Poor first touch (over/over); despite what all his relatives on this thread say.

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All of a sudden can't trap a ball.

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Good thing that's not an important skill in this game.

Seriously he wasn't that bad today. A few bad touches in this weather happens to everyone. He was good-great against portugal, he was fine today. This is getting ridiculous, over the top, and annoying as ****

[This message has been edited by gordo14 (edited 6/26/2014 1:49p).]

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Poor first touch (over/over); despite what all his relatives on this thread say.

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He was fine despite what all the noobies who have never watched soccer before say

[This message has been edited by gordo14 (edited 6/26/2014 1:50p).]

Was more concerned about Beckerman making mistakes coming in than Bradley. Beckerman definitely making the most of this tournament.

Bradley seems to be resting on his soccer laurels.

I could rant and rave but I'd just be called a troll. It's pretty obvious to see for those of us who don't wear a Bradley jersey to the games that he's been garbage this WC.

Non-existant first touch.
Turnovers.
Poorly weighted passes. Though I will give credit he does at least have the vision to attempt them
Stupid mistakes that lead to goals

He's a negative player in my mind. The stars aligned for the USA to advance but if we want to make our mark in the knockouts he needs to be moved away from his current role....far away

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I could rant and rave but I'd just be called a troll. It's pretty obvious to see for those of us who don't wear a Bradley jersey to the games that he's been garbage this WC.

Non-existant first touch.
Turnovers.
Poorly weighted passes. Though I will give credit he does at least have the vision to attempt them
Stupid mistakes that lead to goals

He's a negative player in my mind. The stars aligned for the USA to advance but if we want to make our mark in the knockouts he needs to be moved away from his current role....far away

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Ok we'll see what our idiot coach klinsmann does and compare it to your brilliant soccer mind.

Or some of us remember more from the games than just his mistakes.

He hasn't been great, but he's been far from bad.

Nicely timed by ESPN as they show his poorly weighted pass dropping over two German defenders and landing at Jones' feet.


[This message has been edited by fig96 (edited 6/26/2014 2:04p).]

Can't believe that some people are calling him garbage. His worst game was Ghana, no one played great in that game except for the Besler and the the other defenders.

Bradley is a class player. Please go back and watch some of his earlier work or just look at his work in today's game.

He's probably the best possession mid we've ever had, but I'm also relatively new (only been following since last WC) so I can't say for sure.

We should shut the board down if our responses have degenerated to "let's see what the coach does."

Those lines adds nothing to the board. This is a place to discuss our own views of the game.

(And yes, I disagree greatly with Boiling's assessment)

Michael Bradley is being played out of position in order to get Jones and Beckerman on the field. The end. He's not Wesley Sneijder or Mesut Ozil, but he's what we're able to put in that role and he's been fine but he's not world class in that role.

He doesn't suck and hasn't sucked in these games.

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 6/26/2014 2:08p).]

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Ok we'll see what our idiot coach klinsmann does and compare it to your brilliant soccer mind.

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Sadly he doesn't have many options or really any for that matter. It's not like he can bring a Götze in off the bench.

Thankfully he's cemented himself here for the long haul especially after advancing. I fully expect him to have a solution by 2018

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We should shut the board down if our responses have degenerated to "let's see what the coach does."

Those lines adds nothing to the board. This is a place to discuss our own views of the game.

(And yes, I disagree greatly with Boiling's assessment)

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That's not what I was saying. My point was people that know way more about the sport than denim, people that critique every step he takes on the field, and people that are tasked with giving us the best chance to win couldn't come to a more opposite conclusion than denim. I'm ****ing tired of idiots who watched their first game last week act like they are some genius.

They aren't adding anything to the board by suggesting if you disagree with them you are a "family member" so stop with the self righteous discussion crap. This thread just needs to be locked and some people need to go back to the zoo.

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Ok we'll see what our idiot coach klinsmann does and compare it to your brilliant soccer mind.

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Sadly he doesn't have many options or really any for that matter. It's not like he can bring a Götze in off the bench.

