bruce Arena vs. Bob Bradley by the numbers
| MLS Regular Season | MLS Playoffs | USMNT Record | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bruce Arena | 201-121-88 (.598) | 30-11-5 (.707) | 71-30-29 (.658) |
| Bob Bradley | 124-94-54 (.555) | 14-13-3 (.517) | 43-25-12 (.612) |
| Club Titles | Int'l Titles | Best WC Showing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bruce Arena | 5 - MLS Cup 3 - Supporters' Shield 1 - Open Cup 1 - CONCACAF Champions' Cup | 2 - Gold Cup | Quarterfinals (2002) |
| Bob Bradley | 1 - MLS Cup 2 - Open Cup | 1 - Gold Cup 2009 Confed. Cup runner-up | Round of 16 (2010) |
