The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

I think Bradley is better and more impactful than Deuce, and would have been a better call.

Dooley suffered from being a carpetbagger and not being as flashy as others. I don't think he compared favorably to Balboa and Pope was a rock for two WCs.

I really prefer Keller and Howard over Friedel, but Friedel was huge when it counted the most in 2002.

 

"Goals pay the rent ... and Keegan does his share."

RIP David Coleman, legendary BBC sportscaster.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/dec/21/david-coleman

.be

 

Anelka used the new Nazi salute today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/west-bromwich-albion/10540809/Nicolas-Anelkas-quenelle-gesture-in-support-of-racist-friend-Dieudonne-causes-outrage-in-France.html

 

I watched the last 10 of the first half yesterday and wondered what that was about. I thought he was pointing at the badge on his shirt, but it seemed off. Now I know.

 

Bob Bradley takes a job with a recently promoted team in Norway. How the mighty have made strange career moves.

http://soccer.si.com/2014/01/03/bob-bradley-stabaek-mls-vancouver-norway/

 

Better to get a foot in the European door than backtrack to MLS, especially as Bradley made no secret of his desire to coach in Europe. He's done all he can do in North America at this point. If this is what it takes to convince European clubs that he's not some flash in the pan who can only succeed in the hinterlands of international soccer, then more power to him.

 

First American coach in a first division European league, I believe. Assuming he doesn't want to limit himself to a career in MLS, doesn't seem like such a strange career move to me.

 

It's a 4th rate league -- for me, a huge step down from even coaching Egypt. His upside is coaching another middling national team.

 

And if he wants to work in a 2nd or 3rd rate league in the next couple of years, this is where to start.

Clearly, he's interested in life outside the US. If he's going to coach at a club he has to start somewhere. If a bigger club was interested he'd be at a bigger club.

I hope he does well. I think he's a good coach, and I'd love to see him at a bigger club. Right now, his big-stage resume shows he coached a mediocre US team and an overachieving Egypt team that still missed the World Cup. He'll need to work his way up.

 

And risk being the next Bora Milutinovic or Philippe Troussier? I think Bob aspires to more than that.

 

Is it possible that after coaching for a country in the middle of enough political/social violence as to amount to civil war, Bradley just wanted a job in the quietest country he could think of?

 

Time to end this folly -- sack Moyes now. He's taken a championship team to the very depths of mediocrity.