Based on Jack Bell’s report two days ago in the New York Times, I was ready to be on high defcon alert today and tomorrow. Jack, a good dude who is good at what he does, had an email exchange with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati. Here’s what Jack had to say on the New York Times’ Goal blog in an exchange that broached the subject of U.S. coach Bob Bradley
Big news in U.S. Soccer tomorrow? … Not so much
The question to Gulati on Tuesday was simple and straightforward: Will Bob Bradley remain coach of the U.S. national team?
His answer (in an email response) was, “We’ll have something to say later this week.”
Later, Jack added a disclaimer from U.S. Soccer officials, who said “Gulati’s one sentence response was not intended to imply that he was planning to make a coaching change.”
Still, the drink had been stirred. Paired with all the emotional over-reaction of Gold Cup loss and a previous embarrassment against Panama, the pitchforks were already out for high-level blood. So, people made the leap and thought we were possibly staring at a big moment. A few media pundits were more aggressively calling for change, and more than a few supporters were piling on.
So I put my little journalistic antennae in the air this morning … and I can safely say that everyone can just stand down.
Gulati apparently just meant to say that he was pressed for time but would have a little more media availability later this week. Sunil is a smart guy, but sometimes when he speaks extemporaneously he can wander off course and leave a little too much room for interpretation.
I never assumed there was a coaching change in the offing anyway. I thought if there was news, it might be a development on a technical director’s post, or possibly some coaching news on one of the youth teams.
Look, for all the Bradley haters out there, I think you’re just going to have to be OK with the guy for a while. I don’t always agree with everything he does or doesn’t do. This misplaced trust in Jonathan Bornstein, for instance, has come back to haunt him.
But generally, as I’ve said and written before, I think Bradley gets enough from the talent available. And if we’re being honest, as I’ve said and written along various platforms, it’s about the players. Always. It’s about the players.
I’ll have a little more on this on a piece for SI.com, scheduled to run Saturday. Whatever issues there are, it goes deeper than one coach at the top of the totem poll.
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