Thankfully he's cemented himself here for the long haul especially after advancing. I fully expect him to have a solution by 2018

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I know the ****ing idiot got us out of the group of death with less talent than any other team in the group by far.

Name one player with an American passport that's a better option at cm than Bradley.

[This message has been edited by gordo14 (edited 6/26/2014 2:15p).]

I understood, and my point remains.

If they're not adding much insight, you're certainly not adding much insight.

Same coin, different sides. Both waste bandwidth.

It was time for this thread to drift off and die several days ago.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 6/26/2014 2:18p).]

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Matthew Tomaszewicz ‏@shinguardian 26m
Truly difficult to criticize Jones, Bradley, Beckerman, Dempsey, Beasley, Fab J, or Howard today. 180' thru Manaus thru today. Herculean.

Finn ‏@Finn_aka_Jeremy 25m
@shinguardian sorry, Bradley gets left off that list. They other 6 combined effort with execution.

Matthew Tomaszewicz ‏@shinguardian
You and I watched different tournaments then. "@Finn_aka_Jeremy @shinguardian sorry, Bradley gets left off that list."

Finn ‏@Finn_aka_Jeremy 23m
@shinguardian I saw a player who was trying way too hard & missing the little things that make him so good.

Matthew Tomaszewicz ‏@shinguardian 22m
@Finn_aka_Jeremy I saw a player moved to a completely new role who was simultaneously tasked with defensive cover & primary attack support.

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[This message has been edited by fig96 (edited 6/26/2014 2:17p).]

Someone who thinks Bradley makes "poorly weighted passes" did not watch the games, or at least if they did does not watch enough soccer to know how often a good player should make nicely weighted balls like Bradley does, and only remembers the couple bad balls that every player makes.

I think the issue here is that we are used to seeing Michael Bradley play his position with perfection.

We haven't seen that in our first 3 games at the World Cup.

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I understood, and my point remains.

They're not adding much insight, you're not adding much insight.

Same coin, different sides. Both waste bandwidth.

It was time for this thread to drift off and die several days ago.

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Define insight. I see what he does off the ball. The pressure other teams put on him that they don't on others because they see him as the biggest threat. Some of his pressure relieving passes were incredible today - great vision and touch. He had a few balls over the top that were absolutely beautiful and his hustle forced turnovers in dangerous places. But people can still choose to ignore that if they look at 4 or 5 touches... Same can be done about any player, but people aren't doing it for other players. The difference is that Bradley is getting a lot more of the defensive focus of other teams

Yes, Bradley is, in part, suffering from a nasty thing called "expectations."

It's burned Donovan, it's hurt Jones, it's hurt Jozy, ****...if you watch La Liga you've endured folks questioning Messi and Barcelona for several months, too.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 6/26/2014 2:22p).]

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Someone who thinks Bradley makes "poorly weighted passes" did not watch the games, or at least if they did does not watch enough soccer to know how often a good player should make nicely weighted balls like Bradley does, and only remembers the couple bad balls that every player makes.

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Thank you

That was insight, Gordo.

Should have started with that 5 pages of "I'll email Bradley and Juergen" ago.

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That was insight, Gordo.

Should have started with that 5 pages of "I'll email Bradley and Juergen" ago.

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Because it's a waste of time to provide insight when the smartest person involved with us soccer (the one actually paid to make decisions for us) that sees every touch Bradley takes in practice, in games. A guy that dedicates his life to watching each of these players play so he can put together the best team, not only agrees with me... Strongly agrees with me by playing Bradley as much as possible and giving him as much responsibility as possible. Or you can act like you are smarter than someone like that because you've watched 3 games and seen a few mistakes.

Have you played soccer? Mistakes are a large portion of it. That's why scoring is rare and a result of the game being played with your feet.

I'm not gonna waste another post on this thread however.

I don't have any problem giving way to Juergen about things. (However, I wonder if you'd take a stance if someone was criticizing Arsene Wenger, for example)

But this board would turn into a pointless, barren wasteland if that was how we operated it.

That's all I'm saying.


You know enough such that you can make soccer arguments in response. You probably also know that making actual soccer arguments is best way to get folks you don't like to shut up.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 6/26/2014 2:37p).]

