Bradley needs to be tactical maestro

Bob Bradley has done a great job as a tactician at the collegiate, professional and international level.

He now faces his stiffest challenge as he heads to South Africa in 2 months for the FIFA World Cup. Kenny Farrell writes of how Bradley needs to be tactical maestro for the US Soccer to make semifinals.

A month later in Mexico, the US faced the Mexican squad again in a World Cup qualifier. The game was played at Azteca Stadium in a hostile setting: very high altitude, 100,000 partisan fans, and a 100 degree temperature at the 2 p.m. kick-off in August. Bradley had his best players back, but knew the environment would be extremely hostile. Although the US lost the game 2-1, Bradley nearly pulled it off with an almost perfect game plan.

In all honesty, the result was unfair to the US. The Americans played a very well executed counter attack game, and Bradley had the right players in the right positions. The US went up early 1-0 in the game from a goal by Charlie Davies. It looked like it would end up being a 1-1 tie; however, one mental breakdown late in the game allowed Mexico to take the spoils. That mental breakdown could not be controlled by Bradley, and he deserves praise for his coaching in the game. In my opinion, this game proved that he could handle a top-level game with everything on the line. His calculated decisions were almost perfect. He put the game plan in with consideration for the environment and even though the result was unfortunate, we saw a great coaching performance.