Bradley: The Challenge is to Prove to Every American There’s no Sign of Anything Wrong

by Paul Crabbe, Denver

Having the right to Freedom of Speech is a wonderful right we all possess living in this country.

With that said, it does not save you from the scorn and the wrath of others, or so we all learned today after the USMNT’s training session in Denver late Wednesday afternoon.

Midfielder Michael Bradley came out in defense of his national team boss Jurgen Klinsmann stating anonymous comments made to “The Sporting News” about Jurgen’s system and about Klinsmann himself as “Shameful” and “embarrassing”:

“When you play in a team you have a chance every day to give everything you have, and part of that means having the balls to say things to guys to their face and having the balls to say things in front of the team.

In those ways, it’s really disappointing that now in a week as important as this, in a week where so much is on the line, that you’d have something like that happen” said Michael Bradley son of Klinsmann’s predecessor.”

With words like that, you’d think that it would be him and not Clint Dempsey taking the armband this Friday Night.

Bradley assured everyone that this has been brought up this week at team meetings and that everyone knew the task at hand this Friday night:

“The challenge of every guy in our team right now is to step on the field on Friday night and to make sure that, for every American watching, there is no sign of anything that’s gone wrong this week.”

He also felt that it’s on every individual of the squad of 23 to represent themselves and their country to make the home fans proud, which would be the quickest way to turn around the bad press that has surrounded the team this week.

Captain Clint Dempsey was noted saying it was a great opportunity to mix in new talent and trusty veterans in the backline, which is the only way to determine

“…who’s gonna be the team to help you qualify and at the same time “who’s going to be the team that’s gonna play in the world cup”.

He did feel that the loss of Bocanegra in the squad does hurt without his leadership capabilities, but had faith in the team to be rise up.

Defender Geoff Cameron was also quick to offer his compliments of Bocanegra calling him a true captain and a class act and believes that Captain America’s highly emotional defense of Klinsmann on his Facebook page disproves most, if not all of TSN’s article.

Goalkeeper Brad Guzan (the likely starter for both matches) was calm, cool, and collected.

He was quick to compliment Tim Howard and acknowledged that with many players down to injury, especially on the backline “…that it’s a great opportunity for us to step up and take care of business on Friday” and did not want to admit that Friday night is a must win.

Also See:

Das Charm Offensiv! – Klinsmann Praises Every Fan in Every City

Training Gallery by Corbin Elliott