Bradley has a bad giveaway…. oh no!
- Updated: June 23, 2014
Why can’t our commentators call it like it is…. Bradley lost the ball in the middle of the field with less than a minute left in the game…with us leading…on the verge of qualifying…an experienced player who should have cleared the ball high and wide… he didn’t and we couldn’t recover in time to defend against the perfect cross and finish. Portugal tied it up.
Quite frankly, it wasn’t a whole lot different from Bradley sending a cross in and losing possession late in the Ghana game when we were leading. As Ian Darke pointed out then, and again today, with his experience, he should have eaten up some minutes by taking the ball to the corner.
Bradley was dispossessed of the ball a number of times and was slow to recover, or didn’t. The player who saved our bacon and played excellently in the middle was Jermaine Jones. He and Kyle Beckerman are our beasts in the middle. Bradley played better than he did in the Ghana game, but his experience is supposed to shine at moments when it’s needed the most. While we didn’t pay for the give away in the Ghana game, we did in this one.
The only announcer who said anything, and more Kudos to him, was Taylor Twellman, who said that Michael Bradley had a bad give away.
The pundits who said Bradley had to have the games of his life in order for us to make it through the Group of Death, continue to look at his play through rose colored glasses. And, okay, I’m not a fan of his, I take his play with a lot of lemon. Quite frankly, we haven’t needed him to win against Ghana and tie against Portugal. He has not been the game changer/maker/whatever, luckily we have other guys who sweated and left it ALL on the field to get those results.
Klinsmann made good subs with Yedlin and Wondo. I think Jones and Beasley were exceptional tonight, while the rest of the team played very well in a difficult venue. Cameron had the gaff in the beginning and our defense was pulled over too much exposing us on the left for Portugal’s opening score. But other than that, we pulled together, didn’t let down, and never gave up.
I hope Bradley takes a hard look at himself and realizes he has some improvements to make in his mental game. As to Bradley’s big game? We need it when we face Germany! Game on U.S.!
………… oh, just saw a last interview with Bradley….he wouldn’t say he should have just cleared the ball anywhere….but at least Kasey Keller thought he should have just said that..nothing wrong with it. Bradley will only continue to improve if our analysts call him on those kind of plays and he’s willing to take the criticism. Disappointing. Can we still go through against the German Juggernaut? Sure! Never give up…Never surrender.
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