re: Anyone who has watched Bradley in the last 4 years raise your hand

This guy and where the frick was the pitch awareness, you know the spidey senses?

Why defend the terrible play by a guy we expect to be at his best, to lead the way, to set the tone?

I've watched nearly every game this World Cup, and his effort was terrible when comparing all the players.

I don't care about the missed goal, that happens.

He was lazy, passive, lackadaisical, careless. Every word I would never expect to use to describe him.

As someone else said, the average guy noticing this is evidence of his poor play, nothing more.

yeah bradley had a lot of good/great play last night and a small handful of frickups

Dat's a lot of space. If he had done pretty much anything other than what he did, we win the game.

I disagree. His lack of effort was apparent from the start. Doesn't matter now but still

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Anyone who has watched Bradley in the last 4 years raise your hand

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Present. Was at the first game he ever started for the US.

Dude ran 7.6 freaking miles during the game. All this talk of being lazy is misplaced.

Some thoughts from me, a casual soccer fan who watches other soccer year round besides world cup, but doesn't really care that much unless it is in fact a US World Cup game:

1. Bradley had a pretty terrible game against Ghana. That was for a couple reasons, but mainly that style of team is kind of like kryptonite to a player like Bradley. Long, fast, super athletic.

2. He played much better against Portugal and personally I thought he was playing damn well in the first 45. Made some pretty passes to the corners and on breaks that resulted in good shots/looks on goal. Held possession well when needed.

3. He made 2 critical errors: missing that close shot without a goalie there and not crisply completing that pass at the end of stoppage.

4. He is, in my amateur opinion, a top 3 player on our team in terms of accomplishment and importance. He's had 1 bad game and 1 decent game with a couple of bad errors. You don't bench your starting point guard who is a very important player on your team because he had 2 less-than-desirable games in the NBA Finals. (which resulted in a win and a tie against the worlds best player)

5. If we have gone 1-0-1 with 4 points while Bradley hasn't been at his best, I like what we could do if he comes out and plays the way we know he can for 90+ minutes.

6. Reactionary, clueless fans suck so hard. However, that is not unique to any one sport. People on the MSB think Lebron James sucks now.

7. Everybody wang-chung tonight.

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I also realize that many of our valued posters would rather cuddle up with Stu Holden and watch the Notebook rather than bareback Adrianna Lima in her pre-Marko Jaric years

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Two things:
1. The Notebook is a classic.
2. For those few heteros on the board, who actually wants to have sex with a virgin?

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4. He is, in my amateur opinion, a top 3 player on our team in terms of accomplishment and importance. He's had 1 bad game and 1 decent game with a couple of bad errors. You don't bench your starting point guard who is a very important player on your team because he had 2 less-than-desirable games in the NBA Finals. (which resulted in a win and a tie against the worlds best player)

5. If we have gone 1-0-1 with 4 points while Bradley hasn't been at his best, I like what we could do if he comes out and plays the way we know he can for 90+ minutes.

6. Reactionary, clueless fans suck so hard. However, that is not unique to any one sport. People on the MSB think Lebron James sucks now.

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Agreed on all points. Well said.

it's stupid to argue about this, but his biggest mistake was clearly not finishing a relatively wide open chance from like 8 yards. not picking the wrong pass that still could have worked if dempsey didnt have to do something cheeky every time he touches it.