that might have been the dumbest comment i've ever read. Donovan worked like a madman today, regardless if he feels his twin sister's 'cramps' when she has them. he may never be the badass captain pop America wants him to be, but he has just put together two very good performances against Italy and Brazil and should be lauded.

Bob Bradey said last night that Freddy Edu would need to have play time at a high level to be able to get any game time with the US team ... but he insist on starting Beasley who not only is holder but out of shape and cost us a goal today. So between two "lousy" players as i assume Bradley sees them both now ... would you go with the old man or the talented young starving one? everything about the US team smells like bad management. Sorry but Bradley is making very poor decisions.

Tim Howard has not performmed solidly and neither has Donovan.
Howard gave up long goals to Italy. On Brazils first goal the ball came inside Howards box and his reaction was a deer in headlights he did nothing. On the final goal Howard got beat near post and the ball beat him inside, that should never happen on a world team level. Never.
At this point Donovan is our best PK. That's about the only way he scores now adays.

1) I don't think anyone thinks the real issue is we lost to Italy and Brazil. The issue is we played disorganized, dispirited, and error-prone football in both matches. It's the coach's job to have the team motivated and prepared tactically and in personnel for the match at hand. Bradley failed. There's no reason he'll do better a year from now. If anything, the team is clearly regressing.
2) Why? Bradley created his own monster. He's insisted on playing favorites regardless of form or fitness. Dempsey is gassed. He's played too many matches in the last 18 months and he simply needs a break. Plays that worked for him in the Premiership don't now because his legs are gone and his concentration wavering.
Beasley is unfit and doesn't play at club level, yet keeps getting time at a level he's shown no aptitude for since his horrific knee injury. His confidence is shot and his game rusty. It's not the place of the USMNT to restore those.
Sasha Kljestan's form has been disgraceful at club level (in MLS, even). But still he manages to get call-ups to the National team because of the night of his career against Sweden an age ago.
Adu, Altidore, Feilhaber, Conor Casey, Beasley...all of these players do not play sufficiently at the club level. For a variety of reasons they are not match fit or prepared to play 90mins at the highest level. The result is failure after failure when they come on the pitch.
Kenny Cooper, Stuart Holden, Torres, all of these players DO play well at the club level, and never get a sniff with Bradley because they aren't on his "favorites" list. They are hardly the only ones. Say what you want about the end of the Arena years. The one thing that was true was players got into the side by form. They earned their Caps. That's not the case with Bradley, who is entirely too willing to keep trotting out his favorites or the USSF's darlings.
It's time to say, flat out, that if you don't play for your club; if you're not fit; if you're not in form, you do NOT deserve or merit, and will not receive, a USMNT callup. This should be a simple rule. Almost every nation whose Federation is not run by their petty Dictator insists on it. Gulati and his yes men should not be dictating who is on the USMNT roster and call-up list. More needs to be done to dig up and KEEP US dual-citizen players, and that means firing Rongen, first and foremost.
MLS is an important part of the puzzle in player development. But it's never going to be enough. We need to be always be looking for talented dual-citizen players and ALWAYS looking to get them into our squad to augment our depth. It's not enough to rely on the MLS players and those who get a lucky break in Europe. MLS is not, and never will be, the EPL, Serie A, or La Liga. And even with those nation, they aren't above poaching hypenated nationality players when they can.
Bradley needs to go, Rongen needs to go, and Gulati needs to be focused on the World Cup bid and stop playing General Manager of the USMNT.

Like I wrote yesterday, the U.S. beating Brazil would have been the biggest upset since the Koreans beat Italy in the '66 World Cup.
Thanks Brazil, for not making me look like an ass instead of all those who thought the Yanks had an actual real chance of beating you.

@ Envigado Donovan was the hardest working guy on the team. The midfield was disorganized making him track deep back to defend when he should be a pressure outlet. The midfield problems making Donvan come deep leave the US with a loan striker who is surrounded by 3 defenders often. The USA's problems all stem form the disorganized midfield which aso has geiven up unncessary fouls and put the back 4 under siege. Beasley, Kletjan, Bradlley, Dempsey need to ride the pine and give others a chance. They have showed little so it's time to shake things up.

Donovam is not the problem ... where he is being asked to play is the problem. Donovan is a lot more effective when he plays in full offensive mode not mid field. Casey played better in a half than Altidore in the last 4. Dempsey is compeltly isolated and uneffective in midfield. Beasly like i said should either play left wing or stay on the bench. All i keep hearing is how our defense is weak because of the injured players ... in all actuality it is more our mid filed and offense that is lacking, the guys in the back are doing all they can and doing it pretty good based on the circumstances.

Wow our victories aginst Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago didn't prepare use for 2 of the worlds finest ,what a shocker!Ihave little faith in our national team!

