re: Americans Abroad Thread

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Bradley scored today
He just keeps steadily improving.

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Today was his first match back from the injury and he was making such fantastic runs into the box. Goal was a classy finish from a tricky angle.

Roma is such a mess defensively so far that I hope we don't completely screw up Bradley's positioning acumen.

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I heard he played more offensively in that match. I would be ok with this.

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Yeah, for Roma's shape at present, maybe too offensively as it could probably be well described as a 2-1-7 at times.

Zeman is using Bradley so far solely as the left intermedio with usually Tachtsidis (or De Rossi tho it seems Zeman prefers him also in the intermedio more than regista) in the regista / holding role.

For Roma, where Totti is kind of a false winger since he often comes centrally to pick out runners, Bradley's role has been one touch passing in the quick build up and then making runs into the box in the final third.

His runs were very smart yesterday as he often was pulling defenders out of position to open up space for the strikers. His goal was the result of a run that pulled a defender off Destro who got a good strike on goal where Bradley finished the rebound.


The problem for Roma's shape right now is that we often have Bradley and Florenzi both in the box with both fullbacks fully committed forward and hence disaster if there's a turnover.

When the tactics work, like for Pescara last year, it should result in Bradley or Florenzi being in better position to press the ball high up the pitch to win it back but also with pretty risky gambling from the regista and central defenders helping out pressing extremely high up the pitch.

Under Zeman, he'll certainly develop his attacking runs and passing much more. Defensively it won't be the same solid, more traditional Italian emphasis on shape he was getting at Chievo.

He wasn't really getting forward with regularity at Chievo or Borussia M'gladbach. As CWill mentioned, he really improved that area of his game under Verbeek at Herenveen where he was making late runs into the box with regularity and was getting fantastic service from Sujlemani and Pranjic in the traditional Dutch 433.

Since he left 'Veen I feel like his been determine to become a defensive midfielder. Now that he has really raised the level of his passing and defending perhaps he has started to embrace more of a box to box role again.

Ream started for the first time in a month and a half...

And then fouled some guy for a PK.

But Bolton still won.

Gooch gets his first-ever Malaga start in a Copa Del Rey match, scores early.

Joe Gyau got the start in St. Pauli's German Cup loss today.

Is there some reason Jozy is being hated on today? Been seeing some stuff on twitter suggesting he did something to garner said hate this weekend.

Retweeted this from Wynalda: "@JozyAltidore keep it on frame - aim for the keeper and miss- it will still go in! Lol. Accuracy is over rated- dont worry about these guys"
This from another random follower: "

@ryanwilsonFTW: "@JozyAltidore haters are out today, huh? Just keep working."

Then tweeted this himself: "@JozyAltidore: Genius is knowing to stay silent as others demonstrate their ignorance."

Just seemed kind of strange to me.

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Bradley started and played all 90' in Roma's match against Palermo yesterday.

He played extremely well after a kind of poor showing (along will the whole team) on an extremely flooded pitch mid week against Parma.

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Bradley is our best player at the moment. I don't see an argument at all.

From one sectarian cult to another








Seriously though, awesome