Soccer in America: BOB BRADLEY, Our Country's Soccer Coach.

 A look at our Head Coach for the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team 

It is a tough but glorious job, to be Head Coach for the U.S. National team, especially at this time, when soccer is challenging other big sports to make its way into America's heart.  As a sport, soccer has lagged behind the big three; Football, Basketball and Baseball (apple pie) for decades and has only recently -- since the 2010 World Cup, become trendy and popular.  It is a fact, more kids play soccer than any other sport.  The difference now?  We are just embarking on the first generation that has grown up playing soccer and are now parents and want to share soccer's passion with their children.  Being the Head Coach for our country is a huge honor and responsibility.  It also means being a sitting duck for every arm chair forward, defender and keeper who never really made it on the field.

The U.S. Men’s National Team just played a scoreless game against Colombia and earned their second shutout of the year.  This was the team’s final domestic match of 2010.  Head coach BOB BRADLEY said “This is the first time since the World Cup that we had a good amount of time to work together, so we were able to identify some things we want to work on, find a better a tempo with the ball. Some of our movement, I think some of the stretches against Poland we did that quite well. We saw some of that in the second half tonight.

"It’s a chance to lay out a bit of the schedule going forward, because we have an eye towards the Gold Cup next year, and there’s only a certain number of occasions that we can get everybody together. Most likely the next time that we’ll have a lot of these guys in a camp will be March. So there’s a lot of catch up work to do, and making sure that now we’ve got an eye for how we are going to move ourselves forward," continued Bradley.

Bob Bradley is 'our' coach.  He is the person who has to inspire a team, and our nation, to new heights of victory on the world stage. And deal with scheduling difficulties and conflicts.   U.S. soccer is not what it can be or will be, but for now, we must appreciate and contend with our present reality.  It is always easy to criticize.  The match between U.S. and Columbia had some great moments.  One of which, when a goal was disqualified because of Bradley being offside.  This reminded me that even the pinnacle of the pros could make the same mistakes that my son's U9 team does.

Let's remember all the accomplishments and become more of a supportive audience, a better fan base for our growing sport.  Remembering that it is the game that matters.  Remembering that passion spreads faster and the success of soccer in America is what we all want.

The United States has:

• Won its group at the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1930 (that's 80 years ago), and for the first time ever in a four-team group.
• Earned the first point and win for the U.S. in the third group game at the World Cup in eight tries by defeating Algeria.
• Went unbeaten in group play during a World Cup for the first time ever, earning a 1-0-2 record.
• Produced the best finish ever at a FIFA tournament, finishing second at the FIFA Confederations Cup.
• Posted 1-1-1 record against No. 1-ranked teams, including a semifinal upset of Spain at the FIFA Confederations Cup, ending a 35 match unbeaten run for the Spaniards.
• Only one of two teams to beat Spain since November of 2006.
• Won the CONCACAF Gold Cup title in 2007 to qualify for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
• Finished in first place in CONCACAF qualifying, collecting the most road wins of any team in the region during the campaign while going unbeaten at home in nine matches.
• Scored the most goals (42) of any team in the world in 2010 World Cup qualifying.
• Posted the team’s best scoring and defending marks in a year with more than 10 games, scoring a record 2.14 goals per 90 minutes while allowing just .57 goals per 90 minutes in 2008.
• Won three straight matches on the road for the first time in team history (Oct. 17, 2007 @ Switzerland, Nov. 17, 2007 @ South Africa and March 26, 2008 @ Poland).
• Played seven matches against four teams ranked in the top five in the world at the time they stepped on the field against them (Argentina, Brazil-3, Italy, Spain-2).

THE BOB BRADLEY BREAKDOWN
Record
All-Time: 38-21-9
Qualifying: 13-3-2
Gold Cup: 10-1-1
Goals For: 122
Goals Against: 84
Shutouts: 25

UPCOMING: The U.S. Men’s National Team will travel to South Africa to take on 2010 FIFA World Cup hosts South Africa on Nov. 17 at the magnificent Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. Coverage of the USA’s final match of the year begins at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and the match will also be broadcast live on Galavision. Fans can follow the match on ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker or at twitter.com/ussoccer.

San Diego's official bar is O'Brien's. The U.S. will be returning to South Africa for the first time since the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where they finished in first place in Group C ahead of England, Slovenia and Algeria before going out in the Round of 16.  Think about watching with a crowd!

Want to join a crowd? What’s the next best thing to being at a game surrounded by your fellow screaming fans? Watching a game at an Official U.S. Soccer Bar surrounded by your fellow screaming fans! San Diego is proud to have one!  Bars across the U.S. are becoming the destination spots to gather and watch your U.S. teams in an atmosphere that is loud and rowdy. Head to the bars after work Tuesday night and watch the USA’s first game at the New Meadowlands Stadium! A full list of Official U.S. Soccer Bars is available at ussoccer.com.

U.S. SOCCER ON FACEBOOK: Stay connected with everything involving the national teams on the “Official U.S. Soccer Page” on Facebook. More than 315,000 fans are following the place where you can post videos, interact with other fans and follow the latest news from all U.S. Soccer teams. The Official U.S. Soccer Page on Facebook is the best place to keep with your favorite teams and make your voice heard in the U.S. Soccer community.

THE GAME IS IN US: Support for United States' bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022 has picked up some serious steam since the launch of http://gousabid.com. Twelve other nations are bidding to host at least one of the tournaments and if we're going to win the honor of hosting the FIFA World Cup™, it'll be because of the overwhelming grassroots support of soccer fans who believe in our bid's official theme, The Game Is In US. Please take a moment to sign the petition to officially show your support for the US bid to bring the World Cup™ back to America.

Yes, while Bob Bradley has been U.S. Men's National Team head coach, soccer has become more popular and more exciting.