United States Squad Report: Bradley turns into the fall guy after Portugal's late equalizer
Midfielder Michael Bradley has become something of a scapegoat for the United States in this tournament. After an ineffective performance in a fortuitous 1-2 win against Ghana a week ago, Bradley looked much sharper against Portugal on Sunday night. In the first half, he brought his shooting boots and nearly levelled after central defender Geoff Cameron’s error led to Nani’s opener.
All was going relatively smoothly until he missed a sitter ten minutes into the second half, with a point blank shot deflected off the knee of Ricardo Costa.
And then came that dramatic final moment. With Clint Dempsey having put the team up 2-1 and with 45 seconds left of injury time, Bradley received a difficult ball which took a slightly awkward touch off the cleats. Bradley caught up with it but then couldn’t maintain control, and Eder picked it up for a give and go which led Ronaldo sending a perfect cross for the equalizer.
Almost no one this morning is talking about whether the centre backs should have closed down sooner on Varela, the goal-scorer. Instead some USMNT fans are calling for Mix Diskerud to start in Bradley’s place against Germany. Bradley however knows something about the sport:
“Certainly the way it ends you rack your mind thinking can you do this better? Can you do that better? But the reality is still that over the course of a game there are a million of these kinds of plays and you can't let these plays ... they go on in the course of a game and so there's nothing else to it."
As both Bradley and U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard reiterated in the post-match presser, football is a cruel game. It takes you to the height of euphoria only to hand you a ten second sequence that you will regret for the rest of your life. What matters isn’t the mistakes, but how someone like Bradley carries themselves and their team in the critical days after.
We’ll find out this Thursday against Germany in what will either be a mutually pleasant “biscotti” draw or an unexpected fight for survival.
Fixtures/Results
Group G — June 16 — Ghana 1-2 United States
Group G — June 22 — United States 2-2 Portugal
Group G — June 26 — United States vs Germany
Squad News/Rumors/Injury Report
When asked whether FW Jozy Altidore (hamstring) could return to play against Germany, Jurgen Klinsmann told a German reporter “ja.”
FW Clint Dempsey picked up a knock, but seemed to be okay.
Four Quick Notes
1. Here are all the possible routes to the round of 16 for the United States.
2. Re-watch Jermaine Jones’ stunning equalizer.
3. Interesting interview with Matt Besler in FourFourTwo.
4. Why Jurgen Klinsmann’s tactics against Portugal were nearly perfect.