GOAL:It is typical for coaches, even in the best of wins, to find areas for growth. Where do you see this team needing to focus ahead of Australia?
BRADLEY: I got asked (this) a bunch of times after the Senegal and Germany (friendlies), and (there are) absolutely concerns in the back. (There are times) when the back four at times weren’t connected very well, the understanding in different situations of “Should I be (marking a) man or am I ready to pick somebody else up?”
Teams would run players through from the second line, and sometimes we weren’t in good positions to deal with that because we were locked into other things. At times, in the back, guys were tuning out and ball watching, and so, to be clear, Paraguay didn’t test this in any of those ways.
As great a game as the other night was, even the goal against (the USMNT) is a little bit of a blip. It comes off a long free kick from the keeper, and I think Chris Richards gambled a little bit and got caught on the wrong side. Then, when it was Tim (Weah’s) turn to try to cover for him, (I) didn’t like the way he reached across with his left foot, and it put Freeman in a difficult position. The way it was at that point, he wasn’t quick enough to be able to help.
So coaches can find all these things. When you win a big game, you don’t want to ruin the energy that night, but when you have a chance the next day, you’re looking at these details. You’re starting to help everybody understand what the next game is going to be like, and when Australia defensively has an amazing performance and wins 2-0, as a coach, you have the message to your team that Australia is going to be a hard team to play against. It’s a little easier to get that message across when they’ve come off a very important 2-0 win against Turkey.
GOAL:It’s still early, but after watching Friday’s performance, what’s your expectation from this group through the tournament?
BRADLEY: Continue with the momentum, get out of the group, win the group, set up a good match in the Round of 32 and take this thing as far as you can.
GOAL:Like the safe answer there, coach (laughs).
BRADLEY: Go back one second to 2010, (when I coached the team). We felt that there was an opportunity to do something special, and when we came out of the group, we were all focused in the right way. There was a real commitment to what we were all about as a team. We had proven that, and then you get into a game where, when it goes into extra time, it gets away from you, and we always look back on that World Cup like there was a lot more there for us.
Did we set a specific goal ahead of time? The goal was to be a very good team, compete at the highest level and go as far as we could, and when we lost in the Round of 16, for all of us, it was disappointing. But we also were proud of what we were all about, and so again, the game keeps you honest.
People on the outside want all of the (bold predictions), “We need to get to the semifinals, we need to get to the finals.” Coaches all do it differently. I don’t know behind the scenes how Mauricio has handled it, but in order to accomplish any goals, it’s all about a group coming together in the right way, everybody believing and feeling good about what’s going on. When different people get opportunities, they’re ready to step up, and I’m hoping that we can see all of those things and go as far as possible.
