2010 World Cup: Bob Bradley’s plan against England
Bob Bradley the coach of United States of America has assessed that in the end all will come down to stop a sole man, Wayne Rooney in the English team. He told the media that Rooney has the capability to help his team while he drives offensively himself and if he was stopped in the process, a lot of the burden from the defending team would fall off.
While talking to the media the American coach said that he had told the same thing to his men. He explained that if the American team wants to keep The Three Lions at bay, then they would have to keep outside of their stronghold.
Bradley elucidated that domination with the English team would be a play they will have to take advantage of, as whenever the English get the ball, their midfielders Frank Lampard and captain Steven Gerrard will have one eye on setting Rooney loose. In order to stop that, they will have to posses the ball and make plays of their own and take advantage of mistakes made by England when the chance comes.
He expressed that if USA wants to prosper in the FIFA World Cup this summer, they better be sharp against Rooney, “He's been in incredible form. He's been slowed down a little bit of late with injuries, but there's the starting point of things there.” Indeed Rooney has been in outstanding form this year round. With remarkable performance for Manchester United last season he has become quite a phenomenon in South Africa.
The U.S. team is looking for an early break against The Three Lions, a task which will make the rest of their campaign much easier. They have been impressive in their warm up matches before the start of the World Cup and out did themselves at times in the qualification rounds. They will begin their journey in search of the World Title on the 12th of June in Rustenburg.
When they revealed their uniforms for the tournament this summer, fans were left to wonder that whitish attire with red and blue parts sewn along with a diagonal grey strip clearly reminded of their clothing back in 1950. They have a similar desire as they enter the field on 12th this time too. Another interesting fact about the uniforms made by USA this summer is that each of them is made by 8 recycled bottles.
Bradley told that once he was done with the English contenders, he will loose some burden from his shoulders when he faces his other competitors in Group C Slovenia and Algeria. Still he rightly clarified that he wasn’t underestimating any team and knew that the Algerian team was having a wonderful run so far.
Bradley said, “Our feeling is the group we're in is a strong group but one where we have a real fair chance to advance.”
He commented that injuries had indeed blown part of his team away and he now had just about 17 players for the team that he originally desired but he was happy with them. The worst shocker was their star attacker Charlie Davies, who failed comeback to the team and that would have some effect on them.
Bradley admitted, “In a perfect world we would pick our 23 and that's who would come into camp. Now we're probably thinking more along the lines of bringing 26 to 28 guys.” He remarked that Davies long recovery from the tragic accident was disappointing and he was in the process of making new stars in the team. Some names that came along were Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez, leading Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Mexican league in goals.
He commented, “Edson has scored some incredible goals, a variety of goals. A lot of maturing has taken place. He's doing a lot of little things that make a difference.” About Gmez he said, “His first year at MLS, everything that he touched went in the net. His pure ability to strike a ball was pretty obvious and that's kind of come back again.”
Jozy Altidore is also one on the rise, who has the amazing ability to deceive defenders along the wings. The plan is to strengthen the admittedly weak defense and unload on the counter attack. They indeed have pretty good forwards and when given the chance, they will not let futility into play.
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