Bradley may have been the worst player on the pitch today. Looks lost, cant trap or hold the ball, consistently awful first touches. Unsure as to why anyone would continue to defend his play.

Playing a level up in competition from our warm-up matches and the Hex will make mistakes look worse as well. Opponents are higher quality and can allow less "wiggle room" especially in the midfield. I also think that while keeping Jones and Beckerman in together has helped out defense, it has handicapped our attack. Bradley and Dempsey are just not enough to generate consistent pressure on opposing defenses. Dempsey is not a lone, hold-up striker. Losing Altidore (who I'm sure some here would say sucks too) really put us in a jam formation-wise. Same with not having any high-quality central midfield substitutes.

Bradley is what he is - a world class midfielder (by our American standards) who isn't playing up to expectations right now. You can ***** and moan about it and come here and say I told you so after every bad pass, or you can realize that we have no one better to put in his spot and if he starts playing better, we have a real chance to continue advancing.

Anyway, I'm done with this thread. It's nice to have new soccer fans around, but you guys must be miserable to watch sporting events with. I remember now why I never go to game threads for Aggie football games.

Because we see him do a lot of things, don't just remember his mistakes. I don't see anyone saying he's played exceptionally well, but he's not the train wreck that some of you keep insisting.

Interesting note from @shinguardian, Bradley through 3 matches has run over 3/4 of a mile more than any other player.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/players/distance.html

Lets make sure we keep some perspective here.

We just got out of the Group of Death when we weren't supposed to.

This team was dead tired at the start of the game and it showed. Yes Bradley had some pour touches, but not only were we in the toughest group, but we had the toughest traveling schedule.

Lets celebrate getting through and look forward to next week.

Lets make sure we keep some perspective here.

We just got out of the Group of Death when we weren't supposed to.

This team was dead tired at the start of the game and it showed. Yes Bradley had some pour touches, but not only were we in the toughest group, but we had the toughest traveling schedule.

Lets celebrate getting through and look forward to next week.

Run, Forest, Run!

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Michael Bradley is being played out of position in order to get Jones and Beckerman on the field. The end. He's not Wesley Sneijder or Mesut Ozil, but he's what we're able to put in that role and he's been fine but he's not world class in that role.

He doesn't suck and hasn't sucked in these games.

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I agree that MB has been playing out of position, but that's just not a good excuse for the mistakes he's made.

Simply playing a different position doesn't excuse you from making poor passes, having a joke of a first touch, not putting a shot in from six yards out with no keeper, and not taking the ball to the corner flag when you're trying to protect a lead. Those are things any player playing any position should be held accountable for.

Anyone that claims there's not a problem with Bradley is really just crazy at this point.

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Bradley is what he is - a world class midfielder (by our American standards) who isn't playing up to expectations right now. You can ***** and moan about it and come here and say I told you so after every bad pass, or you can realize that we have no one better to put in his spot and if he starts playing better, we have a real chance to continue advancing.

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well said jeff

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Bradley is what he is - a world class midfielder (by our American standards) who isn't playing up to expectations right now. You can ***** and moan about it and come here and say I told you so after every bad pass, or you can realize that we have no one better to put in his spot and if he starts playing better, we have a real chance to continue advancing.

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Bradley is what he is - a world class midfielder (by our American standards) who isn't playing up to expectations right now. You can ***** and moan about it and come here and say I told you so after every bad pass, or you can realize that we have no one better to put in his spot and if he starts playing better, we have a real chance to continue advancing.

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Agree 100%. Every game is a new chance for him to get back into top form, hopefully he gets it figured out.

[This message has been edited by agfan2013 (edited 6/26/2014 3:30p).]

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He hasn't been great, but he's been far from bad.

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I’m not a huge fan of MB this week but I have to agree with this. His play against Ghana was terrible but the last two games he’s been solid.

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Bradley through 3 matches has run over 3/4 of a mile more than any other player.

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I really fail to see why this keeps getting pointed out. Who cares how much he runs…so he’s in good shape. Awesome. Running a lot in soccer =/= great player.