Couple of things:
1) The “quota” is to get the guys enough caps to qualify for work permits to move up to the EPL and be sold at a profit. Your price as a player going to Germany or Spain plummets if you can’t show tape of what you are doing against international competition and they know you can’t go negotiate against them with teams in the UK who speak the only language you speak and have money to burn.
2) USMNT fans are so fickle. Unless you really followed MLS closely, were a fan of the Chicago Fire or NY Redbulls, or his mom, nobody had heard of him or what he was doing until that clip went viral. And it went viral in Europe before anybody in the USA cares. Most only heard it because Klopp made some jacka$$ comments about it.
Just two months ago you guys were talking about Pulisic scoring in a friendly and I had to point out he was the coach and who he was and what he was doing. None of you cared or commented. You knew nothing about him.
For some of you, it didn’t even register he was going to be coaching in the Champions League. You heard minor country pro league and tuned out. Go back and look at the thread.
Now suddenly he gets some buzz and should be coaching our team.
I’ve always liked and admired Jesse. What little I played I was a foul instigating midfielder with a running motor and mouth. I used my brain to overcome considerable athletic deficits when man marking. He was the same. Along with Frankie, he played every game of the first fourteen seasons of MLS. He left NY Red Bull as their all time winningest coach.
I’ve had a lot fun and a lot of memories following this team since 1987. I’ve had players stay in my home, met many of them on road trips, rubbed shoulders in hotel lobbys and I’ve got a nice glass credenza at work filled with signed memorabilia thrown into the crowd or handed to me while sitting in airports, buses, or mailed out of the blue by US Soccer. Signed Howard gloves weren’t as cool as him saying thanks for traveling to Honduras under risky conditions. A 1998 Harkes jersey he sent through friends to me. But up there in value is a time I had dinner with Jesse and a few other assistants when he was at Princeton and they were in Florida scouting players. Princeton? If you know US Soccer, then you know Princeton means Bob Bradley.
Jesse is the ultimate Bob Bradley protege. He played for Bob at Princeton and was an All American. Was drafted by DC when Bob was hired as an assistant, then left to go to the Fire when Bob was named head coach there. He was the core of Bobs teams when he was there. Bob named him a USMNT assistant when he retired from playing and was on the bench in 2010 during that miracle run.
That is to say, you hire him, you hire Bradley and his pragmatic play. So pop down to your local soccer pub and take a poll and ask who should be the next coach of the USMNT. Nobody will say Bob Bradley. But Bob is the best candidate right now probably. He’s a proven elite international winner with Jozy Altidore lol. He’s tearing up MLS again.
My point is that the USA needs more than a hot name. And I like Jesse A LOT, as a player, coach and person. This isn’t his cycle if Berhalter gets the hook, even though Jesse already has a better resume than Jay/Greg. If he smashes the ceiling and is coaching in top flight Europe in 2022, then maybe we think about taking the PR hit of spending a chunk of what we make off the World Cup and bring him in, rather than spending it on the women’s game. That’s is if you want Bob Bradley 2.0. Do you?
