Surely one of the most important skills as a coach is the ability to learn from your mistakes. You're not always going to pick the right players or say the right things, but figuring out what you did wrong and correcting it for the next match is crucial. Bob Bradley didn't do that in this World Cup, and that's why the USA is out.
In two of our group games, we conceded goals within the first 10 minutes. Against Ghana, we did it again. Now we managed to come back against England and Slovenia, and did it against against Ghana. That can only go on for so long, and when it happened again 3 minutes after the start of extra time, our luck had finally run out. Bradley should have worked with the team on keeping focus in the opening minutes, and on really marking tightly and playing defense until the game had settled down.
Secondly, Bradley continued to field the wrong players in his starting lineup over and over again. Robbie Findley had only a half-dozen caps before the tournament and consistently revealed himself to be outclassed in the World Cup. Yet he started 3 games, only to be subbed in all of them. Ricardo Clark and Jose Torres started ahead of Maurice Edu, even though Edu was very good when he came on. Guys like Edson Buddle or Stuart Holden (I'm biased towards him, of course) might have done a job but never got a fair chance. So you're looking at two substitutions that needed to be used every game, and that really limits your options when you're chasing a game, which as I said before, we were doing constantly. After Ghana went ahead in extra time, we couldn't do something drastic like putting Onyewu in as an emergency center forward because all three changes had already been made (two of them before halftime).
Not all the blame can be laid at Bradley's feet. Jozy Altidore, once the "Next Big Thing" after Freddy Adu and Eddie Johnson, was totally ineffective. Donovan scored some key goals but was never very impressive. The defense was ATROCIOUS. Bocanegra, Onyewu, and DeMerit are just far too slow to be paired with one another. Indeed, DeMerit almost went blind recently (true story) and was released by undistinguished Watford so one wonders why he started all of our games. Steve Cherundolo, usually so reliable at right back, looks past it. Only Bornstein really acquitted himself well, though once again, Bradley only played him in the third and fourth games.
In truth we were perhaps lucky to get to extra time, as the penalty was a bad call. The defender got the ball. It was about time we got some luck in this tournament, but it wasn't enough. It's all eerily reminiscent of the 2006 World Cup. Hope crushed in the onslaught of a blunt attack and terrible decisions in defense (remember Eddie Lewis?). We did take the initiative when were behind but our players were just too limited to get much done, and Bradley's management did nothing to compensate for this. It's probably time for him to go. 2014 will be Last Chance Saloon for the likes of Dempsey, Donovan, Beasley, Howard and Onyewu. Hmm . . . I wonder who we could get in who has experience working with big players, organizing defenses, and getting the most out of willing but limited personnel.
Big Sam Allardyce for the USA?
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Oh, please don't toy with me. Jose is always my first choice, but Sam would be fascinating. I do think Bradley has done a fine job in many ways, but, as his contract is up this year and he is non-committal at the moment, maybe a shakeup is in order/on the way. "Big Uncle Sam"--this must happen.
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