As I said last game/ there are 3 missing ingredients:
1. Attacking midfielder;(s)
2. a real or opportunistic goal score;
3. and the obvious---a real soccer coach who has played and coach at international level,has no problem injecting new blood!!
This is the formula for success. Till then, you get what you see....

caliguy,
Actually, I'd say Donovan's best position for the USMNT is as a wing midfielder. He's never going to be able to unlock world-class defenses when he's in the middle of the pitch. The rest of the side lacks the tactical sophistication to enable him to do it. And he lacks the high-level experience to deal with the tricks world-class defenders have. On the outside, he's typically 1v1, and can use his pace to create havoc. Inside, he is simply marked out of games entirely too easily.

The only reason Altidore has looked rough, is because everytime he gets a touch there are 3 to 4 guys on him instantly. There is no creativity, no confidence, and no execution.
These are signs of bad management. Not bad players. FIRE BRADLEY!!!!! Maybe we will have a decent run in 2010, but not if Bradley is at the helm!

The only thing worse than watching US soccer is listening to the US annoucers. I can't judge the coach but the players are terrible and have no heart. This is what happens when you have a team made of kidds who play soccer because they were either too small, too slow or both to play the big US sports. The US shows up with third class athletes while most of the rest of the world show up with first class athletes. What result do you expect?

Agree with most of these comments...
Bradley has one chance against Egypt to play the players that everyone knows he should be playing
This means that Beasley, Feilhaber, Altidore, Dempsey should all be on the bench,
in their place, Torres, maybe Adu, Davies or Casey
I agree that the back has done well, given the circumstances Onyewu has been a champ so has Demerit
Donovan needs to be free more because he was their best offensive threat ie that 50 yard run he had only for Spector to put in a dreadful cross
Bradley (the young one) is not the problem, he had an off day, but throughout qualifying and this tournament he has done well...
Against Egypt he needs to put out the stops and hopefully he will find out that his strategy the past two games was terrible and that the US need to attack
highly doubt that so please God have Klinssman as our coach I had to watch the game with a couple football players today and I had to leave the room it was too embarassing

Fire bradley now!!!!!!!

Lets' face if folk: This US team has been horrible in 4 of its last 5 games. We barely escaped with a tie in El Savador and were extremely lucky to score 2 set plays against Honduras (Honduras DOMINATED the game but failed to take advantage liek Brazil did today).... This is a defensive/energy team that lacks inspiration and creativity. The coach favor defensive and energetic players that can run all day but limited in talent. We score most of our goals on set plays (penalty, corner kicks) because we CANNOT CREATE in the middle field.....
It's a disgrace for this coach to favor his own child over a far more talented player in Freddy Adu. It's a shame for Donovan to resent Freddy Adu because he can benefit from playing with him (Adu would put him in situation to use his speed with creative passes)... Defense is NOT pretty and won't take us anywhere. Mix 6 defensive minded players with 4 creative offensive players and TAKE RISKS! That's how you win at such level.
The US coach needs to be fired prompto! His son needs to sit. Adu needs to lead this team to beautiful soccer.

I wanted to go to South Africa for the World Cup and join the US Soccer SC, but I won't waste my money until Bradley is fired. As a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I can tell you that firing a coach can do wonders. I know it isn't a cure-all, but this team looks lost, and as Lalas and Harkes remark- it is showing very little heart. That is the most concerning thing.

Brasil is just better. Did u notice the difference only in the physical condition ? I don't speak of the strategy or the technique.......It was boys against men. They are no regrets to have, the best win. The only hope u can have is that maybe someone in the USA will realize that a great country should have a better representative in the world number one sport.

C'mon! 2 games, 2 ejections, both of which were yellow card infractions at best. It's truly heard to gauge the true result of the US play these past 2 games when having to play 1 man down for significant minutes. The US team continues to improve and is consistently becoming more of a presence on the world stage. But keep in mind, winning top flight football tournaments is very difficult. Just the ask the English if they're satisfied with 1 overall WC title, the last of which coming 43 years ago. I guess I am willing to be patient. I foresee the US contending for a title in the foreseeable future, and it will prove that all the steps taken in the past 20 years (hosting a World Cup; developing a major football league) have done wonders to funnel ever further the best of the millions of youth who play in the U.S., and to ever higher levels of play. Keep the faith!!

JordanFan,
Look, I agree with a lot of what you say. But can the M. Bradley shouldn't be playing talk. The guy plays every week in a top-tier European league, (and plays well by the German's ratings). He's consistently one of the top rated players for the USMNT. He's EARNED his way through European club football. Which is what we've begged Donovan and Adu and others to do. So can the nepotism allegations.
Adu doesn't play at his club. He hasn't played at ANY club consistently. The Youth national teams are NOT the Senior national team. So stop comparing them and thinking they are. The simple fact is the best thing for Adu is to get time at a club and EARN a place in the National Team. Until he does, he shouldn't even be in the squad. Full Stop. All giving him a place in the squad regardless of his (lack of) performance does is reinforce his bad habits. And he has them in spades already.

