Why Bob Bradley Should Coach The 2012 Olympic Team

FIRE BOB BRADLEY!!111!!11!

     Yea we all have read it before, It seems that 90% of the USMNT followers are calling for Bob Bradley's head on a platter. I'm not saying that he shouldn't be fired, But at this point in the cycle I highly doubt Bob will be fired. Under Sunil Gulati (Many have been calling for his head too but thats for another time) a coach has never been fired mid-cycle. Given this fact I think Bob should be allowed to coach the Olympic team.

                                             The Most Hated Man in America?

      If it is expected the Bob Bradley is going to coach through the 2014 WC, He should definitely be allowed to coach the Olympic team. Alot of people have been calling for Jason Kreis, Tab Ramos, Etc., for the sake of this blog, we will just say Tab Ramos is the best choice out of everyone besides Bradley. Most people would suggest we let Ramos coach the team, so he can get experience in an International atmosphere. Almost to groom Ramos for the full national team job when it becomes available. At the least most people just want to see how some other coach could do with the USMNT.
     Now thats all fair, But why would we start planning for next cycle ( assuming Bob doesn't get fired this cycle, which there is no indication that he will be fired right now). Why not let Bob get to work with the U-23's, in a tournament atmosphere.

Wouldn't that make sense? Letting the current coach work with his players? And based on last cycle's Olympic, Where 5 ended up making the WC squad, and the likes of Davies, Adu, Klejstan, are now all important members of the Squad, Wouldn't it make sense to let Bob get a look at them during the Olympics, instead of having to call them up to friendlies when Bob could be looking at other players.

Letting somebody else run the U-23's would be counter productive to our success this cycle. Besides giving the job the a guy like Ramos wouldn't make much sense, because even if he did a phenomenal job, it's not like the USSF is going to turn around and give him the keys to the car.

So The USSF might as well give Bob Bradley the tools to succeed this cycle while he's at the helm, and Let him coach at the Olympics.

What The WWC Mean To US Soccer

So now that I've had a week to watch the media explosion that was the USWNT return to the States, I've learned several things. For starters it's clear now that the American people LOVE International soccer, or more specifically international soccer in which US Soccer is involved. I mean the women didn't even win the World Cup, and the mean barely made it out of the Group Stages, but the American people just ate it all up. Huge TV ratings, coupled with youtube celebration videos, songs about the teams Etc. Etc. I could go on. Appearances on Letterman, The Daily Show, Political Talk shows, and twitter explosions. Hope Solo went from around 10k followers to almost 240k, She is now a Legitimate celebrity. Now thats all fine and dandy but what does it mean to Soccer here in the states, both internationally and domestically?

If ESPN took a gamble With the coverage of the 2010 WC, Then the 2011 WWC was an all in bet. But it certainly payed off with the highest rated broadcast of any soccer game ever on the network.  So it's time again that we thank ESPN for their support of soccer, because without them none of this would be possible, and it's really too bad that NBC has coverage of the Olympics next summer because that could have be huge for the Women's game. These Huge ratings will only encourage ESPN to continue their coverage of not only US soccer, but with all international soccer, starting with the Euro's next summer. So i expect ESPN to not only continue their coverage of US Soccer, but for it even improve in the lead up to Brazil 2014.

At least in the Short term this WWC has also helped the Women's soccer league, The Women's Professional Soccer, or WPS as it's known ( yes the worst name for a league ever), Had it's Highest attended match ever (Around 15k) in the return match from the WC. I tuned in to FSC to watch the game to find out that most of the American stars were sitting out this game. Alex Morgan did manage to find her way on to the field late in the 2nd half for the Western New York Flash ( The idea to put a pro soccer team in Rochester I will never understand). Marta was also fairly impressive during the game, proving without the shadow of a doubt that she is the best player in the game. The game also featured a nice pre-game ceremony rewarding the WC players with flowers for representing the league. Despite of all this, I highly doubt the success will continue, though it may give the league a slight bump in attendance which it desperately needs .

So all in all The USWNT run at this summer's WC, not only had a huge cultural/social impact, but will actual help US Soccer grow, due to their drama filled games, which garnered amazing ratings, rewarding ESPN for their dedication to soccer, and for this I thank them.