Comments on: Kenton Sacked: Maybe Bradley Isn’t So Bad After All? (UPDATED CONTENT)

By: EastLAChiva

EastLAChiva — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:00:43 +0000

I don’t think Bob should get fired but the USSF should start interviewing candidates for Director of football. Someone with higher profile and international pedigree. Also, the soccer media should grow a nutsack and ask Sunil Gulati if Bob deserves an extension or raise and when he says “not yet”. The media should ask Bob if he thinks he deserves a raise.

Meanwhile, we should see a Bob that has to continue to justify his place. Obviously, he is an adequate coach who can get outcoached with the worst of them. Firing him now AND not getting Guus Hiddink to replace him would be a mistake.

By: CleartheBall

CleartheBall — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:12:26 +0000

I hated Arena as the US coach. I agree that Bradley isn’t the best possible choice, but he’s better than Arena IMHO. Until the US wins the World Cup, I’ll probably be disappointed with every coach.

My only other argument is the Mexico B vs US B. Mexico AB vs US BCD is more like it, lets call it a C squad. The contributors for Mexico’s B are also the contributors for Mexico’s A. Our C squad provided 2 bit players for the A squad. Apples to Oranges. The gold cup final means nothing, other than it jump started Mexico’s confidence.

By: robert s

robert s — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:23:38 +0000

Did I miss something? Let’s see the U.S. must be in 6th place and in danger of not reaching the 4th spot. No then we must be in 5th place and lost our last 2 games? No that’s not right, we are in first place with 6 points in the last 2 games. This is like leading the Indy 500 and waving your car in for an engine change with the finish line is sight.
There is something called team chemistry. If you were to get rid of Bradley at this point half the team would probably quit in anger. When things are going right the last thing you do is make changes.
Don’t get me wrong I am not a fan of Bradley but the last thing you do is mess with success and last time I looked the U.S.was on top of CONCACAF not is last.

By: DA in LA

DA in LA — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:04:39 +0000

I’m sorry, what would that body of work be? Where exactly did he excel as a coach?

By: DA in LA

DA in LA — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:03:46 +0000

I find the “we can’t fire Bradley excuse now” rather hilarious. Or what? We’ll continue to underperform? Or the team will sputter along and then end the bottom of it’s WC group? The ending to this story is obvious with Bradley at the helm.

I actually think the best thing that could happen to US Soccer at this point would be to miss out on the WC. We need a massive shake up. The worst thing about Bradley is now he is more of the same.

By: Soccer Guru

Soccer Guru — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:48:08 +0000

Considering Bradley never should have been hired to begin with and was like the 10th choice, I guess we should be thankful we are about to qualify.

I agree with Kartik’s sentiment that the elite list of coaches he mentioned in the comments section would never so much as even get an interview from US Soccer.

By: eplnfl

eplnfl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:08:31 +0000

Maybe we can thank the USSF for this one. Yo-Yo coaching changes are clearly a negative influence for any team. While USSF mishandled Bradley’s original appointment we must be happy that they have looked at his entire body of work and not just one result. I will not repeat myself as to the achievements of his tenure as coach but a coach should be judged on his body of work.

So, lets hope the steady hand at the top is a plus for the US in 2010.

By: DubD

DubD — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:05:42 +0000

Yes Bradley is that bad. his teams can’t pass, trap, possess the ball and have a simplistic form off attack. The fact that most Americans have never played the game, know very little about football tactics, Don’t know what manager’s do besides substitutions, and irrationally call for sacking of managers doesn’t mean Bradley is a good coach.

He’s not. Just most Americans and most people in America commentating on football wouldn’t know a good manager if frank rijkaard punched them in the nuts.

By: Quakesin2kNever

Quakesin2kNever — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:59:24 +0000

Spector may not be as good as we think he is… he’s been getting torched in the premier league for West Ham so far this year.

BB has been doing fine. I’d give him a B+ overall for the WC qualifying campaign and Confed Cup. There are no better coaches available right now so firing him won’t do any good. It will also lead to panic and chaos on the team like Kartik describes with Costa Rica. Maybe after the next World Cup we can talk about changing coaches.

By: Enrique

Enrique — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:24:03 +0000

Agreed,

When Costa Rica got humiliated at Honduras, Kenton wanted to shake up the team and decided to punish the back line, however, Walter Centeno opposed it(the leader of the team). Centeno faked an injury and did not play, after the argument the team turned against Kenton and played terrible against Mexico. The players fully blamed Kenton for the loss and now there was no other option then for him then to get fired.

I think Kenton is a good coach at the int. level but just like Lavolpe he needs young players, usually the veterans cannot deal with the ego and need to be treated like adults. If you remember that is why C. Blanco was left off the team in 06′ and Pavel Pardo now by Aguirre.

Also, Mexico has now 8 players making important contributions from that A-B squad of the Gold Cup. I think the intentions were different, Bradley wanted to see if he could use one or two players, Aguirre tried to build a team and it showed in the final. Unfortunately, these decisions makes the US look really bad.