Defense can keep you in games... but unless you have an effective midfield, you have no chance of competing. The US midfield is devoid of creativity and to throw Altidore out there essentially on his own is a tactical joke.
The past five games for the US have been dreadful. The defense has been at best shakey, the midfield play utterly uninspired and the frontrunners... well hard to blame them really as the play behind them and the service to them has been poor and virtually non-existant.
In the midfield, the one creative spark I have seen in those five games was Torres against Costa Rica. And what does he get for his energy and ingenuity? He gets pulled from that game and hasnt sniffed the field since. What the heck is going on?
No midfield play... lump the ball long and hope and pray that the lone frontrunner pulls off some magic? If that is the best tactics that Coach Bradley can devise than his premature crowning as the head coach after a "convincing" 2-0 win against a similarly (or worse) weak Mexico has been shown for what it is... a horrible decision by US Soccer.
This team is an embarassment to US Soccer and reminds me of the '98 World Cup team as not displaying any forward progress as a program but is simply a display of poor player selection combined with poor tactics.
US Soccer should look at the parallels with the WC'98 team and give the current coaching staff the same welcome home that Steve Sansom received. Stop the hemorrhaging now and lets move on before its too late to right the ship for a decent showing at WC2010.

Let's do our homework here. IMHO, Coach Bradley made his first major mistake by taking a team of infants to the Copa America. He took a team to Venezuela to practice and scrimmage, not to win. Why? You should always insist that the objective of a team is to win. If you want to practice, schedule a friendly. Copa America was an embarassment. We need a dedication to winning, our 94, 98, and 2002 WC teams had that. Never give up and hustle, hustle. I looked at the roster of the team that went to Copa America and it is scary. Of the whole roster, here are the ones still on the team: Bornstein, DeMerit, Wynne, Clark, Feilhaber, Kljestan, and Davies. Bradley wasted an opportunity to take a winning team to Venezuela, so he could glean these players from that squad. I think that is a very small return on the investment. We need more maturity on the team, something the aforementioned teams had plenty of. Maturity, not scared of other teams, smart players. It is supposed to be a Men's team, not a boy's team. Bradley should do his scouting by watching players on their club teams, not by using international tournaments to teach his players that they are horrible. And YES, show me another country that invites players to their natonal team, who are not playing for their club teams! Bradley, not only invites them, but starts them. Say what you may about Freddy, but at least he is not scared to play the game the way it was meant to be played...FULL BORE, FULL ATTACK. Replace Bradley with a coach that recognizes skilled players and demands that they also be smart and aggressive.

I cringe every time I see Bradley try to mix things up with the line-up now. For the past several months its like every decision he's made has been wrong.
Beasley and Pablo need to go home. They're done on the MNT unless we have unthinkable injury problems.

This is why we shouldnt keep hiring MLS coaches to run the national team.
I think the most important thing for the US to do is go and get an international Coach who has had some success in international or Club level.
then give him full control of player selection and youth coach appointments.
untill this happens we will keep seeing the US favorites get their starts and play uninspired football only because they know their place in the side is safe.
is it me or does Dempsey look like he doesnt even care.

Shawn G, M Bradley is playing in Germany because anyone can play in a German league. It's an ENERGY and DEFENSIVE league so of course M Bradley would do well there. The US needs CREATIVE middle fielder, not energy middle fielder. We have enough players like Bradley on this team and nobody can keep the ball and create for the offense. Freddy Adu is a far more technical player and that's what this US team is lacking. The team is full of players like Bradley, always has.
Freddy Adu did well at Benfica, well enough for Monaco to pay for a loan. He just joined a team that was in danger to be relegated and a coach fearing for his job with a defensive mindset. Defensive oriented coaches don't like player like Adu because they don't defend well. There are many creative South American players that have failed in Europe because of that while excelling in national teams and local teams.... How many current US players would play at Monaco? ZERO. M Bradley would not even make the Monaco team.
Altidore is doing much worse in Spain and is starting for the US team. Everyone knows he has first touch problems but can do some good things once he secures the ball. Freddy Adu has always done well whenever he played in Team USA, as well as Altidore. HE just isn't given a chance because of Donovan and Bradley. Altidore has no competition; Adu has a big wall to climb with the son's coach and Captain Donovan. That’s why he isn't playing, not his inability to play in Europe this year.
Let me ask you this: Is anyone on this US team more creative and technical than Freddy Adu? Does nay current US player have the vision and natural soccer flair of Freddy Adu? Yes he is small and is a defensive liability but he is the only US player that can keep the ball and create for offensive players.... He should be given the same chance to grow as Altidore, not sit on the bench and learn from defensive minded players.