US Soccer Fans Need to Give Up On Firing Bob Bradley

For a USMNT manager one constant always seems to be that there will always be people on the Internet calling for your head at all times. People need to start facing facts about Bob Bradley. He's earned his shot with the US team for next year's World Cup. Bradley led the US back from the grave earlier this summer to the Confederations Cup final where they came close to beating a Brazil team featuring some of the world's best players. Right now the U.S. is on top of their World Cup group. Though people often cite CONCAF as a weak region, the U.S. has done what it needs to so far to make it to the World Cup. Look at world powers Argentina and Portugal struggling to get to South Africa. World Cup Qualifying isn't easy no matter where you play.

Does that mean I agree with everything Bradley has done as a coach? No. He's not perfect. His Gold Cup squad selections puzzled me with the exclusion of players with a lot of potential like Zak Whitebread, Jemal Johnson, Chris Rolfe, and Brad Davis to name a few. Bradley included a number of players who in my opinion never really had a shot at making it to South Africa like MLSers Jay Heaps, Sam Cronin, Brad Evans, and Logan Pause. 

The US did well to make it to the Gold Cup final against Mexico only to get pounced 5-0. The terrible loss in New York City gave Mexico confidence going into the World Cup Qualifier in Azteca on August 12th. A revitalized El Tri defeated the US 2-1.  Prior to the Gold Cup final the US was on top of the world coming off the Confederations Cup, but two consective losses to bitter rival Mexico derailed some of that precious momentum.

To Bradley's credit the US responded following the disappointment in Azteca with two hard fought wins against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago earlier this month.

The location of the US's October 10th match is yet to be decided as the political unrest in Honduras may force the game out of the country to another Central American country or even the U.S.. If the game is moved out of Honduras that would be a huge advantage to Bradley & Co. as playing in Estadio Olmpicio in San Pedro Sula would be quite a test for the Americans.

The US will qualify and Bradley will be their coach in South Africa. At the very least the US should advance out of the group stages next summer as another early group stage exit is unacceptable as was the case in Germany in 2006.

Firing your national team manager (who's been pretty successful) with less than a year to the World Cup would be idiotic. All the "Fire Bob" nonsense needs to end.  All that matters is the result he gets in South Africa. The reality of the situation is that Bob Bradley's real judgement will take place next summer.