Fire Bob Bradley and Hire a Real Professional Coach

The US is currently competing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup which is the North American , Caribbean Soccer Federation championship. This is my opinion of the state of the team.

The major weakness is the head coach Bob Bradley. He is someone whom no other country would hire as their national team coach. This, in my opinion, is the most objective indicator of his abilities as coach. He seems to treat coaching the national team more as a politician coaching a sports team rather than a professional coach.

He has only gotten relatively good results due to the talents of his players. With a real professional coach, the US team would do much better. Unlike 11 years ago,  when the US played in the World Cup in 1998, it now has more than 30 players who play either in top European leagues or for good European teams.

Therefore, the team is much deeper than ever before. The recent fantastic showing the FIFA Confederations Cup, was not due in any way to Bradley coaching. It has much more to do with luck.

Bradley and his predecessor, Bruce Arena, filled the national team with players who have played for them in Major League Soccer. They ignored many valuable, talented Americans who play in Europe because they have never had a personal relationship with these players.

For example, two players who had never really participated, except for token appearances, Jay DeMerit and Jon Spector, only got the opportunity to play due to injuries to several defenders whom Bradley greatly prefers. Bradley never fails to give the maximum possible minutes to his talented son Michael. Michael is a very good player but he is not Maradonna or Pele.

Bradley hurts the team, in the position where I believe they are the weakest: Forwards

For example, he has ignored Kenny Cooper who played for the Manchester United Reserve team, briefly in Portugal, and has been one of the most, if not the most, effective forwards in MLS.

Finally, Bradley allowed Cooper to get more than a few minutes in the game against Haiti. It didn't go well and most soccer fans, who are not particularly knowledgeable in the US are writing off Cooper.

But I smell a setup by the politician Bradley. Kenny Cooper, like almost all forwards needs midfielders on the field who can get the ball to him, at the correct time and location. Cooper was on the field with a terrible group of midfielders most of whom have no business on the US national team.

So now Bradley can say, "I gave Cooper his chance." Of course, this is incredible nonsense. Bradley wants to discredit Cooper because he has one of his pets Brian Ching already penciled in.

Another way to objectively evaluate players is their market valuable in Europe, which has the best club soccer teams, including the giants Man U, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan among others. Ching's value is $0. While Cooper has not received recent interest from the very best European teams, very few Americans, if any, receive interest until they prove themselves with lesser, but good, European clubs.

There are several teams which have shown interest in Cooper, in the English Championship League, the latest being Bristol City. The three top teams will be promoted to the English Premier League , the most competitive and richest soccer league in the world.

My point is Bradley doesn't want the best players in every case. There is no known reason for Bradley's animosity towards Kenny Cooper. It shows a lack of professionalism on Bradley's part.