Tim Howard is Just Fine With Domestic Coaching, Thanks For Asking.

September 9th, 2008 | by: Carter Daly |

Much has been said of late across the inter-web about the tactics and roster selections of USMNT head coach “Boring” Bob Bradley. He has been proverbially ripped to shreds for the past month, even after posting a (so far) unblemished qualifying record. Suggestions have been made from all angles about who or what kind of coach we should have instead of this boring bald guy with the staunch look on his face and the slow tactics. Many think the foreign option should have been the way to go back when Sunil Gulati was in the searching phase after Bruce Arena’s firing/retirement post World Cup 2006. Names such as Jurgen Klinsmann and Jose Pekerman were battered around, but when the dust finally settled and the interim tag was lifted, American born Bob Bradley was named the head coach.

And Tim Howard is absolutely fine with that, thanks for asking.

“You can ask L.A. how it worked out for them,” said the U.S. goalkeeper in reference to Dutch coach Ruud Gullit, who parted ways with the Los Angeles Galaxy less than five months into his first season.

“I don’t think people always know what they’re talking about. An idea from a website gets put in someone’s head and they run with it without thinking for themselves.

“I think we’re playing well under Bob Bradley and there’s a reason for it — we believe in his system. A foreign coach is not always the answer. Certainly not in this case, because things at the moment seem to be going well.”

While much has been said about Bob Bradley’s capability or incapability to take this program to the next level, the one thing that cannot be argued is that his players believe in him 100%. Even in the MLS, whether it was with Chicago, NY, or Chivas, the players were certain he was the man to lead them into whatever battles they would face.

Writers and bloggers and commentors aren’t at every training session or in every locker room, so it is hard to base our judgment off of any thing but what we see on the field. In this regard, words like this from Tim Howard, a veteran leader on this team, carry a lot of weight into trying to understand the inner workings of this Bob Bradley run team.

If players say this is the guy they want, than this is the guy they are going to have to roll with. We can only trust what they say and how they are feeling about the situation.

Even so, I’d love to hear what a Freddy Adu or Jozy Altidore or Kenny Cooper would have to say about the Bob Bradley regime. While he does have the grizzled American soccer veterans’ respect, he may not be the man to lead this program beyond its possibly low expectation level at this point.

And that is why people are calling for his head, the expectation of the future. Where the youth players are stars in foreign leagues and our goal is to take a punchers chance at the big one. All the while Bob Bradley is just focused on winning the next game, as he usually does.

Source: Chicago Tribune Red Card Blog by Louis Arroyave

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elle

yea my main problem with him is that he plays older players who are, let’s face it…old and are going to be even older in two years, over the young guys he should be getting ready for WC 2010.
GS

elle: I agree completely. He seems to be working for the now when in reality all of this qualifying is working towards 2010 on the only stage of soccer that many American’s will actually pay attention to. A number of the guys that are getting called up for most of these qualifying matches may not even make the trip to South Africa (bocanegra, cherundolo, lewis, hejduk, beasley, ching). I don’t believe him to be a bad coach I just believe him to have poor vision in terms of building towards an accomplishment.

Hey if the fourth round of qualifying comes along and jozy, freddy, kenny etc. are getting consistent call ups and, especially in jozy and freddy’s case, they are coming off of very solid club seasons maybe it will all make sense. Maybe Bob will say, “I had this plan all along”. If that happens i’ll man up and give the man some credit. But until then I am going to continue to question this guys vision.
BMatthews

When I throw on a qualifying match, the one question I will undoubtedly face is: “Where’s the best player in the world” and I’ll quip something like “I dunno…playing for Argentina probably” and his one response “No no no, Freddy Adu is Ghanian but plays for America”.
He’s clearly just being an asshole, but I think that this does typify the American soccer fan. Give us a little flash and striking power and I think that’ll go a long way.

Ps- He also knows Brad Friedel as the “Greatest American”
CW

Of course his players say they believe in him. Most of them are thrilled (and probably shocked) to still be making appearances for the MNT.
The fact is that with our style of play, we simply can’t score against a solid defense (see WC 2006). I don’t believe in the system or the coach at this point. I hope that will change.