Bob Bradley cuts an imposing figure on a touchline.
Booming voice. Chiseled features. Wilting stare. And you’d kill for his posture.
On Sunday afternoon, it was Bradley standing ramrod straight for 90 minutes on a clear, chilly Portland day, coaching his Norwegian outfit Stabaek in a friendly against the Chicago Fire.
His counterpart, Frank Yallop, only made it off the bench once or twice. Bradley, on the other hand, never sat down, cajoling, imploring, pushing a young, overmatched team in front of a crowd that would have made the old Chivas USA blush.
It ended as a 0-0 draw. The Fire never sparked. They lost several players through injury, and never gave the impression that they were totally invested in contesting this friendly.
Stabaek played hard, and they were worth their point, but what’s clear is that Bradley has a huge job in front of him this year.
Stabaek aren’t as talented as they were in their feel-good campaign last year that saw a comfortable mid-table finish and semi-final cup run bring national attention. The team’s average age is even younger – around 23 – and such is the cycle of life for a small Norwegian club.
Just seconds after Bradley and Stabaek left the field, the Vancouver Whitecaps swept on for their matchup against the host Timbers.
In the coming hours, the difference in skill, money, and stature between the club Bradley joined and the club he turned down was stark.
Vancouver tried to hire Bradley two winters ago, after he was let go by Egypt and the Whitecaps had fired Martin Rennie.
Bradley turned them down. He desperately wanted to go to Europe. Accepting a job in Major League Soccer would most likely have spelled the end of that dream.
If Bradley had come back, it wouldn’t have been any sort of hit to his reputation. Everyone is coming back to MLS now – players like his son Michael Bradley. Bruce Arena has done nothing but increase his stature, dramatically I may add, by taking over the LA Galaxy just a year after leaving the USMNT.
But Bradley took the harder road. Stabaek is a tiny club far from home. Some of their best players recently – including new signing Cole Grossman – are little more than glorified MLS rejects.
He has to coach his players up. Obviously, judging by his performance last Sunday afternoon, Bradley has no problem with that. When he’s coaching, he’s in his element.
Stabaek’s fans knew they had married up with their coach almost immediately. The rest of Norwegian soccer realized shortly thereafter, and there were rumors of one of the bigger clubs in the Tippeligaen prying Bradley away in the offseason gone by.
It’s no small feet for an American coach to succeed anywhere in Europe, even a place like Norway.
The stigma that American managers face across the ocean is far greater than the stigma faced by American players, who have given their country a good name in high profile places like the Premier League.
There’s no such trailblazer for a manager like Bradley. When Stabaek hired him last year, Bradley became the first top-flight American manager in Europe. He’s the trailblazer.
But it’s tough. Bradley had to start at the very bottom of the ladder in European soccer, and every time a Premier League job goes to a retread like Mark Hughes or Neil Warnock, you just have to wonder if an American like Bradley has to walk on water to get noticed.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Bradley would be a managerial upgrade for the majority of the clubs in the bottom half of the Premier League.
His track record, from college soccer, to MLS, to the USMNT, to the Egyptian national team, to Stabaek is almost without blemish.
Does Aston Villa seriously think that Tim Sherwood, who has less than a season – and an average season at that – as a manager under his belt, is a better bet than someone like Bradley?
Bradley is fighting some big odds. But fighting big odds appears to be something in Bradley’s DNA these days, as he’s vowed to make something of his post-US career.
It used to be that once a manager ascended to the national team job, there was almost nothing left to accomplish in the game. Bradley is trying to change that.
He’s certainly enjoying his journey. Bradley has cut loose with his wit and personality during his time in Norway in a way that we never saw in the States.
It started with Egypt, and has certainly taken hold with Stabaek – Bradley is, for the first time, a star.
There’s no guarantee that this journey ends well. Stabaek might get relegated this year. If not this year, then maybe next year.
There’s no way of knowing whether another European club will take a chance on a manager who is New Jersey through and through and who doesn’t speak a foreign language.
But to see Bradley coaching a game in a stadium so quiet and serene that you could hear his voice across the ground is to understand why he thinks his journey will end satisfactorily, why he thinks that he’ll eventually get his big break.
In Bradley I see a man on a mission; someone who has the kind of drive and ambition that is rare for a 56-year-old who is already a Hall of Famer in his profession.
This guy can’t help himself. He loves to coach, and that’s good, because it’s going to take a hell of an effort to coax a winning season out of Stabaek this year. But don’t be surprised if De Blaa surprise again. Betting against Bob Bradley just isn’t wise.
