Via the LA Times comes a statement from Bob Bradley that he is considering coaching the 2012 US Olympic team himself.
“It is, it just has to fit with everything that we do,” he said. “The reason that it is [appealing] is that we’ve put a lot of time into trying to connect our different teams, and any chance to work with players [before] you get them with the full team, that’s important.”
The logic is evident. 2012 will fall directly in the middle of the World Cup qualifying cycle, and with Bradley shuffling the deck of players to find a new and successful combination, the opportunity to take on the challenge of working with younger players in London must be appealing. Bradley’s the man in charge, and if he believes he’ll be better able to prepare for Brazil 2014 by coaching the Olympic squad, it makes a lot of sense.
It appears that preparations for 2012 are well underway with the camp currently taking place in California.
“Part of the thinking in this camp, for sure, was looking at guys that are Olympic age-eligible,” Bradley said. “The qualification for the Olympics won’t be until February or March [of 2012]. You can do some things early, but at the end of this MLS season they’ll need to be starting to put the group together.
There are essentially two ways to look at Bradley as Olympic team coach: the first is laid out above, with the idea being that Bradley gains something as Senior team coach by overseeing the London effort. The other side, one that only makes sense mostly in the anti-Bradley camp, is that Bob doesn’t give the US the best chance to win at the Olympics. If the Olympics are worthy of a full effort and are not simply an exercise meant to bolstering full squad (a matter of philosophy, thought the Olympic tournament is obviously something we’d all love to win), and you don’t think Bradley is good enough to lead the US team deep into the tournament, then you might reject the idea of him at the helm. Then again, if you’re of that mind, you’re probably not too keen on him having been retained at all.
Whether leading younger players that will undoubtedly feature in World Cup qualifying, and likely the World Cup itself, is Bradley’s main goal, or if he simply believes he’s best equipped to lead the US to a medal hardly matters. There should be little doubt that Bradley would try to win, meaning “experiments” beyond the kind a full-strength Olympic lineup represents aren’t a legitimate fear. The issue then, is one of tactics – would Bradley adjust for the competition and his team’s strengths, or would he put out the Olympic side in a way that would best prepare them for what he is doing with the Senior team? There’s much splitting of hairs and room for interpretation there.
Bradley as Olympic head coach kills two birds with one stone, so as long as he isn’t neglecting his duties with the full team (a highly unlikely situation). It’s not like he would be breaking any ground taking charge of the Olympic team, so I see no reason for him not to.
It may actually be in everyone’s best interest. Provided Bradley survives until the summer of 2012, and provided the United States qualifies for the Olympics. Hugo Sanchez flamed out of Olympic qualifying with Mexico in 2008, so anything is possible.
-JD
