Bradley New U.S. Coach
By Nick Barbaro, 5:40PM, Wed. Dec. 13, 2006
Longtime MLS coach Bob Bradley was named interim head coach of the U.S. National Team on Friday, the day after Juergen Klinsmann withdrew from consideration. Bradley will also coach the U.S. Under-23 team as it tries to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, and he's also one of the five finalists for the permanent job (Lyon's Gerard Houllier and Manchester United's Carlos Queiroz are reported to be two of the others). But he also could be gone by May – before the team even plays an official game.
Klinsmann, who coached Germany to the World Cup semifinals, and lives in California, was the only candidate the U.S. Soccer Federation had been talking to. Neither he nor the USSF would go into details on why a deal couldn't be made, but reportedly it was as much about control issues, as about money.
Bummer for the Yanks, who've coincidentally dropped to 31st in the world in the latest FIFA rankings, and could clearly use a jolt of some kind. Bradley's a well-respected journeyman, thrust into a difficult caretaker position; it's hard to see this working out extremely well.
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