re: The Bob Bradley appreciation thread

quote:

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Remember that Bob Bradley had a a 100% record during this round of qualifying, until his side of experimental players (Adu and Davies the only real standout names) lost a meaningless final round game in Trinidad.

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You're right here. Bob didn't experiment until the group was well in hand. It seems like every game has been an experiment under Klinsmann. But to be fair, that's mainly due to three things: injuries, aging veterans, and getting dual nationals capped. You can't really say that Bob never had any questionable call-ups, either (Bornstein). And let's be honest here, the team going through WCQ the last time around was something special.

Comparing this year to other 3rd round WCQs:

Yr - w - l - d - gd - pt
98 - 4 - 1 - 1 - 05 - 13
02 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 11 - 11
06 - 3 - 3 - 0 - 10 - 12
10 - 5 - 0 - 1 - 11 - 15
14 - 3 - 1 - 1 - 03 - 10

The thing that really looks off this time around is GD, and that's a little misleading. The US has had one 6-0 or 6-1 blowout game skewing GD in the past three WCQs. Other than that, it's business as usual. Give Klinsmann some time before freaking out.